How do we close the loop on impact?

Broken picture of the impact

I have been working in the social impact sector for 7 years now and have witnessed impact narratives for several social purpose organizations. Most of the impact narratives are primarily focused on three anchors:

• Issue: a complex social problem associated with sustainable development goals such as gender equality, climate action, quality education & healthcare, etc.
• Stakeholder: enabling/empowering vulnerable/underprivileged sections of the society such as the street children, girls in human trafficking, children in public schools, geriatric population, etc.
• Geography: broadly defined as aspirational districts, educationally backward blocks, eastern/northeastern states, etc.

One of the common patterns that arise is, most of these impact narratives often exclude/overlook self, the organization, and the ecosystem in which we exist. We come from the same society, use the same resources, and are shaped by the same economic & political construct as is our so-called "target beneficiaries". Often impact narratives are outward-looking and miss out on the inward choices and preferences which leaves the picture broken. For example, I can be a steward of good governance in the ecosystem, but if my own organizational systems are inefficient, that leaves everyone question my preaching in the first place. I can be a proponent of gender equality but if my organization stereotypes roles basis gender it can't get any more hypocritical than this. Practicing what we preach and setting an intention for the same is the only way we would be able to amplify the conviction much needed for enduring social movements.

Need to introduce inward service along with outward altruism

One can obviously question why is it needed and how does it help when as a sector we have better talent, more money, and growing solidarity than ever. Yes, this is perfectly true, however, there are still popular perceptions that this sector has faced time and again, which are:

• NGOs are the best route to convert black money to white money
• NGOs experiment with the local population to garner more funds
• NGOs would have solved the issue of poverty alone if they wanted to (given there is 1 NGO for every 400 people in India)

"It is the reformer who is anxious for the reform, and not society, from which he should expect nothing better than opposition, abhorrence,and even mortal persecution." 

While these myths are true in certain cases, most of the NGOs are set up with altruistic endeavors and no better time than now is a witness to that when we see headlines like "In 13 states, NGOs fed more people than govt did during lockdown". To amplify this positivity, we need SPOs (social purpose organizations) to act with integrity, demonstrate humility and show greater conviction in both speech and deeds irrespective of internal as well as external environment. We need exceptional rigor to practice the values we preach, shed the high pedestal of the "giver" and serve our communities as equals.

While we the new generation "impact professionals" aim to do good and contribute back to society, it is equally important to take stock of our own behavior, organizational choices, ecosystem's stance and uphold the age-old proverb - "charity begins at home".

"you must be the change you want to see in the world" 

Three key steps towards closing the loop on impact

Following are some of the key steps and questions that we need to ask ourselves more often to understand the impact that we aim to create more holistically, a 360-degree view of intentional choices and their external manifestations:

Promote fair employment: The impact sector employs about 150-200 million people (modest estimates) which is 5 times the population of Canada. The central idea here is can we reach a critical mass where local talent can come up and solve local problems in a heuristical way. It is more about promoting employment equity, wherein the question we need to ask ourselves is are we giving fair chance for local talent to get employed or relying on fancier IVY league degrees to solve our problems. This is also a way in which we intake talent and give back to the communities we serve. Some of the indicators that we should look out for to assess fair employment and promotion of talent are:

• Caste profiles of our employees/leadership
• Gender profiles of our employees/leadership
• Reliance on meritocracy than diversity

Serve as equals: A lot of times we keep ourselves on a moral high pedestal or eulogize ourselves as the "givers" since we are doing something for someone, touching lives positively and alleviating someone out of misery. The central idea here is to ask ourselves what are we getting in return - it can be peace, satisfaction, the feel-good factor, a sense of giving back, learning to live harmoniously, etc. It about being grateful about getting the opportunity to serve, rooting our purpose in ourselves, and being cognizant about what we take from the communities we serve. Some of the indicators we should watch out for are:

• Glorification of the contribution
• "US" versus "Them" narrative
• Grounding and humility

Adopt people first approaches: Keeping people at the center of the development process has been a longstanding practice in the impact sector. However, there have been recent reports on rising levels of stress among the employees in the development sector both among the frontline as well office workers. The central idea here is to ask ourselves about development at the cost of what and it should definitely not be at the cost of our people. While we deeply care about the wellbeing of the communities we serve, it should not be at the cost of the wellbeing of our people including all forms i.e. social, economic, physical, and mental wellbeing. Realizing a people-first approach would in turn help us to act with more conviction and build a happier and more content society as we have dreamt for. Some of the indicators we should watch out for are:

• Under-employment and substandard payment
• Employee happiness and mental wellbeing
• Glorification of long working hours

While we have transcended well from the 90-degree philanthropy (charity) to 180-degree philanthropy (impact), it is of paramount importance that we close the loop by integrating an "inward service" approach with our "outward altruistic endeavors" in the coming years.