Measuring Service Impact
Measuring Service Impact
When we share our stories and report our impact, we unify our
organization, inspire our communities, and capture the attention
of a global audience. This guide will enable service reporting by:
2 E
xplaining the various ways Lions and Leos measure their impact.
3 P
roviding direction on how to calculate the number of People Served.
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What is service?
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Metrics
• Number
of Volunteer Hours: The
number of hours spent planning and
implementing a service project.
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Depending on the type of service project, these metrics are either required
or optional for service reporting. The table below provides an overview:
Metrics Collected
Number Number of
Number of Number of Funds Funds
of People Volunteer
Activities Volunteers Raised Donated
Served Hours
Service
Required Required Required Required Optional Optional
Activities
(this does not
Fundraisers need to be Optional Optional Optional Required Optional
Type of
entered, as
Activity each activity
Donations reported Optional Optional Optional Optional Required
counts as one
activity)
Meetings Optional Required Required Optional Optional
For example, for a service activity, it is required that Lions report the number of People Served, the
number of volunteers and the number of volunteer hours. Lions can optionally report funds raised or
donated, if fundraising or donating take place during the activity.
In addition to the metrics listed above, there are many other ways to measure service impact. For
example, during a blood drive, pints of blood might be counted. During a food or clothing drive, the
number of items collected might be counted. Service might also generate a feeling of goodwill or
community spirit, attract new members to a club, or beautify a public space. While it’s not possible
to quantify all these outcomes, Lions are encouraged to include them within the description of each
activity at the time of reporting.
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Guidelines for Calculating Step 2
People Served
Determine if the People Served
Lions Clubs International provides
guidelines to ensure that service reporting
can be directly counted.
is accurate and consistent. However, Lions If so, be sure to keep a record during the
and Leos are the true experts in their service activity, such as a sheet. If not,
service, and as such should rely on their
own experience when measuring service
you will need to estimate.
impact and encouraged to work with local
People Served can be easily counted
experts whenever possible.
when Lions work directly with their
beneficiaries. For example, when a club
volunteers at a school to serve as mentors
Step 1
for students, the number of People Served
is the number of students mentored.
Determine if People Served is a
required metric for your activity. People Served often needs to be
estimated when conducting environmental
service projects. The first step is to
People Served is only required for service
determine who the beneficiary is.
activities. There are many situations where
a club, district or multiple district may want
to report People Served as an optional Estimating People Served can be done in
metric. Some examples are shared below: several ways, including:
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• When reporting ongoing activities, first
Step 3
determine the most appropriate time
frame for each service report. This may be
Determine if your activity is a monthly for a transport vehicle, annually
for a school, or quarterly for a health
one-time activity, a recurring clinic.
activity, or an ongoing activity, • R
eport the activity at the chosen interval,
and report beneficiaries counting only the beneficiaries served
during that time. For example, a school
accordingly. attended by 100 students each year
could be reported once per year, with 100
One-time activities serve beneficiaries one beneficiaries reported each time.
time, and end when the project is completed.
These activities can sometimes last more than • If the ongoing activity does not require
one day, however they do not regularly repeat. the day-to-day service of Lions, such as
For example, Lions organize a diabetes endowing a chair at a cancer research
awareness event and educate 200 people, center, be sure to check in with the
reporting 200 People Served. partner organization before each service
report to ensure that the number of
Recurring activities are those that regularly People Served is accurate and up to date.
repeat, such as cleaning up a highway once
a month. In this example, each individual • If the ongoing activity requires ongoing
highway cleanup can be reported as one maintenance, Lions should stay actively
activity. The number of motorists who use the involved in order to continue reporting
highway on the day of each cleanup should the activity. Some examples include
be reported as the number of People Served the upkeep of a community park, or
for that activity. maintenance on a well that provides clean
drinking water. If the investment is no
Ongoing activities occur when Lions’ longer functional, that activity should no
contribution will continue to serve people longer be reported.
indefinitely. Infrastructure building and capital
investments fall into this category.
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Special Considerations
Collecting and donating used eyeglasses. Activities that serve multiple causes. When
It can be difficult to know how many people are reporting, select the primary cause served, or break
served by the donation of used eyeglasses. In some the activity into multiple activities and report them
cases, used glasses are matched with a beneficiary separately. For example, if you are providing vision
to correct their vision, and in other cases, the screening and diabetes screening at a health fair,
materials that make up the glasses are recycled. you can report the vision and diabetes screenings
Lions should speak with the eyeglass recycling as two separate activities.
center or partner to whom they are giving the
glasses to better understand how they are used. Signature activities. A signature activity is a
This information will help Lions report the number recurring activity which enables a club, district or
of people served by their donation. multiple district to apply their unique strengths
and abilities to meet the needs of their community.
Multiple clubs serving together. Participating Signature activities often serve as a part of the club,
clubs should discuss and agree upon the approach district or multiple district’s unique identity. Clubs,
in advance of service reporting. If one club initiated districts or multiple districts can indicate that any
the project and did most of the planning, Lions reported service activity is their signature activity,
may prefer that club report the activity. If all clubs however this designation doesn’t change the
participated about equally, Lions may prefer that reporting process in any way.
each club report the activity. Lions should ensure
that metrics, such as People Served, are not Service Reporting Cap. Lions Clubs International
reported multiple times. has a responsibility to ensure the accuracy and
credibility of Lions’ service reporting. For this
District or multiple district initiatives. reason, a cap of 3,000 People Served is applied to
Sometimes, a district or multiple district will every individual service activity reported by a club,
recommend that all clubs conduct a certain type district or multiple district. This cap allows Lions
of service in a given year. For example, a district International to:
governor might request that all clubs in their district
focus on diabetes screenings. Clubs that conduct • Remove statistical outliers with an outsized
diabetes screenings should still report them as impact on metrics.
individual club activities. The district governor may • Take a conservative approach with numbers
consider asking clubs to use a uniform naming that are prone to error and miscalculation.
convention, such as “2020 District Initiative:
Diabetes Screening” in order to easily see which • educe the reputational risk associated with
R
activities were a part of this initiative. reporting inflated numbers.
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