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Sofiya Shaginyan
Program manager, Reach for Change
The Reach for Change Foundation’s Incubator program is designed for projects at the early development stage. It is attended by 12 to 22 participants each year. We distinguish two groups of stakeholders in assessing social impact. The first group includes the impact projects, the second one is children and young people who are the beneficiaries of the impact projects[4].
For impact projects, the short-term social impact goal is to strengthen their organizational capacity, and the long-term goal is ensuring survivability and scalability.
For children and youth, short- and long-term goals for improvement of their lives are defined by what is known as the “Theory of Change” of impact projects. With this approach, the participants construct hypotheses for change in children’s lives, attach indicators and metrics, and devise data collection tools and plans.
The program participants provide data on the number of children and cases of changes in children’s lives three times a year, and social impact assessment data at the end of the first or in some cases second year of the project.
We track the development of the organizational capacity of impact projects using a tool called the Development Tracker.
The Tracker measures development in five areas:
• social impact;
• financial sustainability;
• leadership and team;
• social impact scaling;
• systemic changes.
Each sphere has its own subgoals. At the begi
To track the development of organizational capacity, the Foundation also collects certain quantitative indicators from participants and analyzes their growth and multiplicity. Besides the number of children, these indicators include the number of staff and volunteers, financial performance, and project coverage.
The dynamics of project development, measured through quantitative indicators, vary from year to year, but based on data from previous years, we can say that the number of children receiving support traditionally at least doubles every year (for projects that were past the idea or prototype stage when joining the program).
To track project survival and scalability, we survey the alumni of the Incubator program every two years. And to isolate the Foundation’s contribution, we ask participants to separately assess our program’s impact on their development.
Here is a short listing of the assessment tools used by the Foundation:
• Development Tracker;
• Special reporting forms and surveys;
• Social impact cases;
• Internal research;
• Interviews with impact entrepreneurs, mentors, and other stakeholders;
• Program alumni surveys, a bie
To learn more about the social impact assessment system and program results, check our a
It is important to emphasize that to enter the Incubator program, participants go through a lengthy selection process where they have to prove the effectiveness of their project in solving the problems of children or young people. Throughout the year in the program, we gather their data continuously, including information that, among other things, reflects changes in the lives of the children: the participants provide social impact cases three times a year, describing how the children’s lives change. These cases are based on interviews with the child or his or her representative (parents, guardians, specialists) and follow a predefined structure.
We also collect data three times a year on the number of children receiving support. At the end of the first, or in some cases, second year of participation in the program, the participants provide social impact assessment data, i.e., changes in the lives of children/community, reflected through specific indicators or metrics.
The alumni receive a shorter questio
I have already mentioned the need for impact projects to adopt theory of change. I want to emphasize that this is a tool that is used by many infrastructure organizations working with social entrepreneurs both in Russia and around the world. We consider our experience of using this tool, as well as that of our colleagues, as extremely positive.
The theory of change helps impact projects, especially in early stages of development:
• to recognize and structure changes in the lives of their beneficiaries and the society (often referred to as social results and effects in Russia);
• to adjust the evaluation system accordingly;
• to build the organization’s development and product strategy. The theory of change makes it possible to model the future, and based on this make changes to the project in the present. However, it is important to realize that this is just a useful tool, not a magic pill.
The main challenge for the social entrepreneur is balancing social impact goals captured by the theory of change, against financial and organizational sustainability goals, given the opportunities and constraints of a changing environment. That is a daunting task.
In our programs, the theory of change is a mandatory work tool for the participants. Each year, up to 50 semifinalists in the Pre-Incubator training course and later in the Incubator program formulate hypotheses and complete an evaluation system and a project development plan based on this tool.
Social impact assessment in both social entrepreneurship and social projects will always depend on:
• project development stages: a social startup has very different approaches, demands, and opportunities at the idea stage and at the sustainable development stage;
• the area of impact – for example, the requirements of evidence-based approach and measurability of results in medicine and rehabilitation are and/or should be stricter;
• stakeholder requirements – if your partner or donor expects complete or at least partial clarity of the results, this will inevitably affect you;
• motivation of the project leader and/or team and their involvement in the assessment process – any assessment risks ending up in misrepresentation if it is not backed by a sincere intrinsic motivation to understand how things really are moving.
Many people talk about the existing problems associated with social impact assessment. We would like to note some progress: assessment tools will continue to develop in the social sector; databases are being collected and systematized on the basis of real-life cases, including those proven effective; standards and regulations are being elaborated.
It is encouraging that an ever-growing number of projects and programs are striving to comply with the principles of evidence-based approach, and it makes absolutely no difference whether it is a social entrepreneur or another socially significant project, if they have the same goal – achieving a social effect[6].
4
Since 2012, Reach for Change has been helping develop projects by social (impact) entrepreneurs, which are aimed at improving the quality of life of children and youth throughout Russia.
5
Social Impact Report 2020–2021. Retrieved from: https://fond-navstrechu.ru/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/otchet-01.06.pdf (accessed: 27.09.2022). (In Russian).
6
To read about the projects supported by the Reach for Change Foundation and their social impact, visit https://fond-navstrechu.ru/category/blog/.