How to design social impact to win support
Inspiration versus Sustainability
Humans are interesting. Despite our social and environmental challenges, we don’t like to give up. Our spirit to make things better and solve problems drives us to improve support services and develop new programs.
I’ve seen and experienced good intention across many non-profit and for-purpose organisations. Committed people were having great ideas for nature conservation, youth education, migrant and refugee support, environmental sustainability, creative arts, youth employment and sports development.
These are diverse sectors with one thing in common. They struggle to make their good ideas first sustainable, and then scalable.
I’ve worked with many experienced practitioners who often have a critical missing ingredient: the skills to design and prove social or environmental impact.
No matter who your supporters and funders are, philanthropists, businesses, governments and investors, they are all seeking a measure of success. They want to see the results and celebrate your success.
Design with intention
In all great work, your process and perseverance are the drivers to create or adapt a social change program from nothing. In other words, design with intention.
Be intentional in your approach from the very beginning. Use design thinking like the best social program designers. This worked powerfully for me. To design the Sticking Together Project I led a team using a human-centred design process. Starting from scratch, and going against the grain of accepted wisdom, this project became a $10 million social impact investment.
Begin by focussing on the real problem. There is no substitute for involving potential users of your service in its design. There are many ways to involve potential participants in your programs in the design or redesign of a service. Behavioural design is a comprehensive, step-by-step method to diagnose and understand a problem before leaping into the solution.
Ethnography is often used to study people living in the situation you are seeking to change. This video has great practical techniques for collecting information from the field.
Design thinking has one major foundation: curiosity. I’ve found the two most important design skills are asking thoughtful open-ended questions and listening intently to the answers. A tip here is that the first answer may only the first layer of the full answer, so take an interest and ask more questions. I love the Five Whys technique to uncover a full set of motivators behind every answer.
Ask yourself whether there is existing research that confirms the need for the program or, better still, research that has tested components of the delivery method or the techniques being used. This is important to underpin the quality of your design work and to inform the outcomes measures you select. Prior research is also compelling for funders as it reduces their risk that your new approach may not perform.
Armed with a deep understanding of the problem, and some ideas about your solution, you’re ready to develop a theory of change. My advice is to keep this simple and use it to articulate the essential activities of your solution and how they lead to action by participants that produces your desired outcomes. Taking this approach ensures you focus on the critical part — how is the change created.
No matter what your solution at this point, it won’t be perfect, mainly because you have only interviewed people and put your thinking into a model. It’s time to test.
Using lean design is the perfect way to accelerate your learning. Build, measure and learn is the mantra for developing your prototype service and getting it into the field to understand how it performs. This is an iterative process, where measured results from each test inform improvements and lead to a better performing solution. This may need to go through a few loops. Do these quickly, perfection is not the goal, its fast feedback. When your outcomes are matching your theory of change, or at least flattening out at an acceptable level, you’re ready for the next stage.
Now you have arrived at product-market fit. It’s a leading determinant of success for any social program whether in a not-for-profit organisation, a for-profit purpose business, or a social enterprise. The evidence collected from testing tells you the problem is real and your solution addresses it in a significant way. That’s the fit.
Document all you have developed in a logic model. This an invaluable tool to clarify your thinking. It’s most impressive feature is forcing you to differentiate between the outputs of your program and the outcomes. Both should have metrics or indicators that you develop, but remember it’s the outcomes that supporters will pay for and ultimately determine if you have the ingredients to be sustainable.
As you design, iterate and test think about how to share the journey in a reflective practice. I found that a blog reviewing activities in real-time is an excellent tool to assess what worked, what could be improved and modifications to make moving forward. Reflecting on the blog posts in joint meetings of the project team and service delivery team yielded even more practical insights, was a great way to celebrate successes and sharpen views on improvements. One reflective practitioner says simply, “we must learn to cultivate empathy for each other”.
Working in real-time is the key. Fast feedback loops during design, through weekly actions and outcomes reviews focus attention on real feedback from service users and staff. I’ve used deep analytics for quarterly reflection workshops where standing back and looking at how well the service delivery practice is following the theory of change helped us to make good adjustments based on evidence. We also asked program participants and supporters (ie employers) to present us their personal accounts of involvement to add direct richness to the feedback from our field staff.
Measure what matters, right now
I’m a big fan of reverse engineering. In a social program, make a best case view of what final success looks like for participants. Think about how to measure their outcomes. Then build the program design to match these outcomes. Stage your effort to capture early measures indicating you’re on track to the big goals. This builds confidence in your internal team and stakeholders.
Every individual has a unique experience in your program but your measurement process needs to be consistent. Measuring outcomes isn’t an afterthought. Compelling data that will bring your story of change to life.
Clear and measurable outcomes are essential. Narrow down measures to show progress for both individuals (participant level) and the whole group (problem level).
As an example, in youth unemployment I measured job readiness for individuals and hours in work per week for the whole group.
We spent time with young unemployed people to understand what mattered to them. Government employment services measured continuous weeks in work. Young people were more concerned about how many hours they worked each week, sometimes in two or more jobs. It’s the money from hours worked that pays the bills. So we chose hours as our major measure.
A reliable data collection method is imperative. For us, this started out as Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. This was cumbersome but reliable and we planned for it to be short term. Our quality data helped us secure a philanthropic grant to build an app and data system that streamlined the data collection process.
Often program designers get hung up about evaluation. It’s important, but usually takes time to produce useful results and can be expensive. Real-time data collection is far more valuable. You want to know how your program performed last week and in total for all the weeks since you started. This immediate data, combined with your qualitative program insights, will help you to forecast results at the end of a program cycle.
Know your cycle within a program and the key measures along its way. It could be the end of a learning or mentoring period. It could be the completion of a significant client milestone, like gaining employment. There are always logical end points to a cycle for a client — the program may not have finished but the service period for an individual has.
Outcomes need to be repeatable over time and your data will show you this is happening, or not! Positive outcomes across a program show a robust theory of change. When your program responds well for many participants, in different conditions and locations, it is road tested. Key outcomes data is the only way to know.
Good data collection and measurement systems are simple and quick to design. A results survey, simple outcomes analysis process and outcomes dashboard are a starter. Create these within a few days using a powerful tool like Google Forms and Google Sheets (free with a Google account). Benefits are easy use and access by staff and clients from anywhere at any time on a laptop, tablet or mobile phone.
Without measuring outcomes in real-time you can’t improve your program right now when it’s needed. Looking longer term, this evidence impresses funders and bolsters your client stories. The best stories are in balance: driven by our hearts and sustained by our heads. Attracting backers who stay with you will need both.
The key to support: who’s on your side?
Any great sports team or performer knows the importance of their support team and their fans.
First up, the support team generates belief in progress and reality of the goal. Communicate with them often and in different ways. Presentations, workshops, photo essays, blogs and video are all vibrant ways to share the message. I made a web series of 5 minute episodes tracking participants in a project every 3 months for 14 months.
Be a beacon of positive news about how the project’s design is leading to outcomes. The more you show how each step is working, the more likely it is to continue. Audiences include people close to the project, directors and board members, and more distant staff. Think about how someone in information technology, marketing or finance wants to hear about progress. You’re likely to need to enlist their help if you haven’t already.
Remember the core project team is the major driver of success. Involve them in sharing the story to develop their skills and profile. It also increases their buy-in to the project’s goals.
In a startup design phase, I like adaptable people ready to interpret early outcomes and solve problems. People curious and comfortable with ambiguity, tackle actions and drive results.
External supporters want to know the benefits for them. This group includes funders, delivery partners, governments, research partners, private investors and contractors.
They know there are gaps across social and environmental services and want to hear your new approach. You may be an intrapreneur inside a service organisation tackling blind spots in traditional thinking. You may be an entrepreneur addressing a neglected service user segment because you can see a better solution. Both these challenges are the same — you need external supporters. The good news is there are many factors aligning to help you.
Let’s look at some facts:
- social investors say a shortage of good, investable services is why their investments in social programs remain small
- few organisations delivering social change programs have sophisticated design methods
- fewer social change organisations understand robust outcomes measurement, tracking, analysis and reporting
- social investors demand high product standards, such as alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Respond to these needs by designing a social impact program with a strong message of intention from the very beginning. Supporters are attracted to good processes that minimise the risk of their involvement. Then share your wins and learning along the way to limit surprises and gain their trust.
It’s all about relationships — creating them and nurturing them.
Always be thinking about conversion
Conversion is any tangible form of committed support. This may be direct funding, resources or partnerships. Conversion is moving from a conversation, enthusiastic interest over coffee, or a proposal request, to a formal commitment. The shorter the time between these two points, the higher the probability of conversion. People are busy and the presenter of the next brilliant idea is never far away. This is good reason to be ready with your proven theory of change and real-time performance evidence. They make it possible for you to react quickly and substantially.
If you have a comprehensive method to collect outcomes evidence, this becomes a proof of value which makes your program worthy of support.
Being investable means minimising risk, for both you and your financial supporters. A repeatable service delivery model minimises risk. Exceptional staff recruitment minimises risk. A continuous improvement process using real-time feedback from clients and staff minimises risk.
This structure leads to dependable results. It quietens doubts in the minds of funders and shifts their focus to supporting your positive performance.
This may sound a little dry and it is. On the flip side, we know first impressions within the first thirty seconds of meeting you are critical. Your listener is determining in those 30 seconds if they trust you and whether they respect your capability. The rest of the time they mentally justify this first impression. I found that focusing your first 30 seconds on making a strong connection works. Your facts become a support later during their justification process.
Believe in your design and measurement process. If it tells you to change the program, then do it. Test and iterate. Watch for the outcomes signals that are the early indicators your program is working. Then be ready to pitch your effectiveness to every current and potential supporter. This is the true making of a sustainable and scalable project.
