What makes a strong impact metric

What an impact metric is

An impact metric is a single statement of the form:

$[unit cost] = one [unit of value]

Examples that work:

• $1 = one meal
• $12 = one school supply kit
• $25 = one widow''s weekly grocery support
• $40 = one prenatal vitamin month
• $75 = one vocational class session

Examples that don''t work:

• $1 = one life changed
• $50 = one ministry hour
• $100 = one blessing delivered

The first set has units the Giver can picture and prices that can be defended. The second set is abstraction the Giver can''t hold and prices that can''t be sourced.

The three tests

1. Concreteness. Can the unit be photographed? A meal can be photographed. A blessing cannot.

2. Defensibility. If a thoughtful Giver asks "where did the $12 come from?", can you answer with receipts? If not, the price needs work.

3. Repeatability. Will another unit at the same price produce a comparable outcome? If unit cost swings wildly with each instance, average over time and add a methodology note (see launchpad/impact-methodology).

How impact compounds on Xerish

When a Giver Gives $5 to a post with $1/meal, the platform shows them "5 meals." That number is added to their Treasury — the lifetime tally of impact across every Organization they''ve Given to. Treasury is what brings Givers back. Without honest impact metrics, the Treasury becomes a fiction Givers eventually stop trusting.

Common mistakes

• Round-number worship. $10/meal because it''s round, when real cost is $1.20. Round to honest, not to neat.
• Mixing units mid-post. A single post should have one metric. If you''re funding both meals and supplies, use two posts.
• Soft units pretending to be hard. "Ministry hours" is a soft outcome. If you want to count it, do it under Soft Outcomes in the methodology note, not as a billable unit.