Measuring your social impact: Theory of Change

The Theory of Change forms the backbone of any social impact measurement system. It links the day to day activities in your organisation to your overall mission or long term goals. This is a key step in deciding what you will need to measure to evidence your social impact.

[shahabuddin]

Transcript:
Theory of change (Impact Chain)
So what exactly is the theory of change or impact chain? Well the theory of change forms the backbone of any social impact measurement system and is massively useful. It’s basically visualization of how the day-to-day activities of an organization relate their overall mission or long-term goals in terms of outcome for the areas they work in and is key in deciding on what exactly should be measured in an organization. Well that’s a theory of it but now you actually use it.
Let’s use our favorite rooftop garden project to get started if you remember the rooftop garden project works with people with learning disabilities providing a space where they learn to garden in groups giving them a change to be outside learn new skills and to socialize. So how should Theresa the CEO go about putting her theory of change down well.

In practice it is best to do in a group workshop because you need multiple perspectives to get a complete pictures. Get some staff, some trustees, some primary and even some secondary beneficiaries involved if possible. For Theresa that means group facilitator, gardeners, clients, carers and parents to come to her workshop.

The first thing to do is to get down what rooftop garden project does on a daily weekly and monthly basis that contribute directly to their mission. For the rooftop garden project these activities are group gardening and train with clients and social events with clients. The next part is to brainstorm on what exactly these activities bring about in the beneficiaries. Theresa has seen that many clients have lost weight after coming on the program because of physical work and so mentioned improved health as an outcome and weight loss as a medium-term output. A parent mentions that has some sleep patterns a much better. He doesn’t get woken up as much. A facilitator mentions that their clients have improved their fitness level. So why did these come about because of physical activity which is due to the rooftop garden project running group gardening and training.

Another theory of changes at the program allows better relationships with friends and family. Why because the client is less likely to throw tantrums and performs other types of antisocial behavior. Why is that because their social skills have improved due to the social nature of group gardening and social events also. The clients are more tired after day’s gardening and less bored today.

How two examples of theory of change or impact chains these both relate to the mission statement because they are providing a more life for the persons with disabilities which is part of the mission statement