E-Paper
Beyond numbers: Measuring the heart of social change
This article is authored by Zarina Screwvala, co-founder, Swades Foundation.
Every year, as we approach the end of the financial year, organisations--both for-profit and non-profit--take stock of their performance through numbers. This is a traditional and, in many ways, a sound way of assessment. Yet in the social sector, unlike the private sector, numbers often tell only half the story.
Because real change does not happen on a ledger. It unfolds in the quieter shifts of the human spirit. In a student’s growing confidence, in the sense of safety a woman feels in her neighbourhood, in the shift from dependency to agency and so much more. Our monitoring and evaluation systems however, are not designed to capture this depth. Dashboards demand clean indicators and funders seek certainty. As a result, we measure what is immediately visible, and miss what becomes apparent only when we look more deeply.
For instance, indicators such as the number of units installed, funds utilised, or income augmented are closely scrutinised. While these are undeniably critical measures, they often sit alongside outcomes that are equally or more powerful, but harder to quantify. We capture the return on investment, but we miss to capture the return on dignity, the building of resilience, or the profound shift in a person's mindset.
Pratham bridges this gap beautifully, showing us that when you measure the right things, the human story and the data align anyway. Through ASER-driven interventions, Pratham focuses beyond mere school enrolment to actual learning outcomes by changing the very mindset of the community. In the villages of Maharashtra, parents who once celebrated simple attendance can now track reading and math proficiency. This is parental agency in action.
Similarly, the Akanksha Foundation demonstrates that impact often lies in intangible metrics. By cultivating a culture of holistic growth alongside academics and sport, it transforms schools into spaces of aspiration and possibility. The measure of success is not merely a child passing an exam, but a child developing the confidence to navigate the world in the way their parents couldn’t. When a student from a low-income community leads a project or voices an opinion with confidence, it is more than a data point. It signals a generational shift in power.
I have seen this transformation unfold up close through our work at the Swades Foundation, in one of our 900+ village communities Washihaveli Koliwada. This village in Mhasla, Raigad was once defined by the heavy, lingering stench of poorly managed fishing waste--a physical reminder of a community overlooked. Women refused to marry into the village. Today, through a community centric model of change Washihaveli secured a ₹10 lakh grant under the Swachh Bharat Mission and joins the ranks of our 250+ Swades Dream Villages.
The true impact here is greater than the grant or the infrastructure; it is the restoration of a community’s pride and dignity. No spreadsheet can contain the joy or capture the shift from being a community admonished for its waste to one being held up as an example for the neighbourhood.
As funders increasingly seek proof of impact, the sector must evolve beyond indicators to embrace methods like Outcome Harvesting, which allow us to better understand and showcase the complexity of social change. By adopting more human-centric reporting tools, we must protect the heartbeat of our mission. We must recognise the beauty of agency and the long-term ROI of dignity, moving past what is convenient to measure to finally honour what is truly transformative.
This article is authored by Zarina Screwvala, co-founder, Swades Foundation.
