How can you communicate the long-term impact of your social impact work?

Mi trabajo social se enfoca en la educación de comunidades desfavorecidas. Mi impacto se traduce en un aumento significativo en las tasas de graduación y en el empoderamiento económico de los estudiantes.

Only with repetitive action it is possible. Impact is not a one day one go thing. It has to be redefined again and again every day.

Communicating the long-term impact of social impact work is crucial for demonstrating the effectiveness and sustainability of initiatives. One effective way to convey this impact is through storytelling. By sharing real-life stories of individuals or communities positively affected by the work, we can humanize the impact and make it more relatable and tangible to stakeholders...

Communicating the long-term impact of your social impact work involves collecting and analyzing data over time to show sustained positive outcomes, such as improvements in community well-being, climate action, health access or educational attainment. You can use various methods such as case studies, testimonials, quantitative metrics, and storytelling to illustrate the lasting effects of your efforts on individuals and communities. Additionally, engaging stakeholders through regular updates, reports, and presentations can help convey the ongoing significance of your work.

To achieve any credibility…you can only allow for first person reports on whether or not what you intended to happen, really did! There’s so much noise in development—mucho ruido pocas nueces—but the reality is failure rates are very high. I am a big fan of Albert O Hirshman who encourages us to admit and adjust to problems early and often!

Creating an impact story is an essential part of establishing longevity. Impact stories include the target audience, their perception of the process and their feedback on the project. These stories can be created using multi-media tools One thing that helps me is involving the target audience and ask them what would best convey their experience- using that we build on mediums to develop the impact story.

So, think of it like this: telling stories is like showing off our social impact work in action. We can share real-life tales of people whose lives have been changed for the better because of what we're doing. These stories really stick with folks and help them see the long-lasting good we're bringing about. And hey, we've also got the numbers to back it up! We can show how our efforts are making a real, measurable difference over time. So, whether it's through heartfelt stories or hard data, we've got plenty of ways to show just how impactful our work is in the long run!

In my experience, the first step in telling your communicating your impact is understanding who you're telling it to. Whilst data and metrics are useful, they can be sterile if not told as a story that resonates with your audience. Also remember the key questions: Why? What? When? Where? What next?

It's helpful to uplift specific, on-the-ground stories of how your work has contributed to lasting change. If you are undertaking a storytelling campaign, please budget to ensure that community-based storytellers will be equitably compensated for their expertise and time.

Always always tell the story from the beneficiary perspective not yours. People understand names faces they don’t care about how you did it who did it they care about for whom the activity or the impact has been created Spend 80% of your time on faces names, and the story the real story of the Impact

Impact framework for the objectives, goals, expected outcomes and impact on volunteers comes in as the most go to tool. With each of these settings, a metrics on expectations and another on benchmarking can be useful. Understanding where we wanted to be through benchmarking and where we have reached help also measure our success and the course corrections. And the next phase can be a more achievable and accurate understanding for similar projects.

We've found the five dimensions of impact from the Impact management project useful in not only telling our impact but also our performance overtime. I would however note two things on this: 1. Having a framework that can be used to benchmark yourself vis a vie your peers is useful and helps build community and ecosystem. Therefore, using a third party framework is recommended. 2. At the same time, these frameworks should be adapted to the impact strategy and overall mission of your organization. There are likely tools and variables that are and are not applicable.

Finding the right framework could be challenging in a dynamic life in a fast space project so logic framework always work in long-term projects, but always remember you can always innovate in the impact measurement, and the free of operation to fit the current market dynamics.

Utilizo el marco lógico para identificar, medir y comunicar mis objetivos y resultados. Este enfoque claro facilita la comprensión y evaluación del impacto a largo plazo de mis proyectos.

It feels to me like understanding your audience should come first, as it takes into cognizance of needs assessment which will then be useful in defining the impact, and going further with setting framework for outline of actions. Putting the audience at the heart of the program gives it credence, as opposed to a savior mentality of just wanting to do something even if it's not what the audience needs.

Al presentar resultados, adapto mi mensaje según la audiencia. En entornos académicos, destaco datos cuantitativos, mientras que con donantes y beneficiarios resalto historias personales que ilustren el cambio real.

Every step of your social impact work requires varying involvement in communicating and collaborating with stakeholders. Each step involves understanding your audience's motivation, information needs, and communication style to further your objectives. For instance, when discussing the scope of impact work with your partners, you would want to be thorough in articulating roles and responsibilities to set/manage everyone's expectations. When communicating with senior executives to get sponsorship buy-ins, conciseness is key to grabbing their attention. It would help to focus on what truly matters, such as data-backed ROI with one or two use cases that showcase impact.

Storytelling is crucial for your ability to connect with different communities/audiences. Knowing what resonates (for various reasons) is crucial. F.ex, when we are introducing the idea of AI Stewardship, it will take a different story for the philanthropic sector than what is needed for a venture oriented community. Our challenge lies in how we are able to do that, but still fundamentally staying true to the story we need to tell, shaped by our own theory of change.

Tailor your communication approach to resonate with the priorities, interests, and values of different stakeholders. Whether addressing donors, beneficiaries, partners, or the wider community, customize your messaging to engage and inspire each audience effectively.

Chaque type de communication a sa cible : le qualitatif valorisé par des témoignages vidéos ou audios sera sans doute plus intéressant pour toucher des particuliers, et le quantitatif pour valoriser l'impact généré auprès des institutionnel ou des partenaires publics et privés. Mais globalement tous les outils de valorisation de l'impact peuvent être exploités auprès des différentes cibles et génèrent du contenu à diffuser sur un maximum de canaux de communication.

As a social impact maker, we must be humble enough to include stakeholders to be a part of the ideation, as much as possible. Feedback should be gotten from stakeholders, in terms of research validations of the problem they have and we are trying to solve. The people should be a part of the dialogue as best as possible, in finding the appropriate solutions to solve their problems. Impact becomes our impact and not the people’s impact the moment we skip this one step.

Fomento un diálogo continuo con todas las partes interesadas. Esto no solo mejora la efectividad de mis proyectos, sino que también construye relaciones sólidas que respaldan la sostenibilidad del impacto a largo plazo.

Finetune your impact. Having a group of advisors who can support you on the way to shape what the next 5 years of your organization look like will be crucial for your development.

One of the best ways to get people on your inclusive, philanthropic growth journey is to get them involved in the process. Not just ask them questions after, but include them in the strategy, include their survey/interview/research results into how you frame. People are more apt to give more if they feel that they are part of your long-term impact, and that their opinions matter. Many times I coach CEOs to not only go on listening tours, but quarterly have a platform where they’re listening and hearing and getting feedback from a variety of constituencies to help them shape direction and strategy.

Foster open channels for feedback, dialogue, and collaboration with stakeholders. Actively listen to their perspectives, concerns, and suggestions regarding the long-term impact of your initiatives. Engaging in constructive dialogue builds trust, transparency, and mutual understanding.

All of our work, whether it be through developing frameworks (system level) or through specific initiatives co-created with cities/communities, is meant to be adaptive. That means being humble enough to realize where we may be wrong in our approach, but also be proactive in self-reflecting to allow perspectives to influence how we are working. This is not an exercise that should be tied to impact measurement reporting, but rather a culture that needs to be part of everything that we do.

I think the word 'humble' is becoming annoyingly overused :-) It adds only confusion in this context, since defining what humbleness is can be exceedingly subjective. It would be sufficient to be both honest and transparent about all the significant factors, while adding deeper levels of complexity regarding assumptions, methods, and sources as much as the goal and format of the specific instance of impact communication allow.

It is easier to be honest than it is to be humble. Especially when your work, or the work you drove on behalf of a client, has achieved significant social impact. More often than not, social impact comes about through collective effort and shared commitment to creating change for beneficiaries. Focusing on them will keep you humble. Thanking others for the collective effort will keep you honest.

Reconozco los desafíos y aprendizajes en cada proyecto. La humildad y honestidad fortalecen la confianza con la comunidad y los colaboradores, creando una base sólida para la continuidad del impacto social.

Acknowledge both successes and challenges encountered throughout the journey of your social impact work. Embrace a culture of humility, transparency, and accountability in communicating the long-term impact, acknowledging areas for improvement and lessons learned along the way.

What is important is to identify the purpose, the reason why first. Then staying consistent with it. For example, a paint company’s objective is to create beautiful, healthy and safe living spaces. Once this purpose is established, it becomes easy to identity impact initiatives to support. And continue the support showing long term commitment. Stories get created in building and nurturing this long term commitment.

In my experience, there is never a 'right way' to tell your impact story, but there is an optimal way. Telling why you choose to measure, track, and tell your impact is about what your organization is trying to solve for. Noting trade offs is appropriate to give comfort to anyone doing due diligence on your impact thesis, methodology, and management to let them know you were thoughtful in your approach.

To communicate the long-term impact of your social impact work as a marketer, utilize storytelling, data, visuals, partnerships, and transparency. Share real-life stories, data metrics, and visuals to showcase progress and outcomes. Highlight partnerships and collaborations that contribute to sustainability. Be transparent about goals, challenges, and lessons learned to build trust and inspire support for your mission.

When involved in an impact project, you need the help of people mostly especially people who are willing to volunteer and who have the heart of service. This is very important to make a sustainable impact because success cannot be achieved alone without the help of other individuals who have various roles to play.

Remind people where the starting point was, and often. Catalogue and amplify successes along the way. Consistently work-in the storytelling of your impact, less is more here. Repeat.