What is Social Impact and Why Does it Matter for Businesses?
Stories have been a central pillar of communities throughout history, and for good reason. Before radio, phones, television and social media, oral storytelling was the primary way of sharing information, news and entertainment. Stories were passed from town to town, family to family, generation to generation, all through oral tradition. The reason we can still enjoy these stories today, before any method of communication and documentation like those channels mentioned previously, is the ability for storytelling to communicate ideas in a way that resonates with the listener.
To effectively perform a mid-year audit of your data requires resources and collaboration across internal teams. The reward? Your organization can proactively identify gaps in your data, understand where data could be driving deeper conversation across teams, and gain confidence that you have the information to achieve your goals by end of year.
Excerpt from “Spotlight on: Equity” by Rachel C. Oatis in How to Make Data Actionable
Too often organizations set up metrics to define success as an organization, but then fall victim to a “set it and forget it” mentality. Though intentions were strong, it is easy to get distracted by the ever growing to do list and last-minute fire drills. The first thing to go when time is precious? The analysis of your activities that allows you to be more strategic looking forward.
What an inspiring #PEAKOnline2021conference. Congratulations to the PEAK board and host committee and especially to Satonya Fair whose leadership was embedded throughout every session and every conversation. Satonya has unleashed the PEAK community who dove deep on topics and brought PEAK’s many new members into the excitement. It was particularly inspiring to learn about the different ways the PEAK members are working to support their grant partners and the way they are championing to approach their work with an equity lens at their foundations.
Trust is a key pillar of philanthropy. Donors trust that nonprofit organizations will responsibly use their funds to inspire positive change in the areas they’ve detailed in fundraising communications. Communities trust that local philanthropic organizations will have their back when hit by the unexpected, and therefore offer their support. Trust is crucially important when building strong relationships - an easy connection for most in the sector to make since much of philanthropy is built on relationships. But trust offers more power than you might have realized - in the Edelman Brand Trust in 2020 report, it is reported that in today’s world, trust is the number two reason people buy something (after price). That’s before other attributes like quality, performance and how easy the item is to find. To influence behavior and drive action, organizations across the private, public and social sectors need to prioritize the creation of trust.
April is volunteer month, and before it comes to an end I wanted to take the opportunity to call out the importance of giving a voice to your volunteers and, by extension, your community. At UpMetrics, we often speak to the power of qualitative data. Numbers can only provide so much information – to translate those numbers into desired action, next steps, and a strategy that will impact the areas with the most need, you need qualitative data. Those on the ground can tell you whether they are seeing an impact of your efforts with the audience you intended, or if you’re indirectly solving for something else with your efforts.