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EVALUATE IMPACT POTENTIAL
The purpose of the evaluation process is to help prioritize between opportunities, not to supply an accurate assessment that stands on its own. Therefore, for most criteria, we will give a relative assessment (not an absolute one).
Our impact evaluation will focus on your added contribution to the organization, as well as the organization’s general impact. We’ll divide the evaluation into several measurable categories.
Evaluate impact potential: Welcome
Expected benefit
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Impact’s scope
First, estimate the impact of the organization's work.
Quantity - If the organization's work achieves its purpose, approximately how many individuals are impacted in a certain period? The intention is not to find an accurate number, but to estimate the orders of magnitude.
Quality - What is the extent of impact on each individual?
Remember that these criteria are relative, so when adding new opportunities, consider adjusting previous ones accordingly.
Certainty - impact’s success chances
How certain is it that your activity will lead to the desired outcome? Actions that are direct and immediate usually have greater success chances. Interestingly, sometimes there is a trade-off between the scope of the project and its chance of success.
Expected cost
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Time requirements
In volunteering, a major resource is time. How much time will you dedicate to the cause? Note that the total time includes preparation time and commute.
Impact rate over time
Usually, our impact over time isn’t constant, due to initial training, or becoming more efficient by developing skills and gaining experience. Consider the following:
How long will it take before you can do impactful work?
Is your impact expected to grow over time, and if so, to what extent?
Additional costs
Opportunities could have non-time-related costs as well. It might be money (e.g. commute, events participation, supplies or equipment), or even extra mental energy that specific tasks in volunteering can consume. Try taking those into consideration.
Your marginal impact
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Personal marginal impact
Try to estimate the additional value of your work, based on your specific role. This might be a bit tricky to estimate, but try to compare between the different opportunities.
How and to what extent does your participation improve the quality of impact broadly, or the number of individuals that benefit from it?
Irreplaceability
Are you likely to be able to do a better job at this than the average person?
Does this kind of volunteer work have high demand? If you don’t participate, is it likely that someone else will?
Does the role require special qualifications or training that you have already acquired?
Evaluate impact potential: Text
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