We bring a diversity of tools to our work. Each is thoughtfully chosen to ensure that our partners and clients achieve their intended goals, and can quantify, qualify and tell the story of that impact.
The tools that we use to support organisations and collectives in their quest for impact include:
Storytelling
Telling stories of impact connects and inspires people across cultures, generations or circumstance. Stories present new, different perspectives, encouraging reflection, promoting learning and enabling new forms of practice.
We can work with your organisation or collective to identify and capture the essence of your resonant stories of change, hope and impact, so that you can communicate in ways that inspire, inform and ignite others to act.
Example: Growing Intergenerational Wealth
Policy Research & Design
We undertake research and produce publications to inform and influence public policy debates, and to influence policy decision-making for the greater public good. Our policy suggestions emerge out of deep engagement with key stakeholders affected by existing policy.
We employ a wide range of research methods and work collaboratively with diverse partners to establish strong collaborations and a wide perspective. In this way we move policy ideas from 'what is' to 'what could be', ensuring that they are practically implementable and that they address barriers to benefit.
Example: SiMODiSA: Accelerating the growth of small and medium enterprises in South Africa.
Strategic Planning for Sustainable Change
We work with partners and funders to find the 'why', 'what' and 'how' to address some of the complex challenges inhibiting sustainable change. We will design a strategic plan for your impact intention using a results-based approach to programming, including a Theory of Change or a Future-Focused Materiality Assessment.
These tools take account of where you want to be and then work backwards to plan what to do and how to get there. This enables both accountability and learning so that you can be responsive and achieve your intended impact.
Programme Design
Much of our work is dedicated to creating programmes, courses and curricula to meet our clients' specific needs. In all cases, we give careful attention to process and flow, in order to ensure the programmes meet multifaceted and often complex, competing needs.
Whether it be a learning journey to convey and experience a specific concept or a seminar-based interactive discussion on behaviours and dilemma, our expertise in programme design can assist.
Example: Cedar House: Reimagining a sustainable future.
Impact Assessment
Our impact assessment offering allows our partners to more formally evaluate the impact of their actions, to understand critical issues of relevance that may have intended or unintended consequences, and to review, refine or refocus programmes where necessary.
Our due diligence processes lead the field of impact assessment and reporting, and provide significant support to both social (grant) and impact investors seeking to identify and vet suitable opportunities for their portfolios.
We use established social research methodologies together with tools we have developed in-house over more than fifteen years in the socio-economic development sector. These include both a capacity diagnostic tool and a risk assessment tool that seeks to evaluate factors such as purpose, feasibility, viability, capacity and credibility, of an investment at an organisational and project level. Importantly, our consideration of social impact takes into account the depth, breadth, concentration, urgency, need and permanence of a programme or intervention.
