TELEPHONE 01206 625222Social impact is the long-term, intended or unintended change an organisation makes to the lives of people and communities. Positive change is at the core of social enterprises, charities, and mission-driven organisations, which makes evaluating and measuring social impact an essential process. Measuring social impact is necessary for service users and supporters to ensure that the reality of your service offering aligns with your organisation’s goals. It is also important for reporting to stakeholders, social investors and for securing future funding, all of whom are motivated by positive social change. Finally, evaluating an organisation’s social impact helps to gain focus, clarity and direction to improve on its overall mission.
As a mission-driven team, you may have wondered what the long-term effects are of your project or policy, and whether it is positively impacting its intended beneficiaries. Mackman Research can help departments and organisations evaluate their social impact, detailing the intentions for making a difference; capturing the reality of changes made; and developing recommendations to ensure closer alliance with desired impacts.
Here, we prioritise time to understand the historical context of the project to be evaluated and key messaging associated with it. This provides us with a deeper understanding of the organisation’s motivations, mission and goals, which feeds into developing a simple, impact evaluation framework. Naturally, this ensures that the research is tailored and bespoke to your organisation.
As part of our evaluation process, we map how a project intends to make a difference to the community and compare it to the reality of the differences made. To achieve this, we create or apply simple frameworks to understand how desired impacts are actioned. We also look to understand what the ripple effect on society would be had your project or programme not existed, its cost to your organisation and how these compare to alternative services that exist. Using this information together with the knowledge we gain about the organisation provides a means to holistically measure your social impact.
Furthermore, at Mackman Research we always think ahead for our clients, and develop simple measures that can be used for tracking future performance. This can be accomplished with a variety of data collection methods, such as quantitative surveys and in-depth interviews, to capture actual differences made. Finally, primary data is analysed and compared against the organisation’s goals, to evaluate the reality of the service offering. After reporting variances where impacts have been under- or over-achieved, we develop considered, data-driven and actionable recommendations for the organisation to align more closely with their desired impacts.
We are a multidisciplinary team with a broad range of academic and professional experience in criminology, sociology, homelessness charities, cybercrime, educational and health research. Such a range of practical knowledge allows us to have a nuanced and holistic methodology when conducting social research and evaluating impact. Our ethnographic and humanistic approach has allowed us to engage closely with, and cultivate meaningful connections among, hard-to-reach and vulnerable populations including marginalised and deviant social groups; ethnic minorities; individuals with Special Educational Needs; dementia patients and clinical trial participants.
While we have the skills and capabilities to deploy conventional methodologies in evaluating impact, we are not afraid to challenge theories and curate a research strategy that is fit for purpose. Our flexible approach has been recognised, helping us to win multiple awards including for Challenging Theory of Park and Green Space Use with Chelmsford City Council (Best Market Research Project (2012), Government Business Awards). Furthermore, our ethical standards were formalised in 2023 when Mackman Research became a certified B-Corporation, meeting rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability.
Lastly, when working with Mackman Research, you will also be partnering with Mackman Group. Depending on the research needs, we collaborate with Mackman Branding (a full-service Branding and Marketing Agency) and Red Kite HR Services, where we have access to a comprehensive suite of services and capabilities to take our research insights a step further. Specific expertise include brand strategy, digital marketing, web analytics and HR consultancy, all of which have scope to complement our research insights. Contact us today to learn more about how we can measure your organisation's impact.
Our brand awareness surveys encompass a range of questions to test participants' recall and recognition. These could include overall brand perception questions that name specific brands to measure respondents' views, such as 'How would you rate your overall perception of the following brands?' with options ranging from 'very good' to 'very poor', or unaided questions such as 'What are the first words that come to mind when you think about [brand]?'
In addition, our brand awareness surveys are highly flexible. You can decide if you want surveys to be sent to a specific target audience. Surveys can be designed for online or offline participation. We work with your goals and objectives firmly in mind, and collaborate with you to determine which methods will best suit your product or service.
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