How do you make sure your social impact benefits everyone?

Beyond just understanding your stakeholders, you need to collaborate with them to create an inclusive social impact initiative. An example that readily comes to mind is "The Paris Agreement" In 2015, representatives from 196 countries came together to negotiate and adopt an agreement to fight climate change. This involved major ecosystem actors- governments, NGOs, indigenous groups, business leaders, and scientists. This inclusive approach allowed these stakeholders to voice their concerns and contribute to developing a comprehensive framework for addressing climate-related challenges.

Actually, initiatives might not always benefit everyone or provide benefits equally. Targeted interventions are sometimes needed.

To ensure impactful social change, it's crucial to not only measure the effects of our efforts, but to understand the perspective of the challenges a specific community has. Engaging local stakeholders is key, and focusing our efforts in local high-impact projects. Such projects benefit from direct community input, aligning efforts with specific needs and aspirations. This targeted approach stands out from generic initiatives. Engaging stakeholders fosters trust, ensuring projects are meaningful and sustainable. Combining focused projects with local engagement crafts a tailored journey, leaving a lasting positive impact on empowered individuals.

Just as important as understanding who is included in your social impact work is critically asking who you leave out. Trained in the teachings of Black Feminism and Disability Justice, I see the most impactful social change happens with the most-impacted and most-marginalized people centered, captured by the motto #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs Where do disabled people show up in shaping your social impact work? What about young people? Have you considered access for folks who are undocumented? Folks who are caregivers or working class? This effort to understand your stakeholders - and follow their lead - must be a continuous process.

It's useful to think about how much influence each of your stakeholders has on your impact and vice versa how much influence you have on each stakeholder. This helps with prioritising the stakeholder groups you will track and measure impact for, rather than spreading yourself too thinly and trying to engage all the different stakeholders.

A good way to identify the right goals and indicators is to involve stakeholders in your indicator selection. This collaborative approach will ensure that the indicators selected truly represent the outcomes that the stakeholders value and understand. Water.org is a prime example of an organization that involves stakeholders in its indicator selection process. From the get-go, they involve local residents, community leaders, and women groups in their brainstorming sessions. These stakeholders discuss potential indicators that could measure the success of the project. E.g. increased water access and improved sanitation. This inclusion encourages the community to take ownership of the projects and fosters a sense of commitment.

The Sustainable Development Goals are a marvel of modern cooperative measure. A fun puzzle to play with is to make an intervention as elegant as possible - by a review of how many of the SDGs can be hit with one action.

I recommend developing the theory of change prior to defining indicators. A well crafted ToC will guide you to the most relevant indicators. Many organizations who try to pinpoint all their metrics before this exercise end up realizing they were off target later down the line.

In alignment with actual goals is paving the path for minimum sustainability of impact programs. Such that programs can be sustainable in the bare minimum needs.

As you implement an evaluation plan, it's also important to monitor the feasibility and quality of your data collection. Organizations need to be conscious of the burden that surveys and each additional data point may place on beneficiaries. It's also important to verify that the data collected is accurate - some data collection methods, such as self-reported data, and the wording of survey questions can impact validity.

At evaluation, we need to identify unintended outcomes, both positive and negative one. For identification of counter factual scenario, comparing the performance of project with the performance of peers is one way to do so. Finally, evaluations strive to understand "why", if certain goals were not met.

It can be helpful to think about the best ways to communicate with your various stakeholders and their preferences. The usual rule is to try to “meet people where they are”. For example, it might be that you email some people a newsletter, investors may want a formal report document, while others might prefer a short video shared on social media.

Social Impact is the effect on People and Communities, and that cannot happen unless organisations are thinking of multiple bottom lines. Purpose. Planet. People. Profit. That is where Diversity meets Sustainability.

To ensure your social impact is inclusive and accessible to all, make Inclusive Design a priority. This design approach promotes solutions that accommodate a variety of abilities. Nike is a pro at this. In 2015, the brand introduced the FlyEase line of sneakers, designed with a focus on accessibility for all. The shoes feature a zipper mechanism that allows wearers to wear and take them off easily. That way individuals with limited dexterity or mobility challenges can easily wear them and take them off. This innovation ensures that people with a range of abilities can enjoy fashionable and functional footwear. Please take a moment to read the story behind this line of sneakers and see an example of social impact that benefits all.

Important to remember there will always be changes required - to needs and opportunities. Social impact organisations need to remain flexible, adaptable and reflective - within their framework, reiterating as they go. This can be quite the challenge.

Ensuring that your social impact benefits everyone requires a comprehensive and inclusive approach. Ensure that your initiatives are accessible to individuals with disabilities, both in terms of physical access and information accessibility. Offer materials and communications in multiple languages to cater to diverse linguistic communities. Use clear and simple language to make your message understandable to a wide audience. Consider the economic realities of your target audience and design initiatives that are affordable or offer cost-effective solutions. Empower local individuals and organizations to take ownership of and sustain the impact activities in the long run.