Beyond the Metrics: Redefining Accountability & Impact Measurement for Social Innovation Practitioners

Impact evaluation in the context of social innovation has long been a source of tension. The frameworks most commonly used to assess impact were not built for the complexity, relational depth, and long time horizons that social innovation requires. As a result, the most meaningful contributions of labs and lab-like processes — such as relationship-building, learning, and iteration — often go undervalued.

This framework is our collective response. Co-designed with eight labs across Canada, it provides tools and approaches that better reflect the unique contributions of social innovation practitioners and leaders to systems change, centering learning, relationships, and collective sensemaking around complex challenges as the basis for meaningful accountability. A secondary but equally important purpose is to deepen funder understanding of social innovation including the time, relationships, and resources required to sustain.

Accountability is at the centre of this effort, asking us to continuously return to the questions that matter most: who are we accountable to, and how do we build that accountability with them? The goal is not a fixed answer but a shared process that makes accountability visible and embedded in practice.

This Framework was developed through the Social Innovation Impact Initiative, a partnership between SI Canada, Winnipeg Boldness, and Maison de l’innovation sociale to help social innovators track and demonstrate their impact.