By Radha MacCulloch, CEO, Specialisterne Canada
How does a social impact organization know that what they are doing is having the intended impact? This is a critical question. We may assume that a particular program, service, or activity is having the intended impact simply because it makes good sense, or that the program and the people behind it have good intentions and want to see positive change.
This is not always the case. Sometimes well-intentioned programs or services may effect little to no change. In extreme cases, they may even cause harm. A Theory of Change may be leveraged as a tool to support organizations in building robust programs and services that achieve their social aims.
Social impact organizations typically look to improve the well-being of individuals, communities and the environment and are often aligned with the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Founded in 2004 in Denmark, Specialisterne is a social impact organization dedicated to advancing neuro-inclusion in the workplace. Today, we have offices in more than 13 countries.
At Specialisterne, we work with neurodivergent individuals, businesses and industry, community organizations, researchers, and academic institutions alike to drive social change through building labor markets where neurodiverse organizations thrive. As a mission-driven organization, our multi-faceted, wraparound approach includes programs and services that directly support neurodivergent job seekers and employees and drive system-level change, locally and globally. In 2024, our team around the world came together to develop both a global Theory of Change that captures our different programs, services, and activities as well as a shared Social Impact Measurement System that will allow us to capture the impact of our work worldwide.
Check out a snapshot of our new Theory of Change.
Specialisterne Theory of Change
Founded in 2004, Specialisterne works with neurodivergent individuals, businesses and industry, community organizations, researchers, and academic institutions alike to drive social change through building labor markets where neuro-inclusive organizations thrive. Our multi-faceted, wraparound approach includes programs and services that directly support individuals and drive system-level change, locally and globally.
Click on the Graphic for a larger view.
Connecting Action to Outcome and Impact
A theory of change (or logic model) supports organizations in building a change effort roadmap – identifying logical connections between our actions and the change we are hoping to achieve.
Creating a theory of change starts with first identifying your organization’s overarching goal, then explores:
- The Situation: What is the current situation that you hope to change?
- Your Inputs: What resources are needed to run the program, service, or initiative?
- Your Activities: What activities are undertaken throughout the program, service, or initiative?
- The Outputs: What are the tangible, concrete outputs or products of your activities?
- The Outcomes: What changes do you expect to occur as a result of the program, service, or initiative? In other words, how will you know if the program has been successful?
- The Impacts: What longer-term changes do you expect to occur as a result of the program, service, or initiative?
Through the exercise of building a change effort roadmap, organizations can identify, refine, and strengthen the connections between inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes, and impacts. In turn, this exercise can reveal gaps and assumptions that can be proactively addressed. For example, you may identify an important desired outcome in your Theory of Change only to realize that it is not directly addressed by any of your current activities. The exercise can also reveal strong hypotheses that can then be evaluated through a coherent social impact measurement system.
Measuring What Matters
As a social impact organization, your Theory of Change can provide the focus and insight needed to identify meaningful indicators of success. But a Theory of Change can also support businesses of all industries in implementing and evaluating programs, activities, or initiatives related to individual, community, or environmental well-being and inclusion.
For example, a business has dedicated considerable resources to delivering education and training on neurodiversity for people managers and Human Resources. How does the business know what the impact of this training and education is? It can start by clearly identifying the goals (the desired outcomes and impacts of the training), ensuring that the education and training activities address the content or topic, and developing unique measures to capture indicators of success. If a key goal of education and training is to support people managers and Human Resources to know how to implement or navigate an employee’s accommodation request, a simple satisfaction survey or webinar attendance report won’t tell you much. Instead, feedback on this specific desired goal should be built into data collection mechanisms.
Finally, it’s important to remember that not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be measured matters. However, establishing meaningful metrics can support you in focusing efforts on what matters most and help your organization to continue evolving, improving, and scaling services and supports.
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