The Benevolent Society provides a range of integrated support services to children, young people and families, older Australians, people with disability and carers.
This support is often multi-faceted and delivered over varying periods of time to meet the needs clients.
Ongoing impact data measurement and evaluation is crucial to monitor the frequency of this, identify trends and where changes to support are needed to best assist clients meet their goals.
Benevolent’s newly released Impact Report - Our Impact – marks the first time we have brought together our data, client experience and impact into one document.
To mark the launch, we caught up with Shannon Harvey, Director, Impact Data & Evaluation, to discuss their work.
Image: Shannon Harvey
When did you join The Benevolent Society?
I joined Benevolent in June last 2024. Prior to that, Benevolent was also my very first not-for-profit sector job, way back in 2005.
What inspired you to pursue this career?
That first job at Benevolent inspired me to make my career in community services.
At the time, Annette Michaux was establishing Benevolent's social policy and research team, and the work they were doing was exactly what I wanted to do.
Over the past 20 years, I've worked in research, policy and communications roles in NGOs across London, New York and now back in Sydney.
Most recently, I was Head of Research & Impact at Relationships Australia NSW, and have now come full circle back to Benevolent.
What are your main focuses as Director, Impact Data & Evaluation?
My main priority is to improve how we use data and evidence to improve the services we deliver for our clients, and supporting our Operations staff to focus on what they do best - delivering quality services.
Currently, my team is improving the reporting available to staff across the organisation, growing client participation through regular surveying and advisory panels, and developing our first social impact framework.
I love seeing information delivered by my team fuel positive changes for clients and staff. It doesn't get better than that.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Meetings, meetings, meetings! But my favourite days are when I get to talk with our clients about their experiences of our services, or when I get to go out and see our programs in action.
Why is it important for organisations in the care space to measure and evaluate their impact data?
We have a responsibility to our clients to be constantly reviewing whether our services are delivering outcomes that are meaningful for them, and improving our services based on what we learn.
As a not-for-profit organisation, we have a responsibility to the broader community, to demonstrate how we're moving towards our vision of a just Australia.
Benevolent has just published its first Impact Report - can you tell us why more organisations are evolving Annual Reports into Impact Reports?
Traditionally, Annual Reports provided information about organisations' financial performance and shared positive stories about the organisation's work in different program areas.
Increasingly, though, our communities want to know whether we're delivering the impact that we say we're here to deliver. Impact reporting is a great way for organisations like ours to be transparent and accountable about what we're achieving - and even what we're not.
View Benevolent’s Impact Report – Our Impact – here.