Topic 1: Theory of Change
Defining your organization, groups or programs engagement-based Theory of Change helps you (and your team members) understand why engagement is important to your work and specifically, how strengthening your people power will achieve those outcomes.
By identifying your "If....then....because" statement you can put this rationale into a succinct and clear phrase that keeps focus on the purpose, and outcomes you are driving for in all your engagement activities.
IF WE _____________________________________________________________________________________,
THEN WE WILL ACHIEVE _____________________________________________________________________,
BECAUSE __________________________________________________________________________________.
If we protect farmland and prevent it from being converted into a non-agricultural use, then we will preserve our greatest asset and enhance food security, because future generations deserve the ability to produce their own local food.
ReplyDelete(Kathryn Enders, Ontario Farmland Trust)
This is a perfectly good theory of change. What I invite you to think about is how engagement of your supporters is going to help you achieve this. What we are really interested in getting at, is how (or if) engagement is critical to your achievement of success. A friendly amendment might say "If we engage 10,000 supporters of farmland protection then we will ensure that farmland is not converted into non-agricultural uses because we will be able to rally a supporter base whenever farmland is threatened by development.
DeleteIf we educate people about how important it is to protect ecologically significant marine species and places, then they will be more likely to support marine protected areas because they understand the threats to the ocean and how protected areas can help guard against these threats.
ReplyDelete(Sarah Saunders, WWF-Canada)
Thanks Sarah! Education is certainly an important part of much of our work, but what change are you hoping this education leads to and more specifically how are those being educated (ie. your supporters) able to participate in advancing that change?
DeleteA possible edit might read "If we engage 10,000 supporters of ecologically significant marine species and places, then we will achieve greater success in establishing marine protected areas because it is important to show that we have constituency level support for the establishment of advanced protections and to guard against the threats to such areas." Not perfect but hopefully you can see where I'm going.
IF we communicate scientific and traditional knowledge to key decision makers,
ReplyDeleteTHEN WE WILL ACHIEVE sound policies,
BECAUSE those with authority over these legal instruments will be well-informed.
(Rachel Wang, WWF-Canada)
Hey Sarah. Again, a perfectly sound and valid theory of change. For the purposes of our discussions around engagement, I might invite you to think about how "your people" fit into this equation. For example, an engagement based Theory of Change based on your description above might read: "If we get x number of supporters to communicate to key decision makers on the sound science and traditional knowledge of marine areas then we will advance marine protection, because DMs need information, and encouragement to advance efforts."
DeleteJoanna from Ecology Action Centre here. One of the things I learned from this webinar is that I don't think we have a clear engagement-based theory of change for the organization as a whole. Some approximations might be:
ReplyDelete"If we recruit 10,000 members, then we can mobilize them to support particular campaigns as the need rises, because that's a significant percentage of the Nova Scotia population and politicians will need to listen."
or
"If we build leadership capacity at the volunteer level, then we can increase our capacity as an organization to engage with more of the people who want to volunteer, because the burden will not be borne by staff to as great an extent."
We've probably had engagement-based TOC's for specific campaigns before. "If we get lots of people out hiking and canoeing in the area of the proposed Halifax Greenbelt, then those people will support the campaign to protect the greenbelt when it becomes an election issue, because they'll feel a connection to those places."