Why funders keep asking "but what does success look like?"
And why most charities can't answer
Last week, I asked my impact storyteller newsletter subscribers what’s stopping them from telling better impact stories.
The responses pointed to three barriers:
not enough time,
not knowing where to start, and
lack of budget for photography or video.
Here’s what’s interesting: two of these three aren’t resource problems. There are problems about clarity.
You don’t need more time if you’re more strategic. You don’t need to wonder where to start if you know exactly what success looks like.
That’s what this week is about.
The question most organisations can’t answer
Before you choose which stories to tell, before you collect case studies or commission photography, answer this:
What does success actually look like?
Not how many people you helped. Not how many sessions you delivered.
What specific change are you working toward?
Most organisations struggle with this. And in 2026, with resources scarcer than ever, that struggle is becoming expensive.
Why this matters right now
Funders are making harder decisions. Government grants have declined by around £1 billion annually since 2020. Four million fewer people are giving regularly compared to 2019.
When resources are scarce, funders don’t fund activity. They fund change.
If you can’t paint a clear picture of what success looks like, you’re competing with organisations who can.
Your impact data means nothing without a vision of what that impact is building toward.
The pattern I see constantly
Both as a charity CEO and working with organisations on their storytelling, I see this same pattern.
Someone asks what success looks like. The response is a list of outputs:
“We delivered 500 workshops.”
“We supported 300 families.”
“We reached 10,000 people through our campaign.”
These aren’t visions of success. They’re descriptions of busyness.
The question isn’t how many people you reached. It’s what those people becoming means for the community, the system, the future.
Without that clarity, your stories have nowhere to go. You’re documenting activity, not transformation.
How we got this right (eventually)
When I founded Naz and Matt Foundation after I lost my fiancé to religious homophobia and honour-based abuse, we could have measured success in sessions delivered or resources downloaded.
Instead, we defined our End Vision:
A world where LGBTQI+ people from religious and culturally conservative backgrounds can live safely, and without fear of family rejection.
Everything we do points toward that version of the world. Every story we tell, every image we share, every campaign we run asks: does this move us closer to that vision?
That clarity transforms how you tell stories.
You’re not just showing what you did. You’re showing what’s becoming possible.
The one sentence that changes everything
Before you plan your next impact story, funding application, or annual report, complete this sentence:
Our work is successful when [specific group] can [specific action] without [specific barrier].
This is your End Vision. It’s the North Star for every storytelling decision you make.
If a story doesn’t connect to this vision, it’s probably the wrong story to tell.
Why defining this matters for 2026
Because you cannot afford to waste resources on stories that don’t land.
Because funders want to invest in change, not activity.
Because if you can’t articulate what you’re building toward, someone else will define it for you. Or worse, they’ll assume you don’t know.
The organisations that survive this funding crisis will be the ones who can show, clearly and compellingly, what success looks like.
Not just what they’re doing, but what they’re making possible.
Want the framework and tools to define your End Vision?
This article introduces the concept. But knowing you need an End Vision and actually defining one are two different things.
In this week’s newsletter, I share:
✓ The End Vision Canvas - A 3-level framework for defining observable change (Individual, System, Evidence)
✓ End Vision Statement Builder - A fill-in template with a worked example from my charity
✓ AI Prompt - Copy-paste instructions to help you sharpen your End Vision with ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini
✓ 3 Storytelling Tools - The tools I use for transcription, email marketing, and LinkedIn formatting
Subscribe to The Social Impact Storyteller newsletter here:
Every Thursday, I share practical frameworks, templates, and AI prompts to help charities and social impact teams turn their work into stories that unlock funding and drive action.
Until next week, sending you safe and peaceful energy.
Matt
Matt Mahmood-Ogston is an award-winning impact storyteller, documentary photographer, and CEO of Naz and Matt Foundation. His documentary “My God, I’m Queer” won Best TV Programme at the Asian Media Awards, and his charity campaigns have reached 54 million people.
One more thing worth mentioning:
I'm seeing organisations right now rewriting their entire impact frameworks because funders are explicitly asking: "What does success look like? Not what you do - what changes?"
If you're in a funding round in the next 3-6 months and you can't answer this clearly, it's worth pausing everything to get this right first.
A clear End Vision doesn't just improve your storytelling. It transforms your entire case for funding.
The full framework is in this week's newsletter if that's useful:
https://www.impactstoryteller.org/
Here's another example that might help:
An organisation I worked with initially said: "Our work is successful when young people have better mental health."
Too vague. What does "better mental health" look like in practice?
We refined it to: "Our work is successful when young people can ask for help before reaching crisis point, without fear of judgment or long waiting lists."
Now that's observable. Specific. Fundable. The shift from vague aspiration to concrete vision will change everything about your charity or social impact initiatives - not just funding applications. It will change marketing strategy, overall messaging, brand positioning, media interviews, outreach comms... literally everything will become clearer, more measurable and actionable.