Getting the math right was definitely one of the trickiest parts of developing LISC’s Impact Matrix. We took a hybrid approach of a few of the ideas above. As discussed in the article, our matrix has six dimensions. In order to determine the relative weight of each one in the final score, we surveyed LISC staff on what dimension they thought were most important and weighted them accordingly – Community-Centered and Effectiveness are both worth 30 points each, Who and Alignment are each worth 20 points and Contribution and Risk Mitigation are 15 points apiece. We then had staff rate the indicators within each dimension similarly to assign weights within each dimension.

The final score is presented both as a cumulative total out
of 130 points and also as a radar graph to show how a project performed
relative to the portfolio median on each dimension.