You are Passionate, But What's Your Theory of Change?

You are Passionate, But What's Your Theory of Change?

How many times have we run off to change the world with just passion?

Sometime in October 2015, I planned to start a health and safety organization to teach people about safety in order to reduce preventable injuries and deaths from accidents in the workplace. This inspiration came after an inability to secure a health and safety role outside my role in an airline at the time. Over the next few months, I ran with the idea, incorporated it, and set up a website. I had a few sessions in schools, but the kind of business I was expecting wasn’t coming. I signed up for a coaching program, worked with more coaches, did some personal learning on online learning platforms, and realized what was missing. I didn’t do enough problem probing and didn’t articulate my theory of change and logic model. As I began to apply what I was learning, I noticed that it refined what I wanted the organization to be about (child safety), it attracted some funding, and it provided big-picture ideas for the future.

How many times have we run off to change the world with just passion and no defined documented strategy? When impact investors look at an impact-oriented organization, they always start by thinking “impact first.” How is this organization making a social impact? Is it a positive social impact or a negative social impact? A positive social impact is what we need to make the world a better place because there are too many challenges, and governments alone cannot solve them. Such a positive social impact cannot be achieved haphazardly. This is why we need more impact-oriented organizations with a defined impact roadmap. 

According to Daniil Filipenco, the top 10 world problems for 2024 are climate change, war and military conflicts, water contamination, human rights violations, global health issues, global poverty, children’s poor access to health, education, and safety, access to food and hunger, migration, and weapons accessibility. I have followed Daniil’s lists of world problems, and as usual, his highlights are echoed across several publications on current global issues. Basically, we are not short of real problems in the world today. Therefore, organizations that can provide a solution that eradicates or reduces the negative effects of these global issues will be a darling for impact investors focused on funding solutions in that space. 

To make a positive impact in society and solve the difficult and wicked societal problems plaguing the world, you must build on the right foundation. I believe the right theory of change and logic model is that foundation. Otherwise, how would you measure a social impact goal that you didn’t set? This must be properly documented in your organization. There is something about thinking through a goal thoroughly and documenting it that pushes you to automaticity. This means that consciously and unconsciously, you begin to work towards achieving that goal, and if you never saw the document you wrote previously, you’d still achieve it. That is the power of thinking about something in-depth and documenting it. This is what can happen if you thoroughly think through and document your organization’s theory of change and logic model. 

What is a theory of change and a logic model?

According to Carol Weiss (1995), the “theory of change is an explicit process of thinking through and documenting how a program or intervention is supposed to work, why it will work, who it will benefit (and in what way) and the conditions required for success.” In this SoPact guide, the theory of change is described as “... a systematic approach that enables organizations to articulate their vision for change, define desired outcomes, and strategize the necessary steps to achieve them. It serves as a roadmap, illuminating the causal relationships between inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes. By mapping out these connections, organizations comprehensively understand how change happens and can effectively plan their interventions.” 

On the other hand, a logic model is a visual representation of the theory of change. It is mostly linear, where it is assumed that one thing leads to another, but some non-linear models exist. Sometimes the theory of change and the logic model are used interchangeably, but they are different. Today, we can all agree that they provide direction for where an organization wants to go in the long term and are building blocks for positive social impact. 

Some key concepts to note in a theory of change and logic model:

  1. Inputs: This refers to the resources you will need to execute the key activities in your organization. For example, competent staff.
  2. Activities: This refers to the specific actions you will take that have the potential to lead you to your desired outcomes if your assumptions check out. For example, conducting training workshops.
  3. Outputs: This refers to immediate results/evidence of the activities undertaken. For example, the number of workshop participants.
  4. Outcomes: This refers to the intended or unintended change that happens as a result of the activities/intervention. For example, increased knowledge of workshop participants.
  5. Impact: This refers to the overall transformational change you are trying to achieve with your work.
  6. Assumptions: This refers to the conditions that should be true for the theory of change to achieve its desired outcomes. For example, participants are willing and engaged in the training workshops.

Let’s work through an example. Imagine that the theory of change of The Safety Chic is just one sentence:

“To reduce the rate of unintentional injuries affecting young children and improve overall child wellbeing in Africa, The Safety Chic will develop innovative safety education products, organize capacity building sessions, and build relevant global partnerships that support child safety and advocacy.”

It tells us the impact they are trying to make, why they are trying to make it, and how they are planning to make it. Their logic model might look like this:


Based on the foregoing, it is clear that well-defined outcomes lead to impact, and there must be a shift in focus from measuring just outputs to measuring outcomes. This is crucial for storytelling and demonstrating impact to funders. Today's highlighted resource will improve your social impact communication skills. In a subsequent newsletter, we will address impact measurement, and I will share some tools that might be useful to you. If you plan to tap into the impact funding available, then you must think deeply about the outcomes of your impact-oriented organization. Look through your existing theory of change and logic model, review, and refresh.


Worth Reading

Social Impact

The One Sentence Theory of Change


Worth Listening to 

Theory of Change - Framework for Social Impact 

How to do Theory of Change - Charity Chat Podcast


Highlighted Resource

The highlighted resource for this edition is Kevin Brown’s LinkedIn page. Kevin is an astute communicator and CEO of Mighty Ally. In Kevin’s posts, he simplifies concepts and shares examples that if you leveraged them, you would notice a tangible difference in communicating about your work. His writing focuses on nonprofits, but there is a lot you can learn from that as an impact-oriented organization because you are achieving a social goal through a for-profit mechanism. There’s a concept I learned from my mentor called transferable wisdom, which is that you can take wisdom working in one area of your life and apply it to another area. Same thing here, there are insights from nonprofits that can be transferred and adapted to suit an impact-oriented organization. Use his insights and get your team members on board, you want everyone on course with your new direction. 


End Notes

If you have a product or resource that can be helpful to an impact-oriented organization on its way to becoming investible, fill out this Google form. Who knows, you might be featured in the highlighted resource section.

If this was valuable, like, comment, share and subscribe.

PS: Are there topics you would like to see covered? Share them, and I will see how to add them to the existing content schedule. 

Bello AbdulRauf

"Chief Sustainability Advocate & Social Inclusion Activist at Initiative for Social and Economic Inclusivity of Underprivileged Persons"

3mo

ISEIUP's Theory of Change is centered on the belief that sustainable poverty eradication and social inclusion can only be achieved through a comprehensive approach that addresses both immediate needs and systemic barriers. 

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Coxon D.

IP & Digital Technology Law Attorney I Legal Writer & Researcher I SEO Web Content Writer I Meta Certified Digital & Social Media Marketer I Storyteller I Proofreader.

3mo

Once again you just showed that you know what you are writing. Passion driven endeavours though good but doesn't go the whole nine yards. You must show impact specifics - Positive impact at thtat. I love your use of storytelling to introduce the article. Your storytelling is even more potent because its from personal experience.

Amarachi Johnson

Community Ops Manager 🏆 • Working with Web3 and Open Source communities to scale DevRel strategies • Social Impact + Tech

3mo

This is so insightful. Thank you for sharing ma’am

Ifechukwu Enweani (EPt)

Environmental Specialist // Environmental Engineer // Sustainability Practices // Child and School Safety Advocate

3mo

This is insightful. And you made it relatable. Thank you for sharing.

Ulrike Bollmann

International Cooperation Division, Institute for Work and Health (IAG) of the German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV)

3mo

Congratulations Ugochi for your elaboration on "the power of thinking about something in-depth and documenting it. This is what can happen if you thoroughly think through and document your organization’s theory of change and logic model." You are a real thought leader in OSH education!

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