Introducing Lightbulb’s second Impact Report (for 2024-5)
We are beyond proud to publish our official Lightbulb Impact Report for 2024-5, thanks to the incredible efforts of Luisa and Catia. Our first impact report was a complex beast that sought to synthesise two years and several divergent strands of data into a single comprehensible framework – no mean feat!
For this, our second report, we have sought to make things a bit simpler and include only those grants completed within the relevant financial year so that we could be snappier about our evaluation process and turnaround time for the next set of grant decisions.
To share some key statistics from it:
- We have made 21 grants and 3 impact investments this past year
- Working with a total of 24 organisations, 48% led by women, and 30% by people with lived experience, and/or from racialised communities
- Totalling a grant/investment spend of £692,000
- Which has directly impacted over 11,000 people
The experience of producing both reports led us to reflect on several key elements: the different constituent parts of our organisational framework (Lightbulb alongside Greenlight, grants alongside investments, and our Pro Bono offerings) and how they fit together, as well as some core philosophical and ethical questions: What do we mean by ‘impact’ exactly? What key metrics or ‘results’ would these translate into? How granular do we want to be about measuring the impact of our grants, investments, and pro bono work across LBT and GL? At what point would our impact measurement reporting ‘requirements’ become burdensome to our grantees (pulling them into yet more ‘admin’ rather than their truly impactful frontline community work)?
All of these musings, articulated through a brilliant Theory of Change session with Jami Dixon back in 2022 (‘What are we seeking to do with Lightbulb? How and why?’), plus some inspiring work with Colman Chamberlin in 2023 on sharpening our thinking around Impact Investments specifically, have translated into a light-touch impact measurement framework and system.
Our current fantastic Pro Bono partners Ruth Sorby and The Analysis Group (https://europe.analysisgroup.com/en), alongside Jami Dixon, have been instrumental in further refining our framing of Lightbulb’s impact (as well as supporting and inspiring our partner organisations to do the same).
This involves – on our grants side – tracking topline data points (number of people impacted, unrestricted vs restricted funding, and diversity data), as well as asking our grantees to complete a simple questionnaire at the end of their grants (that checks whether our aims to ‘support under-represented leadership’, ‘enhance organisational capacity’, and ‘foster collaboration’, have actually landed). On the Investment side – a framework that we are still evolving – we track not only these metrics of ‘impact’ but also that of ‘financial return/profit’.
As a result of all this work, we feel in a grounded and positive place about how we measure what we are trying to do: Hopefully not too much admin and report writing (for either us or our partners), but also – hopefully – not too little. Our aim is to track ‘just enough’ to be thorough and responsible, while not depleting or compromising the most valuable use of anyone’s energies.
It’s been a privilege to be able to think through all of this – with such incredible colleagues and partners – from the inside out so that we can end up with a working system that feels truly congruent with our values and aims.
And so, in terms of the actual nuts and bolts of our impact in figures and feedback, I am delighted to leave you in the capable hands of our second Lightbulb Impact Report for 2024-5. Hopefully there’s just enough (but not too much) in there! As always, we are aware that the ‘impact’ in these pages is really all about our partners and their incredible work – and we truly hope that our report gives you a good flavour of that and of their incredible achievements this past year.
Introducing Lightbulb’s second Impact Report (for 2024-5)
We are beyond proud to publish our official Lightbulb Impact Report for 2024-5, thanks to the incredible efforts of Luisa and Catia. Our first impact report was a complex beast that sought to synthesise two years and several divergent strands of data into a single comprehensible framework – no mean feat!
For this, our second report, we have sought to make things a bit simpler and include only those grants completed within the relevant financial year so that we could be snappier about our evaluation process and turnaround time for the next set of grant decisions.
To share some key statistics from it:
- We have made 21 grants and 3 impact investments this past year
- Working with a total of 24 organisations, 48% led by women, and 30% by people with lived experience, and/or from racialised communities
- Totalling a grant/investment spend of £692,000
- Which has directly impacted over 11,000 people
The experience of producing both reports led us to reflect on several key elements: the different constituent parts of our organisational framework (Lightbulb alongside Greenlight, grants alongside investments, and our Pro Bono offerings) and how they fit together, as well as some core philosophical and ethical questions: What do we mean by ‘impact’ exactly? What key metrics or ‘results’ would these translate into? How granular do we want to be about measuring the impact of our grants, investments, and pro bono work across LBT and GL? At what point would our impact measurement reporting ‘requirements’ become burdensome to our grantees (pulling them into yet more ‘admin’ rather than their truly impactful frontline community work)?
All of these musings, articulated through a brilliant Theory of Change session with Jami Dixon back in 2022 (‘What are we seeking to do with Lightbulb? How and why?’), plus some inspiring work with Colman Chamberlin in 2023 on sharpening our thinking around Impact Investments specifically, have translated into a light-touch impact measurement framework and system.
Our current fantastic Pro Bono partners Ruth Sorby and The Analysis Group (https://europe.analysisgroup.com/en), alongside Jami Dixon, have been instrumental in further refining our framing of Lightbulb’s impact (as well as supporting and inspiring our partner organisations to do the same).
This involves – on our grants side – tracking topline data points (number of people impacted, unrestricted vs restricted funding, and diversity data), as well as asking our grantees to complete a simple questionnaire at the end of their grants (that checks whether our aims to ‘support under-represented leadership’, ‘enhance organisational capacity’, and ‘foster collaboration’, have actually landed). On the Investment side – a framework that we are still evolving – we track not only these metrics of ‘impact’ but also that of ‘financial return/profit’.
As a result of all this work, we feel in a grounded and positive place about how we measure what we are trying to do: Hopefully not too much admin and report writing (for either us or our partners), but also – hopefully – not too little. Our aim is to track ‘just enough’ to be thorough and responsible, while not depleting or compromising the most valuable use of anyone’s energies.
It’s been a privilege to be able to think through all of this – with such incredible colleagues and partners – from the inside out so that we can end up with a working system that feels truly congruent with our values and aims.
And so, in terms of the actual nuts and bolts of our impact in figures and feedback, I am delighted to leave you in the capable hands of our second Lightbulb Impact Report for 2024-5. Hopefully there’s just enough (but not too much) in there! As always, we are aware that the ‘impact’ in these pages is really all about our partners and their incredible work – and we truly hope that our report gives you a good flavour of that and of their incredible achievements this past year.
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