NGO SURVEY

Measuring Personal Transformation: A Survey of Organizations, Change Agents, and Philanthropists Working for Social Change.

By: Sara Taggart, Gretchen Ki Steidle

 Introduction & Background

Personal transformation – the positive, inner changes involved in personal growth – is largely intangible and inherently difficult to measure.

Yet for many individuals and organizations, it is evident when personal transformation transpires and it is largely believed to contribute in some way to positive changes in broader society. Global Grassroots undertook a survey of actors in the social impact sphere to try to understand current thinking on the nature of the relationship between personal transformation and social transformation and any common practices used in its evaluation. Generally, we found practitioners recognize the challenges in assessing personal transformation, that measurement tools are limited or inappropriate, and that the experience of personal transformation is complex, subjective, context-specific, and may have a bi-directional relationship with the larger social shifts they seek to affect as well. There are, however, several mutual themes and characteristics among the programs explored. And there remains widespread interest, intrigue, and willingness to collaborate in a way that would further advance this inquiry.

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In late 2019, Global Grassroots set out to learn more about how non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other stakeholders working to affect social change are measuring inner transformation and its relationship to their desired social impact outcomes for individuals and communities. Using an email survey and phone interviews with select contacts, our objective was to discover promising practices and measurement tools already in use or in development and identify gaps between what is being measured in the field and what is needed or desired by practitioners and funders.

The overarching goal of the survey was to gain greater insight into respondent perspectives on their personal transformation program and any links between the inner experience of their participants and the outcomes of their social change work. In concert with a formal literature review of the scientific and scholarly studies on this topic, and our proposed conceptual model, our intention is to catalyze a dialogue among the social change field. Our hope is that we may contribute insights that may help actors in the field:

  1. More clearly understand what is happening when individuals experience personal transformation so that they might better articulate and assess it for themselves,

  2. Understand any positive connection between personal transformation and social change, to make more targeted investments in that relationship, and

  3. Learn with/from a diverse community (including academics, practitioners, funders, etc.) interested in this realm of exploration.

While we did not define the following terms for our respondents, preferring that they describe their experiences and observations in their own words, we offer the following definitions to help in the review of this survey:

  • Inner work: the intentional engagement in solitary or interpersonal practices or an intentional response to challenges, most often with a degree of self-reflection that enables individuals to experience, contemplate, and integrate insights that lead to personal transformation.

  • Personal transformation: the process and experience of undergoing positive inner change towards personal growth, healing and self-actualization. Personal transformation can take place as of the result of intentional effort over time, as well as a significant life changing experience that shifts our beliefs about ourselves and our relationship with the world.

  • Social change or social transformation: a significant and positive shift in the functioning and wellbeing of society. This can result from changes in societal norms and values; changes in the behavior, beliefs and relations of the members of that society; the alleviation of a social ill; and/or through alterations of the systems, institutions, and structures making up that society. 

Inquiry Process

Between November 2019 and June 2020, we reached out to 124 leaders, networks and key contacts, inviting them to respond by email or via a phone conversation to the following questions:

  1. What kind of personal transformation or more intangible forms of change do you see taking place among your beneficiaries?

  2. What would you attribute that transformation to in terms of your programs – what are you doing to foster that personal transformation?

  3. How, if at all, do you measure this personal transformation? Would you be willing to share a sample of your tools, process, metrics and any key data points? (We are eager to share case studies of such impact)

  4. How does the personal transformation you are seeing relate to or drive your social impact outcomes, either in theory or supported by your measurements?

  5. Can you recommend any writings (books, articles, studies) that relate to the personal transformation and social impact intersection or anyone else exploring this?

Evaluating the effectiveness of the practices, tools, and other forms of inner work that each organization uses to foster personal transformation was beyond the scope of this survey.

Participants

We drew insight from 58 respondents to our inquiry. Among these participants, 17 completed an online survey, 10 responded through an intermediary support organization (e.g., fellowship program, grant partner), 29 participated in phone interviews, and 2 participated in both online surveys and interviews. Our exploration also included general feedback from collectives representing several other organizations, including:

Market Segment

Program Locations

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Agora Partnerships – a network of 270 purpose-driven social entrepreneurs throughout Latin America

  • The Amani Institute – a social innovation management program integrating an inner journey component reaching 500 social entrepreneurs from 63 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America

  • AMPIFY – a coalition of 18 organizations working to advance the agency of adolescent girls in East Africa

  • The HOW Fund – a fellowship program for women change agents advancing holistic solutions for women and girls

  • Impact Hub – A global network of entrepreneurial communities in more than 100 countries

  • Opportunity Collaboration – a convener of global actors working to alleviate poverty

  • The Presencing Institute – a capacity building organization working on awareness-based systems change globally

  • Social Impact Award – a global franchise of social venture incubators for young people in more than 15 countries in Europe, Africa and Asia

  • Street Business School – an entrepreneurial program for women with 97 partner franchises in 21 countries

  • The Wellbeing Project – a collaborative, global network of over 60 organizations investing in wellbeing

There is a robust eco-system involved in this holistic approach to inner and outer change. Participants represented a diverse cross-section of the social change sector, with 30% delivering programs or direct services to beneficiaries, and another 27% identified as cultivating social entrepreneurship, incubators or social enterprise development. Other intermediaries or support organizations focused more generally on leadership development, organizational capacity building, research, or funding within the social change sector. A small portion (9%) focused on personal transformation as their primary mission. These included meditation or spiritual centers, as an example. Organizations were primarily secular, but among those that identified as having a faith-based element to their work, religious traditions were predominately Buddhist or Christian.

The majority of organizations conduct programs or provide services globally, including Latin America, Asia, North America, Europe, and Africa. Those with a specific geographic focus that is not global are noted separately.

Key Findings

Benefits of Personal Transformation

Drawing from anecdotal evidence and/or their theory of change, organizations were easily able to articulate their understanding of the benefits of personal transformation on their individual participants. These include:

Hope and Optimism

Inner work fosters a sense of optimism, purpose, meaning and connection to something larger than oneself.

Wellbeing and Resilience

Inner work generates greater awareness of the importance of wellbeing and supports learning, healing and growth, allowing change agents to stay the course longer and with greater ease.

Empowerment and Agency

Personal transformation generates empowerment, agency, and action to improve not only one’s own circumstances, but others’ as well.

Belonging and Interpersonal Relationships

Personal transformation impacts interpersonal relationships positively, and a sense of belonging matters.

Social and Emotional Intelligence or Prosocial Skills

Personal transformation fosters prosocial skills and social capacities including helping behavior, altruism, openness, receptivity, the ability to navigate conflict, and a willingness to be civically engaged.

Program Characteristics

 Among the various models that survey participants described, more than half were focused primarily on the deep development of individuals, for instance: change agents participating in a social entrepreneurship fellowship or organizational leaders deepening their social-emotional skills. The others were focused foremost on transformation of communities or working to impact broader societal changes, for instance: organizations running poverty reduction or violence prevention programs using multiple interventions with various stakeholders.

 Whichever end of the spectrum they started from, their approaches to cultivating personal transformation, seemed to fall into two main categories, with some program integrating both:

  • Academic/classroom models: Programs included direct teaching in mindfulness, meditation, social-emotional learning, wellbeing, unconscious bias and other practices intended to promote personal reflection, growth, and ultimately transformation. 

  • Applied models: These approaches involved hands-on activities or real world experiences where participants gained direct practice of skills or learning-by-doing in their particular context. These models sometimes emphasized the importance of personal reflection and commitments to navigate local customs and culture with integrity and respect.

 It appears as well that many of these programs and approaches share a common thread, placing varying degrees on the importance of relationship, human connection, and a sense of belonging in any attempts to influence personal transformation. We’ll call these:

  • Relational models: These approaches build and depend upon a high-quality relationship involving the intentional work of skilled facilitators, mentors, guides, therapeutic or support networks and/or a sense of community.

More exploration is needed to gain a greater understanding of the particularities of different programs and, as is discussed below, how best to measure and evaluate the relationship between these approaches and meaningful personal transformation.

Measuring Personal Transformation

The measurement of personal transformation among respondents has been almost entirely qualitative and ranges from anecdotal to formal evaluations. Few metrics are being assessed quantitatively and some respondents expressed concerns about trying to standardize measurement of very diverse experiences that are personal, multi-faceted, and context-dependent.

The connection between personal transformation and social change was described as a rippling effect that starts with individual change, then affects the ecosystem at the interpersonal and community levels. Given personal transformation is a complex, subjective and context-dependent experience, we are unable to propose a clear and exact pathway for how inner change directly influences social change from this small sample. However, we share a few examples of theories that attempt to explain how this relationship functions, including:

Pathway 1

Inner work on self-beliefs (especially self-awareness, self-confidence and self-efficacy) plus skills that can be applied (such as problem-solving, conflict-resolution, communications) lead to shifts in personal healing and increased sense of agency. These personal shifts have the dual impact of influencing the positive choices of those participants that lead to greater success, and changing the perspectives among the stakeholders around them regarding their value as social change leaders.

Pathway 2

Inner work fosters deeper self-reflection and awareness of unconscious bias or limiting beliefs, which leads to individuals relating and leading differently (e.g., through wellbeing, emotional resilience, better communications, openness, and collaboration). This inspires deeper trust and confidence in their leadership, and also fosters a stronger sense of belonging, a culture of wellbeing, and a supportive community that drives resilience, motivation, and a sense of purpose.

Pathway 3

Inner work changes mindsets including an increased sense of agency and personal capacity, which when paired with a deepened sense of connection and belonging, results in an increased level of responsibility for others within the community and systemic shifts fostered by broader civic engagement.

Key Challenges

There are still key challenges to understanding and assessing what is happening as organizations attempt to promote personal transformation, and how those efforts and shifts may be influencing broader community or social change. Survey participants noted:

  1. Personal transformation is difficult to measure

  2. Transformation is a long-term journey that is context-dependent and deeply personal

  3. Participatory evaluation methods are necessary to more fully grasp what is happening within and among program participants, yet these methods are both time and capital-intensive

  4. Funding cycles are often short, making it difficult to collect the longitudinal data needed for assessing deeper inner shifts

Nevertheless, overall, among respondents, there is an excitement about delving deeper into the relationship between personal transformation and social change.  Participants indicated an interest in learning from one another, a desire for credible measurement tools, a willingness to work long-term to change the paradigm of how goals are identified and measured, and hope for shifts in how funding towards real transformation can be aligned with those goals. Following is a deeper look at the insights from this initial survey.

Limitations

We recognize there are some limitations in our survey.  First, we only surveyed those organizations that we are aware of within the landscape of non-profits that involve personal transformation as part of their social impact endeavors. We acknowledge our survey was neither comprehensive nor random in our selection of participants. 

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We included only those who were able to complete the online survey or conduct a phone call by May 31, 2020. In the limited timeframe in which we conducted this survey, year-end obligations followed by the COVID-19 crisis influenced the capacity of organizations to respond in a timely manner. Further, despite the diversity of operations, those participants in our survey were primarily US-based organizations or those working out of their US-based headquarters, those who were English-speaking, and those with accessibility to Internet or phone. Though we have generated many more leads, some were unable to respond within this timeframe, limiting our ability to include perspectives from as many front-line actors as we would have liked. We hope to continue this inquiry over time, and therefore consider this report a living document that will continue to evolve with our ongoing conversations and insights.    

We have also attempted to account for any bias by including as many direct quotes as possible within the text of this document. We acknowledge that we are learners alongside everyone else and welcome feedback, insight, and challenges to our assumptions and conclusions.

A Deeper Look

 Benefits of Personal Transformation

According to respondents, the benefits of inner work and the resulting personal transformation of individual participants are observable and can be profound. Following are our four most consistent insights:

  1. Inner work fosters a sense of optimism, purpose, meaning and connection to something larger than oneself.

  2. Inner work generates greater awareness of the importance of wellbeing and supports learning, healing and growth, allowing change agents to stay the course longer and with greater ease.

  3. Personal transformation generates empowerment, agency, and action to improve not only one’s own circumstances, but others’ as well.

  4. Personal transformation fosters a sense of belonging and impacts interpersonal relationships positively.

Benefits Attributed to Relational and Applied Models

While there are a wide variety of practices that foster inner work and personal transformation, some respondents attributed the inner change they saw among their beneficiaries to two key program characteristics – relational building and application of inner work “skills” in real time.

Relational Models: Within the relational approaches, programs build and depend upon a high-quality relationship involving the intentional work of skilled facilitators, mentors, guides, therapeutic or support networks. The relational approach involves two key findings:

  1. Belonging and connection is important

  2. Holistic models invite positive engagement with the community beyond individual participants

Applied Models: In addition to the power of relationships to support individual and community transformation, the opportunity to apply learnings and skills in real-world circumstances also catalyzes deep personal transformation.The applied model involves two key strategies:

  1. Hands-on opportunities to practice new skills

  2. Programs modeling integrity and respectful navigation of local customs and culture

Pathways of Connection between Personal Transformation and Social Change 

Several respondents described the links between personal and social transformation as a rippling effect that starts with individual change that then affects the ecosystem at the interpersonal and community levels. Personal change is so distinctly different for each individual, and inner work is so diverse, we hesitate to draw any conclusions from our limited survey that would suggest an exact formula for how personal transformation consistently unfolds to influence social transformation on a systemic level (structures, norms, behaviors, beliefs). Yet, three distinct patterns have emerged from the theories of change and anecdotal evidence shared through our interviews in how the relationship might operate.

Outcomes

Some survey respondents noted particular outcomes for the individuals and communities they serve. These were not broadly reported but suggest that more exploration is warranted to capture the full range of impacts that inner work and personal transformation may have once embraced as a viable strategy for promoting meaningful social change. 

  1. Shifts in gender roles, norms, and outcomes for women and girls

  2. Greater resilience among change agents

  3. Ripple effects beyond their direct participants

Challenges

The challenges with measurement, however, contribute to ongoing zones of wishful thinking – gaps between theories of change and the ability to appropriately value and adequately learn from what is or is not contributing to positive social change (and therefore worthy of ongoing or increasing investment). Key challenges include:

  1. Personal transformation is difficult to measure but there are early attempts

  2. Transformation is a long-term journey

  3. Participatory methods are essential, but time and capital intensive

  4. Conventional funding seeks short-term outputs within annual grant cycles that do not allow adequate resources for understanding or assessing deeper inner shifts

Measurements

The measurement of personal transformation among respondents has been almost entirely qualitative. Few metrics are being assessed quantitatively, and while many are looking for or developing tools to help establish a common approach, caution is advised by some respondents. Their concern involves measuring what is a very diverse experience that is personal, multi-faceted, and context-dependent. Yet there are some innovative endeavors to understand the impact of inner work on social change. 

Opportunities for Further Study

According to our respondents, inner work works and fosters personal transformation. Personal transformation then becomes the fuel for greater hope, optimism, purpose, agency, wellbeing, belonging, and prosocial engagement towards positive social change. Combined with practical skills, opportunities for applied hands-on learning, and relational support, personal transformation catalyzes more sustained, holistic social change efforts. This can transpire through the mindset shifts and civic actions of individuals towards the common good, the changed perspectives of stakeholders towards previously disempowered members, the trusted and inspired leadership of self-aware change agents, and a sense of community that drives systemic shifts towards collective wellbeing. 

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While there are still challenges in measuring the intangible nature of personal transformation and even more challenges in determining a direct relationship with social change, there is growing enthusiasm for deeper collaboration towards a common understanding of this intersection.  Respondents identified a number of needs and opportunities for adding value to the process of measuring personal transformation and social change. Recommendations include: 

  1. There is a need for measurement work to focus on the value derived from personal transformation, rather than (or alongside) what impact is being achieved.

  2. Because what measures is what matters, it is important to be selective in tracking a small and readily measurable set of long-term indicators. 

  3. Begin with beneficiaries.

  4. Build NGO-researcher-funder partnerships.

  5. Cultivate networks to accelerate learning from the field to academia and back again.

  6. Help identify ways to measure that are not just quantitative and data based.