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Our playbook walks you through everything you need to bring the Impact Garden to life, with useful tips for any context

Our online course helps you dive deep into the framework with self-paced modules and practical exercises

Reimagine your work as a living ecosystem

The Impact Garden framework reimagines your work as a vibrant, living ecosystem. Moving beyond linear logic models, it helps you map out what’s truly thriving, what needs tending, and how transformation unfolds in your work across 10 interconnected dimensions, for example:

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The vision (Sunlight): Your shared purpose that energises and guides growth.
Resources (Soil): The raw ingredients and assets you and your partners invest.
Meaningful Interactions (Pollination): How people engage with your work and each other to create new value.
Learning Loops (Water): The guiding questions and processes that nourish adaptation, renewal, and continuous learning.

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Who is it for?

Leaders, teams and changemakers across sectors
Program and project managers, organisational developers
Funders, and ecosystem builders.
All seeking to design, implement, and evaluate initiatives through a holistic, life-centred lens.

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What’s included?

Access to the comprehensive Impact Garden framework, step-by-step guidance on its application, practical tools and templates (e.g. printable canvases, Mural boards), and insights from real-world case studies.

Access

The Impact Garden is openly licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). You are free to use, adapt, and build upon it—provided you credit Unity Effect and share any derivative works under the same open license.

We had the privilege of working with Jannik to implement Unity Effect's Capacity Compass and Impact Garden in the Bopa DiPeo fellowship. He helped us identify relevant items and clarify what capacities and capabilities we wanted to focus on and measure. As a model, the Capacity Compass provided enough structure and rigour while also adapting to fit our context and the diversity of each fellow's experience. We look forward to continued work with Unity Effect in the coming years!

Elsa Henderson Impact Garden and Capacity Compass

Elsa Henderson

Co-Founder, Circle Generation

Our approach

Our approach is participatory and hands-on, adapting the Impact Garden to your specific needs. The framework is a powerful and versatile tool for:

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Impact Evaluation: Measuring what matters for your long-term success.
Strategic Planning: Creating the roadmap for your team or organisation - rooted in your work culture and guiding principles.
Network & Ecosystem Building: Making visible what deeply nurtures your network or ecosystem, and creating momentum for joint action. ‍
Project & Product Design: Kick-starting or deepening a co-creation process - with intentionality and care.

We got you covered

Ready to start cultivating deeper impact? Here are a few ways to begin your Impact Garden journey:

Download playbook

Our playbook walks you through everything you need to bring the Impact Garden to life, with useful tips for any context

Download playbook

Explore the free online course

Our online course helps you dive deep into the framework with self-paced modules and practical exercises

Explore the free online course

Request a workshop

Bring the Impact Garden to your team for a tailored, hands-on session on strategic planning, evaluation, or project design

Request a workshop

Schedule consultation

Curious how the Impact Garden can specifically address your organisation’s challenges and goals? Book a free consultation

Schedule consultation

Past Projects

Social Entrepreneurship Network Germany

Impact evaluation of Google.org grant for inclusive entrepreneurship

In 2022, the Social Entrepreneurship Network Germany (SEND e.V.) received a grant from Google.org to “create new standards for an inclusive social enterprise sector in Germany”. Unity Effect’s role is to evaluate the entire project.

> Read more

ChangemakerXchange

Changemakers for Democracy: Measuring impact for systemic change

In collaboration with ChangemakerXchange, we supported the impact evaluation of their Changemakers for Democracy program — an initiative dedicated to reimagining democracy and fostering economic renewal across Europe.

> Read more

Curious to see more of our work?

Check out our portfolio to see all past projects.

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Our Resources

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Case Study: Envisioning an inclusive social entrepreneurship sector - Impact Evaluation with SEND e.V. and google.org

At Unity Effect, we were honoured to co-develop and implement the impact evaluation of "Envisioning an Inclusive Social Entrepreneurship Sector in Germany", a flagship initiative led by SEND e.V. and supported by Google.org’s Social Innovation Fund. Using our Impact Garden methodology, we explored how inclusive funding structures, trust-based support, and systemic collaboration can empower founders from underserved communities.

Regenerative Signal: A journey of evaluation, recognition & learning

Traditional evaluation often misses what truly matters: the relational, emergent changes that signal real transformation. Regenerative Signal is a learning journey that reimagines evaluation as a living practice, helping organisations measure meaningful impact through our open-source Impact Garden framework. Combining live workshops, self-paced learning, and practical tools, we support leaders and change-makers to bridge the gap between the change they create and the impact they can communicate.

Measuring impact on an ecosystem level - Government-funded project

Jointly with the Institute Work and Technology (IAT) of the Westphalian University of Applied Sciences and AiDiA - the Afro-German Start-Up Pitch, we started a project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The essence of that project? Developing a framework to evaluate the innovativeness between migrant entrepreneurs and innovation ecosystems.