From Activity to Impact – What Donors Really Look For
By Dr Lucille Abruquah
Let’s talk about what actually drives funding decisions: Performance.
Because donors are not just funding an activity. They are funding results, efficiency, learning and credibility. And this is where many organisations struggle without even realising it.
A lot of organisations can tell you what they did. Fewer can clearly show:
- What changed
- For whom
- By how much
- And whether the change actually mattered
That’s the real difference between reporting activity and demonstrating performance.
Or put another way: The difference between being busy…and being fundable.
The Shift That Changes Everything
Many reports focus heavily on activities:
- We trained 500 people
- We held workshops
- We distributed materials
- We conducted outreach
And while those things matter, donors are usually asking a deeper question:
“So what changed because of all this?”
Did incomes improve? Did behaviour change? Did communities become more resilient? Did systems improve? Did outcomes last beyond the project?
Because activity tells people what happened. Performance tells people whether it worked.
And organisations that can clearly communicate this stand out very quickly.
So, What Do Donors Actually Look For?
When donors review your reports, presentations and evidence, they are often quietly assessing several things at once.
- Clarity of Outcomes: Are your results clear, specific, and measurable?
- Credibility of Data: Does the evidence feel reliable and consistent?
- Impact: Did meaningful change actually happen?
- Efficiency: Did the organisation use resources well?
- Learning: Did the team adapt based on what worked—or didn’t?
- Sustainability: Will the results continue after the project ends?
- Transparency: Are you honest about both successes and challenges?
At the heart of all this is one underlying question:
“Can we trust this organisation to deliver results—and prove them?”
And trust is a major currency in fundraising.
What a Strong Evidence of Performance System Looks Like
The good news is: This doesn’t have to be overly complicated, but it does have to be intentional.
Strong organisations usually have:
- Clear KPIs linked to outcomes, not just activities
- A practical Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) framework
- Standardised data collection tools
- Both quantitative data and human stories
- Regular performance updates instead of last-minute reporting
- Where possible, some form of third-party validation
And most importantly: Consistency.
Not evidence gathered once a year in panic mode, and absolutely not reports created only because a donor requested them. What is needed are systems that continuously produce useful evidence over time.
Let’s Make This Practical
Here are a few questions worth sitting with as a team:
- Are we only tracking outputs or actual outcomes?
- Do we have baseline and endline data?
- Can we clearly show change over time?
- How do we capture beneficiary voices and experiences?
- Do we regularly learn from our own data?
Could our evidence confidently answer:
“Why should we fund you again?”
Sometimes the issue is not that organisations lack impact. It’s that the impact is difficult to demonstrate clearly and consistently.
The Real Advantage
When organisations build strong evidence systems, something interesting happens:
Fundraising and donor conversations become easier and more strategic. Reporting also becomes less stressful while teams become more aligned internally. Over time, organisations begin to build something incredibly valuable: Trust.
Not just because they say the right things, but they can consistently demonstrate results. That’s what moves organisations from: “We’re doing good work” to: “We can prove our work creates value.”
And those are two very different positions.
Final Thought
You don’t build evidence systems only for donors. You build them so your work becomes: Undeniable. Repeatable. Fundable. So maybe the better question is no longer:
“Do we have evidence?”
But instead:
“Does our system naturally produce it?”
Because the organisations that build systems around evidence are often the ones best positioned to grow, influence, and sustain impact over time.
(Dr Lucille Abruquah is a Ghanaian sustainable development expert, Adjunct Lecturer and Director of Grants Development at Nobel International Business University, and Grants Specialist at the Ghana International School. Subscribe to her The Systems Edge newsletter for more thought leadership insights on funding and fundraising issues)
