By Preeta Nayak and Jan Schwier, The Bridgespan Group
Strategy is all about getting critical resource decisions right. But developing a clear, effective strategy can be a long process full of difficult tradeoffs. It’s a significant investment for any NGO, foundation, or civil society organisation.
One way to smooth the path is for an organisation to first clarify its intended impact and theory of change. These powerful concepts can help an organisation articulate and explain its path forward, the tradeoffs it is considering, and where funder support can be most valuable—whether that’s financial support, introductions, or technical assistance. Even if an organisation doesn’t formally capture its intended impact and theory of change, a programme officer might learn a lot simply by starting a discussion with grantees with the four simple questions behind the concepts: Who? What? Where? And how?
The Who, What, Where, and How
First, a moment to introduce two terms that might sound unfamiliar. Intended impact defines the results an organisation will hold itself accountable for achieving within a reasonable timeframe (e.g., 5–10 years). It specifies who the population of focus is, where the organisation will do its work, and what specific outcomes it wants to achieve. Theory of change explains how the organisation will achieve that impact—the approaches it will undertake and the other actors it will work with or alongside. They might sound simple but articulating and agreeing on an organisation’s intended impact and theory of change can be a powerful exercise for any leadership team.
Consider the example of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), a membership-based pan-African organisation that promotes girls’ and women’s education through its network of 34 national chapters. FAWE, founded by five women ministers of education, advocates for policy change and on-the-ground action to reduce gender disparities in education. In 2019, FAWE welcomed several new members to its leadership team, including a new executive director, prompting a fresh look at the organisation’s strategy. FAWE is one of a number of NGOs in the US and across the world that Bridgespan has worked with over the last several years to help them clarify their intended impact and theory of change, before they embarked on a strategic planning process.
“At FAWE we talk about who our work is ultimately intended to support and benefit—the disadvantaged girl,” says Teresa Omondi-Adeitan, Deputy Executive Director and Head of Programs. “But when we started working on our intended impact, we asked, how do we define that population? We realised that our team had very different views on what this meant”. The leadership team explored who FAWE was serving currently, and the areas of greatest need, and agreed to focus on girls aged 10–25 in the geographies where FAWE has national chapters. Many of these girls face social, cultural, and economic discrimination and live in conflict areas (such as Liberia and Sierra Leone) or areas of disaster (for example, people in communities affected by Ebola). Through its advocacy and research work, FAWE seeks to promote gender equity and quality in education for three million African girls and young women.
Having clarified its intended impact, FAWE turned to the “how”—its theory of change. Like many advocacy organisations, FAWE understands that government policies take a long time to achieve success. So it was important for the organisation to align on interim goals related to those policies. For example, FAWE has been very effective at influencing gender-responsive policies at the African Union, which then get adopted at the national level. One example is its Gender Equality Strategy for the Continental Education Strategy, adopted by the African Union, which will help countries reorient their education systems to better support girls and women. “For us, the next step toward full implementation is for FAWE chapters to submit draft policies to their national governments,” says Omondi-Adeitan. “So our medium-term goal is adoption of these policies by those governments. Our longer-term goal is successful implementation of these policies to support an equitable education for girls and young women”. These medium- and long-term goals are key elements of FAWE’s theory of change.
Another important aspect of developing a strong theory of change is to clarify the skills, capabilities, or tactics the organisation is best positioned to use. FAWE’s leadership team identified its deep experience and expertise in gender-responsive education and its extensive network of 34 chapters across Africa. Explains Omondi-Adeitan, “Discussing our capabilities helped us think about how we get faster at achieving results, and what we need to get better at as an organisation. One critical question that arose was how to get our weaker chapters up to the level of our stronger ones?” The chapters are semi-autonomous, and their executive directors report to their boards. FAWE is now looking into ways to support chapter improvement including the possibility of pairing up stronger chapters with others that need support.
FAWE also identified research as an important area to address. “Everyone on our team saw research as something that is critical to our work—and acknowledged that we’re not doing it well enough”. Given FAWE’s focus on policy, the leadership team understood that its advocacy needed to be evidence-based. The team agreed that they needed to invest more in research, to help ensure that FAWE is the kind of organisation that people come to first on the issue of girls’ education in Africa.“Getting clear on our intended impact and theory of change has helped us to raise the resources we need for targeted research and advocacy”, says Omondi-Adeitan. “It has also helped FAWE create a niche, distinguishing our unique role from others working with girls in Africa”.
Some organisations end the process of refreshing their intended impact and theory of change not all that far from where they started. Yet for almost all organisations, it can be a rare opportunity to look beyond their day-to-day work. The process is a chance to ask deeper and sometimes difficult questions, engage a broader range of stakeholders inside and outside the organisation, and think about its unique capabilities, the context in which it works, and what lies at the heart of a social mission. Clarifying its intended impact and theory of change puts an organisation on a path to a clearer, more effective strategy that can be helpful when speaking with funders.
Indeed, these tools are equally powerful for funders to consider using for themselves. Like NGOs, funders have to balance big ambitions with more limited means. What change do you seek to bring about in the world? Where, with whom, and how? A funder team that explores these questions will likely surface valuable tensions and tradeoffs to consider. They might lead to explorations of your ambitions in the world (what outcomes can you reasonably expect?). Or perhaps of the different ways to achieve that impact (what are the roles of grantmaking, technical assistance, and other non-financial supports?).
Preeta Nayak is a partner in The Bridgespan Group’s San Francisco office. While at Bridgespan, she has worked with a variety of nonprofit, foundation, and public-sector clients on questions of strategic planning and organization design. She is a member of Bridgespan’s Leadership and Organization practice and leads the organization’s two-year consulting and capacity building program for nonprofit executive teams, Leading for Impact®.
Jan Schwier is the office head of Bridgespan Africa and is based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He serves both the philanthropy and nonprofit sectors, focusing on organisations with a significant global footprint or a strong focus on Africa. In addition, he works extensively with leaders on issues around strategic clarity as well as results measurement and learning focused strategy and capacity building. He leads the measurement and learning area of expertise at Bridgespan.