A first-of-its-kind study reveals that 75 per cent of charities across the UK say they measure impact, and over half of these increased their efforts in this area to satisfy funders.

Think tank New Philanthropy Capital says its 73-page Making an Impact report is the first representative study of impact measurement in the UK charity sector, having conducted telephone interviews with 1,000 charities across the UK with an income greater than £10,000. 

The findings present a mixed picture of impact reporting, also revealing that small charities are the least likely to do it. Nearly half of all charities with an income below £100,000 do not measure their impact at all, the report found, with 15 per cent of these charities claiming it wasn't a priority.

Funding is also one of the greatest barriers, with 11 per cent of those who do not measure impact citing lack of resource as the reason. Nearly two-thirds of funders are not perceived to build evaluation support into their funding.

Of those charities which do measure impact, however, 52 per cent said it was to satisfy funders. The report states:

"Ultimately, charities seem to be driven to measure impact primarily because they think they have to in order to satisfy funders. Whether they believe this will lead to further or new funding is not clear. It may be that charities view impact measurement as something they have to do to satisfy existing funders rather than attract new ones."

Only 5 per cent advised they measured impact in order to improve services, although 25 per cent advised that upon undertaking impact reporting, they saw an improvement in their services.

Dan Corry, chief executive of NPC, said the results of the study are representative of the organisation's previous understandings on the matter:

"NPC's impact survey shows that many charities have to be 'forced' to assess their impact, but having done so find it helps them to improve their services. There is still a long way to go in getting charities to embrace impact measurement wholeheartedly, rather than seeing it as a burden," he said.