Case study examples of some of our work.
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Crann is a Cork-based charity supporting children, adults and families living with neuro-physical disabilities, using a whole-family model of care unique among European disability service providers. We worked with Crann over four years to measure and evidence the value created by four of its service themes for the children, adults and families who use them.
In 2022, we built a Theory of Change for five separate stakeholder groups, clients across four service themes plus their parents, drawing on interviews, focus groups and surveys with 103 stakeholders to understand how Crann's services led to real outcomes for each of them. We used Modified Value Games to help stakeholders value those outcomes themselves, then calculated a forecast Social Return, correcting for deadweight, attribution and displacement so the figure reflected only the value Crann's services actually created. The forecast found a return of €4.05 for every €1 invested, independently assured by Social Value UK.
Two years later, we returned to test that forecast against reality, engaging 264 further stakeholders to recalculate the ratio using actual outcomes rather than projections, rather than simply re-running the original research, we built an evaluation that could specifically test how far our own earlier forecast had held up. The evaluation confirmed a return of €3.68 for every €1 invested, a 368% return, again independently assured. Across both phases, we engaged more than 360 stakeholders in total, and both reports passed independent assurance, a rare combination in a field where most SROI forecasts are never revisited at all. Families told us of increased social inclusion, improved wellbeing and confidence, and, for parents, a meaningfully reduced burden of care.
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The Rethink Ireland Equality Fund distributed €3 million over three years to eleven projects supporting some of Ireland's most marginalised communities, including Traveller and Roma people, migrants, minority ethnic communities, people with disabilities, LGBTQI+ people and people living in poverty. We evaluated the fund's performance and impact, in consortium with Interactions Research.
The eleven funded organisations spanned three very different strands, from supporting migrant women into employment to building community resilience against far-right activity, each working with a distinct population and set of challenges. We built a single evaluation framework, grounded in the fund's own Theory of Change and the OECD/DAC criteria, capable of assessing all eleven awardees fairly and consistently, and combined this with direct research among the people the projects ultimately served.
The evaluation found that developing minority community leaders and funding for grassroots initiatives were the outcomes both funders and beneficiaries valued most, and the ones most clearly delivered. Eighty percent of organisations reported that their approach to diversity, equality and inclusion had changed significantly as a result of the fund, and 95% of individual beneficiaries said they had gone on to use what they gained to help others in their own community, evidence of impact spreading well beyond those the fund reached directly. The evaluation also surfaced clear, practical lessons to strengthen the fund's next phase. An evaluation report distilling findings from across the evaluation into key learnings and action-oriented recommendations, supported by case-studies and verbatim comments, was delivered by The Outcome and Interactions Research. This was supported by a shareable Executive Summary report.
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Town Scientist embedded a practising scientist within Dundalk, Co. Louth as a trusted advisor of science, working with Louth Library, the Louth ABC Programme, Dundalk Credit Union and Louth County Council to deliver a wide range of STEM events in the local community. We evaluated the 2025 phase, which built on a 2021 pilot and a 2023 predecessor.
We ran a mixed-methods evaluation across more than 50 community-led activities, from Informal Science Learning (ISL) sessions and a six-week rocket-building programme, to family trips to W5 and Dublin Zoo and large-scale events during Space Week. We surveyed participants before and after the ISL programme, surveyed event attendees, and interviewed participants and the project team to understand how people moved from first contact through to sustained involvement.
The strongest shifts were in belonging and family life. Belief that STEM was "for people like them" grew, and 80% of event attendees said they felt more comfortable sharing science at home as a family. Behaviour backed up the attitudes with some events filled to capacity through word of mouth alone, and participants who began as attendees went on to help facilitate sessions themselves.
The evaluation was delivered as a full report and a designed executive summary, giving the project and its partners a clear, shareable record of impact to support funding conversations and future planning.
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‘Building Capacity through Impact’ was a year-long bespoke training programme delivered by The Outcome, co-designed with our client, a members network for non-profit organisations, and funded by The Wheel's Training Links scheme.
We built the programme from scratch, developing a sequence of sessions that moved from foundational concepts, what impact measurement is and why it matters, through to practical tools including stakeholder mapping and defining what to measure, before layering up to a theory of change workshop once participants had the grounding to make it meaningful. Sessions were mostly delivered remotely, with an in-person Theory of Change workshop.
Early feedback from participants points to real shifts in how organisations think about impact, not just how they measure it. Several told us this was the first time a Theory of Change genuinely made sense to them. Others described a shift in thinking that went beyond their own reporting, reconsidering how impact data moves through their organisation and how it should inform decisions well beyond reporting alone. An independent evaluation of the programme is underway, and we will update this case study with its findings once complete.
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Social Entrepreneurs Ireland runs a multi-year support programme for established social entrepreneurs, providing sustained mentoring, coaching and consultancy support as they grow their organisations. We designed and supported delivery of the evaluation framework for the programme, covering both SEI's own reporting and the two participating organisations.
We ran full-day theory of change workshops with SEI's team and each participating organisation, developing measurable outcomes and bespoke KPIs specific to their work. We also supported the design and implementation of impact measurement assets, indicators, data collection tools and processes, for all three organisations, building capacity within SEI's own team and each organisation alongside the evaluation work itself. This underpinned a multi-year evaluation cycle including quarterly check-ins with the programme team and ongoing monitoring, with SEI now running the post-programme evaluation using the framework we built. The framework measured change not only in each organisation's impact, but in the entrepreneurs themselves, including their confidence and leadership capacity as they led their organisations through this stage of growth.
SEI now uses the framework to report to the programme's funder at 12-month intervals through to 2029.
“The SROI evaluation has been an important learning opportunity for our organisation We are indebted to our evaluator, Beca Wistreich from The Outcome, for the inclusive approach which she took throughout the evaluation process. Her approachable manner and professionalism reassured our stakeholders and made for a much more successful outcome. The trust and confidence that she engendered with the stakeholders yielded a high volume of valuable feedback which we are using as part of our continuous improvement process. We are grateful to them for their full-hearted engagement with the process and giving their time so generously.”
Padraig Mallon, CEO, Crann
"I'd been looking for someone like Beca for a while, and the penny finally dropped when I heard her speak about the importance of measuring impact at a Social Entrepreneurs Action Lab session. Before that I was cobbling together my own evaluation forms with colleagues, and always came unstuck on the depth of the results and being able to interpret them properly.
I'd recommend The Outcome in a heartbeat, and have already sent several people her way, particularly other social entrepreneurs, because in this sector measuring impact matters as much as profitability. Beyond the expertise, Beca is genuinely a joy to work with - personable, remembers everything, and cares as much as I do about getting the evaluation right for the project and its goals."Niamh Shaw, Town Scientist
“The training was balanced really well. The communication was great and well managed, especially for the online sessions, and the use of breakout rooms enabled smaller conversations and relationship-building to take place!
For someone with only a small amount of experience, it was great to see the discussions that took place around certain subjects. Beca would present a topic or subject, and some practitioners that have been in their line of work for years or decades would be completely blown away, which highlighted how new/different/groundbreaking this information was and the importance to implement this new way of working/seeing things.
I would recommend it to any social enterprise, new or established, that hasn't done this type of training. I would also recommend it for any incubators (such as IDEA, Social Entrepreneurs Ireland, Rethink etc.) that are supporting new non-profits/social enterprises to help give a solid foundation when starting out!”
Ash McCartan, The Rediscovery Centre