WEEK 5 :  Solution and Impact Evaluation

 

Main Ideas and Topics of the Week:

This week we considered 6 questions-

1.    Why is it important to measure impact

2.    How do you measure impact

3.    Does the solution work

4.    How well does it work

5.    Does it work the way it was designed

6.    Are there intended positive or negative results

 

It can be difficult in social innovation to come up with a solution that works and doesn’t end up creating more problems.  Impact is crucial to the survival and success of social innovation.  If you want results you have to measure outputs, outcomes and impact.  

Outputs:  These are the activities done by an organization and are easy to count.

Outcomes:  These are the observed effects of the outputs and are more difficult to measure.

Impact:  This is the “degree to which the outcomes observed by an organization are attributable to its activities.”  These are very difficult to measure and require analysis. 

 

If the impact is most important, how do we create and measure social impact? We follow the social impact creation cycle.

 What will you invest?

What problem will you address?

What steps will you take?

How will you measure success?

How can you increase impact?

(Begin at the top)


Having a clear and concise mission statement is a great way to keep any organization on target.  The Mulago Foundation suggests keeping it to an 8 word statement following the pattern of verb, a target population, and an outcome that implies something to measure. For example, “Get Zambian farmers out of pverty.”  This statement tells exactly what the organization sets out to do and is a great starting point for subsequent conversations. 

 

Reflection:

One video we watch was about lasting impact. In this video it introduced four questions all social organizations should ask itself:

1.    Real need

2.    Does it work

3.    Can it get to those who need it

4.    Is it used correctly

 

They used the example of the life-straw, a large straw with a filter in it.  It was marketed as a solution to the 1 billion people in the world who don't have clean water. It lasts for about a year and then you have to buy a new one. It was intended that you would hang it around your neck so that you'd have it handy if those in need came across water.

 

In reviewing the questions to reveal impact here’s what they found:

 

Real need? Yes, everybody needs water. 

 

Does it work? Yes and no. It filters out 99.99 percent of all the pathogens that are major causes of diarrhea. But it only filters about a hundred CCS a minute. The suggested two liters a day that everyone should be getting takes 20 minutes a day.

 

Did it get to the people who need it? The wholesale cost is about five bucks. “If you make two bucks a day, that's seven days work. If you're here making 20 bucks an hour, that means seven days. That's over a 1000 bucks. Would you pay a 1000 bucks for this thing especially when you have to buy another one next year?”

 

Is it used correctly? No. One study looked at community use, only thirteen percent of people even claimed they use this, and you can assume that means lot less actually did it.

Despite Forbes magazine saying the life straw is “One of 10 things that will change the way we live” the life straw has a long way to go to achieve the impact it was intending. 

 

Writing Prompt:

Reflect on the article “Hurling and Community Service” and how you set goals.

 

The article critiques the adage of the starfish.  The story goes that a person is running, hurling starfish back into the ocean after a storm put them onto the beach.  Another person asks the first person what they are doing and states that they can’t possibly put all the starfish back implying their effort isn’t making a difference.  The first person replies that it makes a difference to the one he threw back in and continues down the beach.

 

The author suggests that this story doesn’t account for the overall impact in five ways:

1.    It is about a problem that is apolitical

2.    It is not about helping people- which doesn’t address who deserves our help.

3.    Avoids the complexity of ecology

4.    Suggests we should work from an emotional response.

5.    It avoids community service and focuses on random, individual acts of kindness.

 

After reviewing this article I think that the author has valid points about making sure our goals are not just written and executed with the start and finish in mind, but the overall impact of what that goal has the potential to do.

 

When I make a goal now, I will intentionally set the goal as well as write down possible impacts.  Will I always get the impact right, no.  Will the impact be discouraging to making goals, possibly?  But anything worth doing is worth the effort of looking at impact.

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