Tool Description
An online interactive questionnaire (https://koinonikosantiktypos.gov.gr) addressed to SSE initiatives, to capture and calculate the social consequences of a team activities/project, based on the Theory of Change and the 7 Principles of Social Value (principles that, if applied, allow to create a consistent and credible account of the changes that stakeholders experience in their lives).
The team is asked a series of open questions going backwards as in the Theory of Change (starting from the overall goal, the objectives and finally the steps that need to be taken in order to eventually reach the set goal).
Questions are divided into 9 steps, each having an overall main question that is broken down into more detailed questions:
- Intro questions about the project main components (duration, if it’s completed or ongoing, target groups etc)
- What is the social aim of your team and how to you approach it?
- Who experiences changes in their lives as result of what you do? (stakeholders)
- What changes do the stakeholders experience?
- How can we measure the changes and how far they have been taking place?
- How much does each change really come as a result of your activities?
- For how long do we need to measure changes?
- How important are these changes?
- Results, where the team is presented with the complete picture of the answers given and is in a position to see where they have more/less/better/etc social impact, where they need to focus in order to increase the social value of their project, decide what information is relevant to use for the purpose of this impact assessment.
It is accompanied by: 1) a guide explaining why those questions are asked at that specific moment, whether more background information can be useful to better understand the question (with links and explanations); 2) a glossary of terms with short explanations.
Aims
To help a team to measure the impact of the changes brought by their activities, to adapt the activities so to get a greater social impact with the available resources, or simply to get acquainted with including social impact factors when planning a project.
Recommended for
As a simulation (a facilitator might be needed if the participants are beginners): to become familiar with a mindset that helps you take into account the impact of the activities you plan. Using a real life situation (no need of a facilitator if the team is intermediate) and having already a main idea and a clear vision/mission on the table: - when planning future activities (specific projects or even the overall workplan of the coop), to clarify and specify the expected impact and how to achieve it. - when the activity/project is ongoing, to readjust the strategy on the way - when new people enter the team and it’s needed to clarify, review, adjust the strategy of the project.
Duration
From 2 hours to various days, depending on how much the team wants to actively involve external stakeholders in the process.
Material needed
List of questions - access to the online questionnaire Post its, flipchart papers etc. The whole (core) team participating. Enough time to answer collectively as much detailed as possible, and to involve the beneficiaries, clients or other stakeholders in the process
Links and downloads
- Open section of the tool, no log in needed: https://koinonikosantiktypos.gov.gr/#!/about
- About Theory of Change, short intro video in English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJDN0cpxJv4
- About Principles of Social Values, in English: https://socialvalueint.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Principles-of-Social-Value_Pages.pdf
Created by
Developed by “Social Value UK” and Greek coop “Sociality. Commissioned by the British Council as part of a support package for social economy for the Greek ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.