Why I focus on amplifying the social impact of others rather than delivering outcomes directly to end users

16 May 2024

DALL-E generated image of a simple and colorful abstract image depicting the interconnectedness of an ecosystem. (Try this prompt for yourself, what image do you get?)

I start, participate in and run social ventures. Yet, none of the ventures I am involved in deliver outcomes directly to end users. I don’t run a coffee shop that alleviates homelessness (think the excellent Change Please), help young people from low-income backgrounds to get to top universities (think the award-winning Zero Gravity) or support refugees and young asylum seekers to access training and employment (think of the tasty Breadwinners). However, I do support other organisations to amplify or accelerate their outcomes.

This did not happen on purpose. Rather, problems presented themselves that needed to be urgently solved but those problems were related to supporting other organisations in their missions. At Works For All, together with the team, I amplify social impact through providing organisations with the skillset and processes to meet the needs of the communities they work with. Whilst at This Chat Helps, we support social sector advisors to accelerate the outcomes they deliver for their clients.

In both of these cases, I am supporting organisations as the primary stakeholder so they can amplify their social impact.

This feels right.

Yet, it causes a few difficulties in really understanding my own organisations’ social impact. Working through our Theory of Change, understanding our contribution to outcomes, and trying to determine our social return on investment (SROI) is complex. None of this is ever simple, I’m sure. But, it is not possible for us to establish a complete attribution of our activities to the ultimate outcomes delivered for end-users. It is only really possible to partially determine the contribution we have made to the delivery of outcomes by third-party services.

Does this matter? Perhaps not. But, as stated by Jeremy Nicholls, just because measuring social impact is messy, it’s not an excuse to not measure it.

What is true though is that contribution to social impact is as valuable as complete ownership of that social impact. It’s unlikely that any organisation (except maybe in emergency relief situations) are able to attribute their activities completely to the outcomes delivered to end users. And so, I feel energised to continue supporting organisations in their great work and their delivery of social impact. We’re all part of the ecosystem nudging towards better.