Date: Sunday, July 19, 2026
Hi, I’m Nina Sabarre, PhD, founder and CEO of Intention 2 Impact (I2I), a social impact consultancy known for measuring and communicating impact for foundations, nonprofits, and impact investors.
This week our team is taking over AEA 365 to explore what it means to treat impact as a verb instead of a noun — an active practice, not a static goal.
Somewhere along the way, the social sector turned “impact” into a trophy. Something you earn, prove, and put on a shelf. A metric in a report. A stat on a website. A story told to a funder at the end of a grant cycle so the money keeps coming. We achieved impact. Check. Move on.
We think that’s backward. And it’s costing us — in resources misallocated, in communities underserved, and in a field that keeps measuring in the rearview mirror while trying to drive forward.
So here’s our provocation: Impact is a verb.
Not a destination. Not a deliverable. An active practice of measuring, learning, communicating, and doing. It’s resourcing what’s been historically underfunded. Dismantling the systems standing in the way of liberation. Amplifying community voices and solutions. Sustaining change beyond a grant cycle.
Now, that’s what we call impact (cue favorite NOW! CD).
Not just the big, splashy number headlining a report — but the strategy, the decisions, the implementation, and the active, ongoing work behind that number.
When you treat it that way, everything changes. How you measure. How you communicate. How you actually use data to make better decisions. The question stops being did we achieve impact? and starts being: What are we doing? Why? And how are we learning, adapting, and communicating so we can do better?
Start with this two-minute explainer video. It’s the fastest way to get the full argument — and the easiest thing to send a colleague who needs to hear it.
Why this, why now?
At I2I, we’ve been sitting with this idea for a long time… in our client work, in our internal team meetings, in conversations with evaluators and funders and nonprofit leaders who are all, in different ways, bumping up against the limits of impact-as-noun. The compliance orientation. The backward-looking reports. The frameworks that exist to satisfy funders instead of inform action.
We kept asking: what would it look like if we built everything (i.e., measurement, learning, communication, strategy) around actually co-creating change instead of proving it happened? This is our answer to that question.
Over the next week, I2I team members will each take one dimension of Impact Is a Verb and bring it to life through real work:
Day 2 — Impact Is a Verb, Not a Case Study (lessons from Hopelab Ventures)
Day 3 — Impact Is a Verb, Not a Number (lessons from Decolonizing Wealth Project)
Day 4 — Impact Is a Verb, Not a Seat at the Table (lessons from Responsible Tech Youth Power Fund)
Day 5 — Impact Is a Verb, Not a Single Pathway (lessons from Open Supply Hub)
Day 6 — Impact Is a Verb, Not a Counterfactual (lessons from FreeFrom)
Day 7 — Impact Is a Verb, Not a Good Intention (lessons from Intention 2 Impact)
In the coming months, we’ll be publishing think pieces, sharing case studies, and hosting conversations with funders, nonprofit leaders, and investors — bringing this idea into every context where impact is still being treated like something you report rather than something you do.
Come back tomorrow. Bring a colleague. And if something here resonates, or if you want to push back, we genuinely want to hear from you.
Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this AEA365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the AEA365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an AEA365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to AEA365@eval.org. AEA365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.