About Understanding Impact

Understanding Impact

Every social good organization is facing the same problem: their belief in their mission is no longer enough. Their beneficiaries, teams and donors need to know more - they need to understand the impact, and they need the results to be backed by data. I started Understanding Impact to help these organizations monitor and evaluate their results and communicate those results to stakeholders. I envision a world where every social good venture bases their strategy on rigorous data, and is able to prove their results.

Jess Littman, Founder & CEO

I am a monitoring and evaluation professional with experience in education, women’s empowerment, child development, housing, health and microfinance across East Africa.

I have conducted evaluations, set up M&E systems and trained M&E teams across cultures and sectors, in-person and remotely. I specialize in mixed methods evaluations - those that combine quantitative and qualitative methods and data - and in training of small teams to develop internal M&E structures and skills. I am passionate about supporting locally-led organizations to evaluate their impact and to cultivate their own M&E systems.

In addition to my work with Understanding Impact, I serve as the Manager of Measurement, Evaluation & Dissemination in the Global Health department at the American Academy of Pediatrics.