Community Sector Banking and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) launched The Social Impact Toolbox, a free resource available to any not-for-profit organisation. The Social Impact Toolbox aims to democratise access to essential evaluation tools and training, which will allow not-for-profits to demonstrate their significant contribution to Australian society.

“For Australian not-for-profits to thrive in the 21^st century they need the tools to demonstrate the impact of their work to prospective funders,” said Andrew Cairns, Community Sector Banking CEO.

“By partnering with UTS to develop this game-changing Social Impact Toolbox, we can offer all not-for-profits the means to capture and communicate their positive impact using a meaningful and rigorous methodology,” he adds.

According to Cairns, Community Sector Banking is dedicated to strengthening the not-for-profit sector through innovation and capacity building. They are always looking for opportunities to move beyond offering grants to a small number of deserving not-for-profits, and with this investment he said there is the potential to create long-term benefits for civil society as a whole.

Following almost two years of development the Social Impact Toolbox team are ready to hand over these resources to allow not-for-profit organisations to evaluate effectively, using validated measures and all for free.

Associate Professor Bronwen Dalton, Head of the Department of Management at UTS Business School, is excited at the possibilities this new toolbox will provide not-for-profit organisations.

“Previously a lack of standardised approach to evaluation, along with a lack of resources and staff in many not-for-profit organisations, meant that small to medium not-for-profits were being locked out of important funding conversations. The Social Impact Toolbox aims to alleviate these issues by providing free access to information, learning and validated tools, allowing anyone from any organisation to measure the impact of their work,” Dalton says.

He continues that The Social Impact Toolbox is democratising access to social impact evaluation tools and training for not-for-profits. It provides a suite of resources for the sector including online courses, interactive evaluation templates and a repository of reliable, verifiable and validated measures, all collated in an open digital platform.