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Why submit an impact statement?
What are the primary sections of an impact statement?
How can I write an effective impact statement?
How are impact statements used?
All faculty members in CAES are required to submit at least one impact statement each year to report on a major project.
Since the research, education and Extension work at UGA is publicly supported, we have an obligation to report a measurable difference each program makes or can potentially make.
A well-written impact statement shows public accountability, your response to an issue and collaboration. It can be a tracking system for your project, offer a brief update, show return on investment and support future funding requests.
Impact statements fulfill state and federal reporting needs.
Summary: In a sentence or two, summarize the statement.
Example: University of Georgia scientists are training wasps to detect chemicals.
Situation: What is the issue? Who cares and why?
Response: What has been done? Summarize your program, project or response to the issue.
Results/impact: How has your response affected the users/stakeholders involved with this issue?
You will also be asked about funding sources, collaborators, key words and other related information.
Who are the most likely benefactors?
When do you expect outcome and why?
Know what you want to measure: Is it a decrease in participants' blood cholesterol or an increase in crop yield?
Build around issues, not events: 70% of participants met their savings goals, not 34 people attended the meeting.
Don’t exaggerate your results, don’t claim undue credit and include the negatives to present a balanced report.
Use impact statements in reports to the public, funding sources, elected officials and special audiences such as media contacts or agribusiness people.
Supplement funding requests for future projects with previous impact statements to show successful results.
Journalists in various media outlets like the brief, to-the-point style of impact statements as well as the ability to search the database geographically, by author and by topic on the search page.
Impact statements add specific results to quarterly and annual reports.
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