Creative spaces are very good at recognising impact. You see it when people walk through the door for the first time and gradually find their feet. You feel it in the shift in energy in the room, the new connections forming, the confidence that grows through making, sharing and belonging.

You hear it in the stories people tell about what being part of a creative space has changed for them.

What’s often harder is capturing that impact in ways that feel authentic, manageable and credible – especially when time, funding and capacity are already stretched.

That tension is exactly what sparked the development of Tūhono Impact.

Where Tūhono began

I’ve been involved in developing Tūhono Impact, a free, online tool for community organisations to measure their impact. Developed by Powerdigm, the research and consultancy arm of Inspiring Communities, it’s been developed through years of working alongside community and kaupapa Māori organisations – many of them values-led, people-centred and operating outside neat programme boundaries.

Across these contexts, a familiar pattern kept emerging: organisations knew they were making a difference but struggled to show it in ways that didn’t flatten their work or overload their teams.

Tūhono Impact is designed to bridge that gap. At its heart, it’s about connection – connecting everyday practice with wellbeing, connecting stories with evidence, and connecting what matters locally with indicators that are recognised and trusted more widely.

Why wellbeing and impact indicators matter

“Indicators” often get a bad reputation. They can feel abstract, compliance-driven, or disconnected from real people and real practice. But at their best, indicators are simply signals of change. They help us notice patterns, track progress over time and make sense of what’s happening – without pretending to capture everything.

For creative spaces, wellbeing indicators are particularly powerful because so much of your impact sits in areas that traditional outputs miss: confidence, connection, identity, learning, contribution and belonging.

Used well, indicators don’t replace stories. They strengthen them. They provide a backbone that helps your lived experience stand up in funding, reporting and advocacy spaces while remaining true to your kaupapa.

 A “start where you are” approach

One of the core principles of Tūhono is realism. It doesn’t assume you have an evaluation team, specialist software or the ability to run long surveys. Instead, it starts with what many creative spaces are already doing: noticing change, hearing feedback, watching relationships grow and reflecting on practice.

The tools are designed to support small, light-touch actions (e.g. quick check-ins, simple questions, brief reflections) that can be woven into everyday activity. Over time, those small actions build consistency, confidence and a shared language about impact.

That’s why the Creative Spaces Network is beginning with a simple idea: pick three indicators.

Why “pick three” works

Choosing just three indicators is intentional. It keeps the focus manageable and meaningful, and it encourages each space to select what best reflects their kaupapa and community.

The goal isn’t to measure everything. It’s to build familiarity with what an indicator is, try out easy ways of checking in, and learn what feels useful (and what doesn’t) in your own context.

Over time, those small, regular practices create a pathway. What starts as a quick check-in can grow into stronger storytelling, clearer reporting and more confident conversations with funders without ever becoming a burden.

Support, not overwhelm

Perhaps most importantly, Tūhono Impact is designed to support and empower, not to judge or standardise.

There is no “perfect” level of data, no one right way to do this work, and no expectation that creative spaces all look the same. “Good enough” is not a compromise: it’s often what sustainability looks like.

Impact work — how you show and talk about change — should serve your organisation and communities first. When it does that well, it also becomes far more persuasive to the outside world.

Tūhono Impact is doing its job if it helps you notice what you already know, put language to what you feel, and take a few small steps toward capturing what matters.

Start where you are. Stay connected to your kaupapa. And let the evidence grow alongside the work.