Show the distance travelled, not just the session

A funder doesn’t really want to know that you ran a session. They want to know what changed because you did.

That’s the gap most community organisations fall into. You can evidence the output — twenty young people attended, two hours delivered. But the outcome — that they walked out more confident, more sure of their options, more like they belonged — is the bit that actually wins funding, and it’s the bit almost nobody captures. Not because it didn’t happen, but because measuring it has always meant surveys, spreadsheets, or a consultant nobody can afford.

Why it matters more now

Funders and commissioners have moved. “Tell us about your impact” increasingly means “show us the change,” and in Wales social value is now written into law through the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act. A story about a great session is lovely. A number showing confidence rose from 4 to 7 across the room is evidence.

So we built a way to capture it — in minutes, anonymously

It’s called distance travelled, and it’s live now. Before your session, ask the room one question — how confident they feel, how much they know, how they’re feeling — on a scale of 1 to 10. Ask it again at the end. Enter the averages, and you get your outcome line: “Confidence rose from 4.2 to 7.1 — a shift of +2.9 across 26 responses.” You can measure several things at once, and there’s a printable slip so it works with any group, phones or no phones.

Crucially, it’s anonymous. No names, no profiling — especially important when you’re working with young people. Just the shift in the room, which is exactly what a funder wants to see.

Honest about where it is

This first version is free, and you enter the averages yourself from the slips or a show of hands. Coming next: attendees rating it on their own phones via a QR code, tracking the same group week by week across a programme (confidence 3 → 5 → 8 over twelve weeks), and a branded, funder-ready report. The free version starts you today; the rest is on the way.

It’s the first step in something bigger — turning the everyday work of the voluntary and community sector into outcome evidence that stands up to funders, commissioners and, eventually, a proper social-value valuation.

The wellbeing-based approach behind measures like these is set out in the HACT UK Social Value Bank.