At Rotary, we are increasing our emphasis on working with communities as partners in service projects to address issues they prioritize. We are also incorporating more ways to measure our projects' outcomes to understand their impact. Members can make lasting and positive changes through Rotary service by developing evidence-based projects with measurable and sustainable results.

Understanding a community’s priorities through an assessment is the first step toward making a long-term impact. The recently updated Conducting Community Assessments handbook guides how to involve community members in identifying priorities and designing a project. The handbook also includes new relevant topics such as data privacy and diversity, equity, and inclusion. The results of the assessment will inform the project’s goal and plan.

The Rotary Impact Handbook helps members plan and carry out measurement activities as part of their service projects so they can demonstrate the results. The handbook explains the building blocks of the impact framework, which is used to develop and illustrate a project’s inputs, outputs, outcomes, and impact. Incorporating it into your strategy will help a project reach its goals. When planning the individual activities that go into a project, incorporate measurement at every stage so you can determine whether you need to modify your initial plan. This also allows comparisons with the baseline data from the assessment, which illustrates what the project achieved.

All members are encouraged to use these tools when planning service projects so that together, we can increase our positive impact in communities around the world.