One of ELC’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments is to improve the wellbeing of 10 million individuals around the world by 2025. To deliver this goal, and to demonstrate progress towards it, the company needed a robust theory of change and results measurement framework for all its philanthropic programmes.
Our role
Itad collaborated with ELC to define a set of impact pathways, from corporate/brand inputs and grantee activities to three long-term visions: empower women to improve their own lives and communities; help people live longer, healthier, more productive lives; and enable people to enjoy an improved environment and quality of life.
Specific programmatic focus areas identified through the process include promoting gender equity to nurture a learning environment; promoting health-related social inclusion, particularly for people living with HIV/AIDS or mental health issues; and supporting a circular economy, as a way to prevent and combat waste from plastics and product packaging.
Our approach
Itad helped ELC to define its strategy for girls’ education and leadership – the youngest of the three themes – by consulting internal and external stakeholders, benchmarking comparable global philanthropies, and drawing from Itad’s own education experts. A set of recommendations was then presented to and adopted by the board.
Having agreed a conceptual framework, Itad worked with ELC to define and roll out a suite of corresponding KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and integrate them into grantee application and reporting documents. Finally, we produced a KPIs manual to guide ELC colleagues on the what, why and how of effective results measurement and partner management.
Image: Obede Primary School. Credit: Scott Chacon (CC BY 2.0)
