The Durability Collective launches to measure and improve social outcomes

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New global community brings together funders, practitioners, and researchers committed to creating and measuring change that lasts

WASHINGTON, May 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Today marks the launch of The Durability Collective – a new global community dedicated to transforming how social-impact organizations design, measure, and deliver lasting impact.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, The Durability Collective believes medium and long-term outcomes measurement can be feasible and low-cost. Too often, funders and practitioners alike feel overwhelmed by the cost and resources required to undertake long-term, intensive impact measurement through traditional methods like RCTs. The Collective believes there are other ways to approach measurement that can complement more formal methods and provide valuable insights that shape sustained impact.

The Durability Collective is convening a global community of stakeholders – including funders, non-profits, multilaterals, and government agencies – committed to measuring and advancing 'durability' outcomes. Focusing initially on organizations in the livelihood space, this shift will allow stakeholders to focus on the activities that most advance employment, income, and well-being over time.

The community is launching with a set of inaugural members that includes Autodesk Foundation, Clayton Dubilier & Rice Foundation, Generation, GitLab Foundation, Livelihood Impact Fund, and UBS Optimus Foundation.

Together, they will work to:

• Make the question "does the change last?" a point of mainstream discussion across the sector
• Transform sector standards in medium and long-term outcomes measurement
• Provide deep expertise openly and collaboratively so we can all learn together

To engage a wider network and achieve these goals, The Durability Collective will undertake a set of activities:

• Durability Academy: Launching in June 2025, the Academy will be a two-year program to equip nonprofits, funders, and government agencies with practical tools and training to adopt effective medium- and long-term measurement practices.
• Research Partnerships: Collaborating with academic and research institutions to identify interventions that accelerate sustained outcomes and to create an open-source repository of effective approaches.
• Thought Leadership: Publishing insights, case studies, and best practices to make durability measurement a mainstream component of social impact evaluation.
• Community Building: Growing a global community where members can come together to exchange challenges, ideas, and innovations.

Ishita Jain, Impact Measurement and Management Lead, Autodesk Foundation, said: "At the Autodesk Foundation, we are constantly seeking to deepen our understanding of impact. The Durability Collective offers a unique opportunity to strengthen our own strategy and contribute to advance the practice as a whole. This initiative represents a shift from merely counting the number of learners served to truly understand what matters – the long term impact on learners' employment and income."

Randy Moore, CD&R Foundation President said: "We're proud to support an initiative focused on long-term outcomes for both talent and the organizations that serve them. Generation's global track record and the Durability Collective's practical approach to measuring impact offer an auspicious opportunity for lasting, transformative change."

Dr. Mona Mourshed, Founding CEO of Generation, said: "At Generation, we believe in the power of employment to change lives, and we define impact along three pillars: Breadth, Depth, and Durability. Breadth is the number of learners and employers we reach with our programs. Depth covers employment and income outcomes soon after program completion. And Durability measures whether these gains are sustained, two to five years later. Durability is often overlooked in our field and across the social sector. The Durability Collective exists to change that. We believe lasting change is the true measure of success – and that measuring it can be both feasible and cost-effective."

Spencer MacColl, Director of Impact at GitLab Foundation, said: "GitLab Foundation is committed to creating lasting, systemic change, and The Durability Collective reflects our belief that measuring long-term impact is essential. By bringing together global funders, practitioners, and researchers, we're building a shared infrastructure for learning and accountability that drives enduring progress."

Jeremy Hockenstein, Managing Director, Livelihood Impact Fund, said: "The mission of the Livelihood Impact Fund is to meaningfully and durably improve the lives of the global poor – and to do that we need to understand how the programs and leaders we support create change over the course of years, not months. The Durability Collective will help us, our partners, and the sector do this more effectively."

Nalini Tarakeshwar, Deputy CEO, UBS Optimus Foundation, said: "We are pleased to support the launch of The Durability Collective in partnership with Generation and the other founding members. The Collective's aim – to mainstream the importance of measuring lasting change – aligns closely to the UBS Optimus Foundation's approach of driving systemic and catalytic change, underpinned by a focus on measuring outcomes. We believe it can be part of a scalable solution to the global employment crisis created by the mismatch between skills and decent work, a crisis which disproportionately affects young women from the most marginalized backgrounds."

If you are interested in joining The Durability Collective or learning more, you can visit durability.net.

About The Durability Collective

The Durability Collective is a global community of funders, practitioners, and researchers who are building our collective capability to measure social impact and create change that lasts. Contrary to conventional wisdom, we believe medium and long-term outcomes measurement can be feasible and cost effective. For more, visit durability.net.