For the past eight years, Power to Change has carried out annual research with the community business sector using the Community Business Market Survey. The results from this survey show that community businesses are confident in the impact they are having in their local area but need further support in order to evidence it.
Within this same survey, community businesses were asked what type of support they would find most beneficial, and measuring impact was the second most frequently selected out of 18 options, behind support with financial access to funding. In total, 51% of respondents selected this option as one of the top five areas that they needed support with. This is consistent with findings from previous years: 52% of respondents selected support with impact measurement in 2021.
This research was commissioned to build an understanding of the needs of community businesses in measuring their impact and is broken down into two phases. This report presents the findings and conclusions from Phase 1. (Phase 1: Investigating the issue. Phase 2: Sharing resources for community businesses).
