Methodology statement – SMMIB Impact Review

For the 2025 impact exercise, around 200 projects were considered for review across funding streams including Strategic Development Funding, Strategic Transformation Funding, Diocesan Investment Programme and Partnership Funding, and Innovation Funding. This review did not involve new research but assessment of existing information. For each project, the most recent available data was used, meaning source documents span 2019–2025. Data for around 60 projects was updated with new outcome figures. The remaining projects (for example those completed or inactive) were included using figures from previous aggregation exercises (2023 or 2024) where available to provide an overall picture of impact since SDF funding began. This approach offers a high-level view of progress to celebrate across strategic funding. However, aggregated figures should be interpreted as estimates due to several factors:

1. Diverse outcomes – Projects’ metrics reflect local priorities, rather than standardised across the portfolio. This limits comparability and makes aggregation challenging.
2. Varied data quality – No fresh research was undertaken, and available monitoring data varies significantly in detail, presentation, and quality between projects and over time.
3. Diverse projects and contexts – Some projects focus on specific parishes, or specific themes, others on diocesan-wide change and is reflected in diverse outcomes. A variety of local factors, such as personnel changes and broader external factors, such as the severe impact of Covid-19, also shaped outcomes.
4. Complex influences – Projects operate within wider Church and societal contexts, making it difficult to isolate and attribute impact to strategic funding alone.