How can you drive social impact in policy and practice?

In my experience people can be reluctant to set impact targets as above- particularly when it comes to policy change. It’s slow and sometimes hard to measure. My perspective is to always set the targets anyway and allow checkpoints for emerging information to allow you to adapt.

I would do this. Do this. Don’t not do not this thing. Happens when you do or don’t something some times but it’s not the no don’t. End.

Vision: "A world where every child has access to quality education, regardless of their background or location." Goals: "Increase literacy rates in underserved communities by 20% within the next three years."

Defining the organization’s mission and goals is comparable to establishing the North Star for your social enterprise. This clarity in identifying the North Star should stem from evidence-based information on gaps and systemic constraints/opportunities making some groups more vulnerable to certain risks and challenges.

It will also serve as a guiding compass when challenges arise, helping you stay on track. By articulating your vision, you inspire and motivate others to join your cause. Goals, meanwhile, give a tangible target to work towards and provide milestones to celebrate progress. They act as a roadmap, ensuring efforts remain focused and resources are efficiently utilized. This foundational clarity not only garners support but also holds you accountable to the impact you aim to create.

Related to stakeholder identification in driving social impact policy and practice, my experiences from my work in my country Nigeria as well as in some parts of East Africa highlights the importance of having “champions” within the government who can help drive and promote social impact policy so it’s mainstreamed as an investment policy. These champions may sometimes be influential members of the government or in some cases private sector leaders who can garner support at the highest levels in government. Use a ‘champion’ where possible!

Yes yes yea! I would want a new car and I want a car that I could drive and have fun and be able drive around the city with a good friend of my family in my car that would make a good driver for a long haul but not for long term travel so I’m just trying not be so selfish about my life right there now I just want a new one that is a little bit better for my kids.

To develop and test solutions, it’s important to clearly articulate your business model, showing how your social enterprise will create, capture, and deliver value. Your business model will also help identify resources and capacities required. The business model canvas is a popular tool that helps in achieving this. To design and develop solutions that are user-centric, it’s critical to first evaluate the desirability of the solution with users before establishing the feasibility and viability of the idea. Embedding feedback mechanisms in the product development process such as through user satisfaction surveys is also key to product iterations and adaptations to context and the environment.

Some ways I could have done this without a lot more effort but it would be better to just have the same amount as a full body workout with no more effort in it than just doing a half and half marathon with a half and then doing the full body half marathon in a week and then a full marathon with no extra training to go on it for a full week.

Using credible, verifiable and authentic data - quantitative and qualitative- is sine qua non to telling a credible impact story and advocating for policy adoptions and adjustments. While quant data is crucial in telling stories around things like outreach numbers, qual data is imperative for including the human angle to your story, essentially showing the depth of engagement. It’s important to combine and use both types of data to communicate your impact. This data can then be interpreted and used to develop policy briefs and advocacy recommendations to policymakers and other stakeholders in the social enterprise ecosystem.

Learning is even better when done together with stakeholders. Consider ways to involve stakeholders in monitoring and evaluation.

Engaging multiple stakeholders regarding the issue is important. Furthermore, one has to make sure not to dominate the space in the social impact space, as it does not have to be a popularity contest. In my social impact work in university, I was focusing on food insecurity work, and at times, I was overbearing and didn't understand others perspectives. When I was able to adapt to bring more voices in, our movement was able to accomplish so much more, and myself and our group were awarded for our efforts. Be mission driven, not driven for self gain, as I once was in my early social impact endeavors.

I would like to add to the above that the first time you did it I was very happy to hear from him about it I was so glad that he did not get the money he needed and that you did it and I was so grateful for it I love it so very very happy to see him and you have the same energy as him I know I would be happy for you and I know that he will love it but you don’t want it and you have a good time.