• Paper / Report

Rethinking Impact: From Metrics to Meaning – Convening Report

  • Source : ISDM
  • July 2026
How do we move beyond measuring impact as a reporting requirement to using it as a tool for learning, decision-making, and long-term change? This report captures the key discussions, insights, and emerging ideas from Rethinking Impact: From Metrics to Meaning, a convening that brought together funders, practitioners, researchers, evaluators, and development professionals to examine the future of impact measurement in India. Anchored around the launch of the Rural Development Impact Framework (RDIF) and the Development Management–Social Impact Measurement and Management (DM-SIMM) approach, the convening explored how the sector can better understand contribution, centre community perspectives, align funding with the realities of social change, and create measurement practices that support learning over compliance. The report synthesises the conversations, key takeaways, and actions that can help build a more thoughtful and effective approach to understanding impact.
  • Blog

Development Management: Genesis, Rationale, and the Foundations of an Emerging Discipline

  • Source : ISDM
  • July 2026
Development Management (DM) arises at a junction that neither development studies nor mainstream management fully occupies on its own. Development thinking has traditionally concerned itself with what change is desirable and for whom, while management thinking has concerned itself with how collective effort gets organised and executed.
  • Paper / Report

A Methodological Framework for Assessing the Long-Term Impact of a Nonprofit’s Work in a Geography

  • Source : ISDM
  • June 2026
This report presents the Rural Development Impact Framework (RDIF), a methodological approach for assessing the long-term impact of nonprofit organisations working within a geography. Drawing on realist evaluation, the framework shifts the focus from short-term, project-level attribution to understanding how sustained organisational engagement contributes to social change over time. Using PRADAN’s work in Gumla (Jharkhand) and Dhamtari (Chhattisgarh) as case studies, the research combines qualitative, quantitative, and geospatial methods to examine how interventions interact with local contexts to generate change. The study demonstrates that long-term impact emerges through the cumulative strengthening of livelihoods, institutions, collective agency, and governance systems, offering a practical framework for evaluating organisational contribution to rural transformation.
  • Paper / Report

DM-SIMM: A Funder’s Guide to Reflect, Learn, and Act on Social Impact

  • Source : ISDM
  • June 2026
Across the social sector, impact measurement is often reduced to reporting numbers, meeting donor requirements, and proving results. In the process, opportunities for learning, adaptation, and meaningful decision-making are frequently lost. This guide explores how funders can rethink Social Impact Measurement and Management (SIMM) to prioritise continuous learning over compliance. Drawing on research, practitioner insights, and real-world examples, it offers practical ways to make measurement more useful, participatory, and responsive to the realities of implementation. The guide highlights the critical role of funders in shaping incentives, creating space for reflection, and enabling organisations to act on evidence. Ultimately, it presents a vision of impact practice that helps organisations learn, adapt, and stay focused on the change they seek to create.
  • Paper / Report

Reimagining Social Impact Measurement and Management (SIMM) Practices

  • Source : ISDM
  • June 2026
This paper argues that the challenges in Social Impact Measurement and Management (SIMM) are not primarily technical, but rooted in power dynamics, institutional incentives, and prevailing notions of accountability. An analysis of the SIMM ecosystem identifies three core problems: persistent power asymmetries, an overemphasis on proving impact rather than strengthening pathways to it, and the treatment of measurement as a compliance exercise rather than a learning practice. In response, the paper proposes three interconnected principles: redistributing power in measurement governance, designing for learning-oriented impact pathways, and institutionalising prospective, community-centred measurement to enable more meaningful, adaptive, and sustainable social impact.
  • Paper / Report

Roots of Change: A Handbook for Mapping Systemic Change in Rural Development

  • Source : ISDM
  • June 2026
This document is a practical guide for development practitioners seeking to understand long-term impact beyond project outputs. Based on the Rural Development Impact Framework (RDIF), the handbook introduces a realist approach to evaluating change by examining how interventions interact with context to activate mechanisms and produce systemic outcomes. Through a series of participatory exercises, organisations can map their geography, trace pathways of change, document evidence, and identify outcomes across livelihoods, agency, mobility, and governance. The handbook shifts the focus from attribution to contribution, helping organisations understand how sustained engagement shapes rural transformation over time.
  • Paper / Report

DM-SIMM: An Implementation Organisation’s Guide to Reflect, Learn, and Act on Social Impact

  • Source : ISDM
  • June 2026
Most organisations treat impact measurement as a compliance exercise. The approach, DM-SIMM (Development Management–anchored Social Impact Measurement and Management), transforms impact data from a static report into a dynamic tool for decision-making. By embedding measurement directly into the heart of your operations, this helps you shift from simply proving your impact to actively improving it. Define success with your community, not just for them. Make real-time decisions based on evidence, not intuition. Build an adaptive culture that learns and evolves…
  • Paper / Report

Roots of Change: A Realist Framework for Long-Term Rural Development Impact

  • Source : ISDM
  • June 2026
How do we understand the long-term impact of organisations working to transform rural communities? Traditional evaluation approaches often focus on individual projects and short-term outcomes, making it difficult to capture the cumulative effects of sustained engagement over time. This report introduces the Rural Development Impact Framework (RDIF), an approach to assessing how organisations contribute to systemic change within a geography. Drawing on evidence from PRADAN’s work in Gumla (Jharkhand) and Dhamtari (Chhattisgarh), the study combines qualitative, quantitative, and geospatial methods to examine how livelihoods, institutions, collective action, and governance evolve over decades. The framework offers practitioners, funders, and evaluators a practical way to understand organisational contribution beyond attribution, revealing how lasting rural transformation emerges through the interaction of context, institutions, and human agency.
  • Book

AI Systems for Social Good Playbook

  • Source : ISDM
  • March 2026
This playbook serves as your step-by-step guide for designing responsible AI and data analytics solutions in the social sector. It guides both technical and non-technical teams through real-world projects, from understanding your context to monitoring your model post-deployment. Rooted in field-tested work, it aims to make AI more accessible, ethical, and impactful.
  • Case Study

Powering Asia’s Philanthropy Boom: Why Investing in Talent and Capacity Matters Now

  • Source : WINGS
  • February 2026
In this blog written for WINGS, ISDM — a WINGS member and contributor to the APAC working group — makes the case that Asia’s philanthropy boom can only deliver lasting impact if investment in talent and institutional capacity keeps pace with growing capital. Drawing on India’s experience, it highlights gaps in governance, compensation, and leadership pipelines, and calls on donors and ecosystem enablers to treat capacity-building as a core strategy, not an overhead.
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