Impact, measured at the level of the system.
Foundations fund programs but aim at systems. We build the measurement constructs and analysis that let a portfolio be judged by what it moves in the sector, not what it reports in the grant file.
Grant-level metrics cannot answer sector-level questions.
Every foundation faces the same measurement trap: the data lives at the level of grants and programs, but the mission lives at the level of a sector or a population. Aggregating grant reports does not produce a picture of the system — it produces a pile of anecdotes with numbers attached.
Disnesta approaches impact the way we approach everything: as a systems problem. We design measurement constructs at the level the mission actually operates — a sector, a region, a population — and build the data infrastructure to keep them honest over time.
The result is a foundation that can state, with a published method, what changed in the system it exists to change.
The roles that own these decisions.
The work we do for institutions like yours.
Sector measurement design
A measurement construct for your sector, built from first principles and documented in full — the index treatment, applied to a mission.
Portfolio and systems strategy
Analysis of where the leverage in the sector actually is, and how the portfolio should be shaped around it.
Impact data infrastructure
The pipelines and dashboards that keep sector measurement live across grantees, geographies, and years.
Measurement built for your mission.
Constructs, instruments, and the data infrastructure to keep sector-level measurement honest over time — the firm's measurement capability, applied to what your portfolio exists to change.