per Larissa Landete

Developing social projects, whether they involve social engagement or shared value, is a daily activity in organizations that is very important for supporting their operating licenses and contributing to improving social indicators in society. But how can organizations understand the impact of their social projects? How can they understand the impact they have on people's lives and where projects can be improved to have a greater impact? The answer is to conduct an examination.

This test is called a Social Impact Assessment and the social project in question is the patient. Just like a medical check-up, a clinical mapping is carried out to reach a final diagnosis. It is a journey that seeks to understand what impacts were generated on the project's target audience, based on the results achieved.

According to Michael Patton, evaluation is the systematic collection of information about the activities, characteristics and results of projects in order to make judgments about them, improve or further develop their effectiveness, inform decisions about future programming and/or increase their understanding. With this, we can say that it is not enough to simply have the intention to generate an impact; it is necessary to evaluate whether the planned impact was achieved or not. The same occurs with health, when we seek a healthier lifestyle, adjust our habits and routines and then carry out an evaluation with clinical exams to understand our progress. The same happens with the social impact of a project – we evaluate to understand these impacts.

To assist in impact assessment, there are criteria developed by the OECD, which serve as a reference in evaluation processes. These criteria are: relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability. They help to verify the value that the intervention has obtained, its quality and the positive or negative effects.

To conduct evaluations, it is necessary to have a qualified team, either from the organization itself or from an external consultancy. Conducting an evaluation in-house has the advantage of broad knowledge about the project and the organization, in addition to a greater understanding of how to use the results. Conducting an evaluation externally brings advantages such as technical reliability, confidentiality of project data, objectivity and impartiality in the interpretation of results. There is no single plan for conducting an impact evaluation. It is necessary to understand the dynamics of the social project, its limitations and objectives in order to draw up an appropriate work plan, in order to analyze and choose the best evaluation methodology.

Many companies have social engagement programs and invest in initiatives that support needs surrounding their operations or for strategic audiences that are aligned with their corporate objectives. It is also worth noting that guiding investment towards evaluation is not a common process. In general, companies’ positioning regarding projects focused on the S – of ESG – uses the number of people benefited by the project as an indicator, missing the opportunity to have a broader understanding of what has changed in the lives of these people who interacted with the social initiative. This gap shows an opportunity for social investment to be better guided, based on a social impact assessment methodology.

As an example, we can mention two social impact assessment projects where the Eco+ Foundation aimed to understand the target audience's perception of the changes that occurred through participation in the Nossas Mulheres and Ladrirek projects, sponsored by BASF's Conectar para Transformar Call for Proposals in 2023.

For our social impact assessment, we begin with planning, where we develop the Theory of Change to understand the project's impact logic, define the impact indicators and create questionnaires to approach the project's target audience. Then, we continue with the data collection stage, divided into two phases, first at the beginning of the project and then at the end of the project. With the data collected and interviews conducted, we begin to systematize the results and our analysis of the social impact assessment, where we are guided by the changes proposed in the stipulated indicators and by the information collected in conversations with the project's target audience.

The evaluation process is important to support the decision-making of social project managers, whether for continuity, course correction or change in projects. Critical and successful points in an evaluation are equally important to support these decisions. Furthermore, when evaluating projects, it is possible to understand their value to society, going beyond the merit of a good deed.

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