NZ Youth Mentoring
"We found ourselves being asked about the impact of our work on young people, but we had a problem. We needed to develop a greater understanding of the sector's impact on youth and society, which we could then reflect on and respond to."
"Running this study has helped reinforce the position of our organisation in the sector as an important source of evidence-based best-practice information. It has been used during funding conversations to explore why building capacity and capability in the sector is important."
"Running this study has helped reinforce the position of our organisation in the sector as an important source of evidence-based best-practice information. It has been used during funding conversations to explore why building capacity and capability in the sector is important."
How NZ Youth Mentoring Network used independent research to make the invisible visible — and change the conversation with government.
The NZ Youth Mentoring Network (NZYMN) supports, trains, and advocates for mentoring organisations across Aotearoa. Their job is to strengthen the sector, rather than be front-line youth workers.
Which made it awkward when funders started asking them to prove the sector was working.
"We found ourselves being asked about the impact of our work on young people, but we had a problem," says James, Executive Director of NZYMN. "We needed to develop a greater understanding of the sector's impact on youth and society, which we could then reflect on and respond to."
The challenge wasn't a lack of belief in mentoring. It was a lack of data. Youth mentoring happens across an enormous variety of settings and programmes, much of it in places where it isn't even labelled as mentoring. There was no standard way of reporting, no shared metrics, and most of what existed focused on activities rather than outcomes, for example, how many young people were served, not what changed for them.
NZYMN had an intuitive sense of the sector's scale and value. What they needed was evidence.
Building a Picture That Didn't Exist
ImpactLab's starting point was the Charities Register — the most comprehensive public dataset of New Zealand's social sector. It quickly became clear why no one had done this before.
Tagging was inconsistent, categories were unreliable and annual reports described what organisations did, not what changed as a result.
There was no standard structure to work from.
ImpactLab pulled raw data from the Register's backend, used internal sector knowledge to identify genuine youth mentoring organisations, and made carefully reasoned assumptions where the data fell short. To get beyond the sector's breadth to its actual impact, ImpactLab combined the public data with its own proprietary GoodMeasure outcome data from previous programmes in the space.
"The ImpactLab team did most of that work," says James. "I was disappointed some organisations didn't want to be involved, but overall, we had great participation."
What the Numbers Said — And What the Gaps Revealed
The headline finding was what you'd expect: the youth mentoring sector is large, it reaches a significant number of young people, and where it's measured properly, the social value is substantial.
But that wasn't the finding James found most important.
"For me personally, the biggest insight was about the things we didn’t find. We found few common methods for reporting on youth mentoring — how many young people were mentored, length of mentoring engagement, and so on."
High-performing programmes were generating real, lasting change. But without consistent outcome reporting, that value was effectively invisible to funders, to government, and to the public. The sector was doing more good than it could prove.
The research also showed that the strongest outcomes came from programmes that tailored their approach to the specific needs of the young people they served, whether that was school-aged children, at-risk youth, or those navigating major life transitions. Good mentoring isn't one-size-fits-all, and the data bore that out.
From Findings to Funding Conversations
The report moved quickly from research to action.
NZYMN held an online hui with network members to share the findings and discuss what they meant. New conversations opened up with providers about reporting methods. The document was shared with the Ministry of Youth Development and the Minister directly, and it became a live asset in funding conversations, used to make the case for why building sector capability matters.
"It has been used during funding conversations to explore why building capacity and capability in the sector is important," says James.
The data gap the report identified also became a catalyst in its own right. NZYMN developed new reporting guidance now being shared across its network, and collaborative projects among providers have begun to address how mentoring outcomes are tracked and reported going forward.
For an organisation that had always been evidence-driven but largely reliant on overseas research, having independent, locally grounded evidence shifted something.
"Having a study that is based firmly here in NZ reinforces research conducted elsewhere but provides critical local context. Running this study has helped reinforce the position of our organisation in the sector as an important source of evidence-based best-practice information."
What James Would Tell Others
"Be diligent planning the shape and intent of the study and be careful and thorough during the review process. Studies like this are not a magic bullet, and they have to be built on a deep understanding of your sector."
The research didn't change NZYMN's view of mentoring. But it changed how they talk about it and who listens when they do.
Read top tips on using your GoodMeasure report to secure funding.
Need stronger evidence of the difference your work is making?
Talk to us about measuring and demonstrating your impact.
How NZ Youth Mentoring Network used independent research to make the invisible visible — and change the conversation with government.
The NZ Youth Mentoring Network (NZYMN) supports, trains, and advocates for mentoring organisations across Aotearoa. Their job is to strengthen the sector, rather than be front-line youth workers.
Which made it awkward when funders started asking them to prove the sector was working.
"We found ourselves being asked about the impact of our work on young people, but we had a problem," says James, Executive Director of NZYMN. "We needed to develop a greater understanding of the sector's impact on youth and society, which we could then reflect on and respond to."
The challenge wasn't a lack of belief in mentoring. It was a lack of data. Youth mentoring happens across an enormous variety of settings and programmes, much of it in places where it isn't even labelled as mentoring. There was no standard way of reporting, no shared metrics, and most of what existed focused on activities rather than outcomes, for example, how many young people were served, not what changed for them.
NZYMN had an intuitive sense of the sector's scale and value. What they needed was evidence.
Building a Picture That Didn't Exist
ImpactLab's starting point was the Charities Register — the most comprehensive public dataset of New Zealand's social sector. It quickly became clear why no one had done this before.
Tagging was inconsistent, categories were unreliable and annual reports described what organisations did, not what changed as a result.
There was no standard structure to work from.
ImpactLab pulled raw data from the Register's backend, used internal sector knowledge to identify genuine youth mentoring organisations, and made carefully reasoned assumptions where the data fell short. To get beyond the sector's breadth to its actual impact, ImpactLab combined the public data with its own proprietary GoodMeasure outcome data from previous programmes in the space.
"The ImpactLab team did most of that work," says James. "I was disappointed some organisations didn't want to be involved, but overall, we had great participation."
What the Numbers Said — And What the Gaps Revealed
The headline finding was what you'd expect: the youth mentoring sector is large, it reaches a significant number of young people, and where it's measured properly, the social value is substantial.
But that wasn't the finding James found most important.
"For me personally, the biggest insight was about the things we didn’t find. We found few common methods for reporting on youth mentoring — how many young people were mentored, length of mentoring engagement, and so on."
High-performing programmes were generating real, lasting change. But without consistent outcome reporting, that value was effectively invisible to funders, to government, and to the public. The sector was doing more good than it could prove.
The research also showed that the strongest outcomes came from programmes that tailored their approach to the specific needs of the young people they served, whether that was school-aged children, at-risk youth, or those navigating major life transitions. Good mentoring isn't one-size-fits-all, and the data bore that out.
From Findings to Funding Conversations
The report moved quickly from research to action.
NZYMN held an online hui with network members to share the findings and discuss what they meant. New conversations opened up with providers about reporting methods. The document was shared with the Ministry of Youth Development and the Minister directly, and it became a live asset in funding conversations, used to make the case for why building sector capability matters.
"It has been used during funding conversations to explore why building capacity and capability in the sector is important," says James.
The data gap the report identified also became a catalyst in its own right. NZYMN developed new reporting guidance now being shared across its network, and collaborative projects among providers have begun to address how mentoring outcomes are tracked and reported going forward.
For an organisation that had always been evidence-driven but largely reliant on overseas research, having independent, locally grounded evidence shifted something.
"Having a study that is based firmly here in NZ reinforces research conducted elsewhere but provides critical local context. Running this study has helped reinforce the position of our organisation in the sector as an important source of evidence-based best-practice information."
What James Would Tell Others
"Be diligent planning the shape and intent of the study and be careful and thorough during the review process. Studies like this are not a magic bullet, and they have to be built on a deep understanding of your sector."
The research didn't change NZYMN's view of mentoring. But it changed how they talk about it and who listens when they do.
Read top tips on using your GoodMeasure report to secure funding.
Need stronger evidence of the difference your work is making?
Talk to us about measuring and demonstrating your impact.
NZ Youth Mentoring
"We found ourselves being asked about the impact of our work on young people, but we had a problem. We needed to develop a greater understanding of the sector's impact on youth and society, which we could then reflect on and respond to."
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GoodMeasure validated the depth of our work and showed where we could improve. It’s helped us strengthen our systems and expand our reach to better meet the needs of our whole community
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