In establishing any business or organisation, the managers are always influenced by the form of impact that their business or organisation will have – be it for profit, environmental good or social good, among others. An idea/business should always be guided by the power of transformation of the society in which it is introduced.

Social impact is the ability to positively impact the reality of people,
for example, through the use of a product or service.
This impact is the effect of an action that leads to a development or social improvement and it should be measurable.

For instance, the World Wide Fund is an American non-profit organization dedicated to protecting habitats and species that also looks for ways to strengthen local communities’ abilities to conserve natural resources. On the other hand, IKEA is a Swedish profit organisation that has its own foundation – Ikea Foundation – that focuses on funding home, health, education, and sustainable income for communities in need.

"Genius is in the idea. Impact, however, comes from action. "
Simon Sinek

Have you ever wondered which organisations/businesses are taking your town/city/region a step forward when it comes to social impact? The aim of this webquest is to drive you on the right track to find them out!

You will get the role of a journalist and analyse the social impact of some organisations/institutions in your region. You will start by understanding what is social impact. Then you will search for organisations/institutions in your region and find out how they socially influence the local population.

In groups, you will choose an organisation/institution to study and do a targeted search on it. A contact with the institution/organisation will also be suggested for a possible collaboration.

After the information is gathered, you will organise it and present it as if you were a journalist, choosing one of three modes: writing a news article, doing an interview for a radio show or a TV report.

The activity will end with a general debate about which concrete organisations/institutions, from the ones presented, create greater social impact in your region.

1. What is social impact?
To begin, you need to know exactly what is social impact. Start by watching the video The social impact revolution is here and then read pages 1 and 3 of the PDF file Measuring social impact in the EU Using both materials, create your own definition of social impact and write it.

2. Identify organisations/institutions
Get together in small groups of about three people and do some brainstorming about local or regional organisations/institutions you know. They can be public or private, profit or non-profit, and from any sector of activity: agriculture, manufacturing, construction, services, consumer goods, education, health, community development… Write them down in  a list.

3. Find information about the organisations/institutions 
Choose three of the identified organisations/institutions that you think have greater social impact and search information on the Internet about their impact. Use a search engine such as Google to find their websites and Facebook pages. To understand how you can recognise their impact, watch a case study in the video What is impact evaluation?. At the end, select only one organisation/ institution to focus on. You should get all the answers about the organisation/institution to the five question stated in the article Social impact evaluation – five questions to get you started.


4. Establish contact/get additional information - optional
In case you would like to get more information about the selected organisation/institution, contact it using the contact details available on its website/webpage. Explain who you are, the work you are developing, and ask if they are willing to collaborate with you. If their answer is positive, put them your questions. The preferred means of communication to put them is by email, as this will allow the organisation/institution to provide more complete and organized answers to your questions; however; you can also schedule an interview face-to-face, using Skype or by phone.

5.  Select and organise information
Now select the information you consider the most important and relevant to this work and choose the format in which you want to present it: a) a written article; b) an interview for radio; c) a story for television. You may use a word processor such as the one provided by Google Docs to write the article, the interview or the story. Check the next step to get guidance on how to prepare your work according to the selected format.

6. Prepare the presentation
It's work time for the journalists! Considering the format you chose, read its respective section hereinafter.

Article: read some general information about writing an article in Five things you need to know about writing articles and part 4 of the
page  How to write articles – “Writing your article”. Then choose one publishing programme and structure your article. Do not forget to create a headline and add some pictures. You can use MS Publisher, Scribus or Prezi.

Interview: use a voice recorder app on your PC, tablet or smartphone to simulate the interview or, indeed, to record an interview with a representative from the selected organisation/institution, by phone or Skype. Prepare the interview properly reading the "Interviewing someone for an article" section, in the page How to write interview questions and How to write a news article: how to interview. We suggest you use a very popular journalists app to record and edit your audio files – Lexis. You can find information on how to use it in the article “App for journalists: Lexis Audio Editor, for editing audio files on your smartphone”. 

Story: use your mobile phone or a camera, if available; go to the organisation/institution’ premises and interview the employer and/or employees (with the employer's consent). Read the "Interviewing someone for an article" section in the page How to write interview questions and How to write a news article: how to interview. We suggest you to use YouTube video editor to edit your videos. Learn how to manage it in the article “How to Edit Video on YouTube” and in the video tutorial “How to edit videos using the YouTube video editor”.
 
7. Raise awareness of your findings - optional
Now that you proudly have your final works ready, lets disseminate them! This way, you will have the opportunity to see your work publicly recognized as well as you will help giving more visibility to the social impact created by the involved institutions/organisations.

You can contact local or community newspapers to publish your articles or share them online on community pages and on the own institutions’/organisations’ pages, together with the recorded audio interviews or stories. You can also release them on local radios and/or TV stations.

To disseminate your works through any of the mentioned means, you will need a release form signed by the individuals featured in the audio/video recordings or by a representative of each institution/organisation mentioned in the articles so they can confirm all the information is accurate. Find a release form template here, adapt it as needed, get it signed and keep it in the training records.

8. Present your work
Present your works to your training colleagues and answer any questions that may be raised by them concerning your work and your chosen institution/organisation. Use speakers, a video projector and/or any other required equipment. Talk about the organisation/institution with objectivity, clarity and honesty like you would if you were a real journalist!

9. Conclude
After all groups’ presentations, all the trainees may express their opinions about the given examples and assess which organisations/institutions are creating a bigger social impact in your region.

On the completion of this webquest, the learner will be able to:

Knowledge	Skills	Attitudes
· Fundamental knowledge of what social impact is · Basic knowledge of the concept of impact evaluation · Basic knowledge of how to prepare and lead an interview · Basic knowledge of how to prepare and write an article · Basic knowledge of audio and video recording and editing	· Identify what social impact is · Research, select, and organize information from Internet resources · Use an interviewing method to obtain information from someone to write an article · Write an article that reflects the results of a research and an interview stages · Record and edit audio and video files using Lexis Audio Editor and YouTube Editor	· Work in a group to achieve common goals · Adjust communication style to different contexts · Value the social impact of organisations

The social impact of an institution/organisation is only fully realized when it involves the mobilization of people and communities in which they operate as agents of the change they are trying to effect. Although social impact is not always easily visible and tangible, these institutions/organisations can have impact in the social development of groups, help to giving a step forward when it comes to change individuals´ perceptions about the environment  that surrounds them and consequently also changing their behaviours for better.

The evaluation and analysis of the social impact of an organization/institution is crucial to know if an organisation or company is contributing to social development.  This allows customers, clients and members of society to hold businesses and organisations accountable, by improving their progress towards having a positive social impact; all the while being mindful that social change takes time.