Lessons from Partnering to Better Steward Capital for Impact
Like most of you, 2020 was a year of significant pivoting and great learning for my team and me at Eido Research. Personally, I got the second-to-last flight out of the UK to get married on a beach in Hawaii, travelled back to the UK, moved to Brazil, and am now back again on British soil. In 2019, I travelled the world piloting The Kingdom Impact Framework for Christian development organisations. But in 2020, with no such travel happening, we pivoted to support UK charities as they adapted to Covid, and I poured my energy into developing an equivalent tool for faith driven investment and business.
Reflecting on our work throughout this turbulent year, and drawing from examples from Christian business and philanthropy, this paper scratches the surface of what can be achieved when delivery organisations, funders/investors, and impact professionals partner together to see the world impacted by the Kingdom of God.
“What we measure reflects what we value.” – Danny Kruger MP, Levelling up our communities: proposals for a new [1] social covenant.
The response of Christian financial generosity to the Covid-19 pandemic has again confirmed the effectiveness of faith-based philanthropy. On average, evangelical Christians across the UK [2] remained consistent or even increased their financial donations to Christian ministries.
Additionally, faith-based philanthropic funds were set up to meet immediate needs. Through one such fund, Stewardship’s Rapid Response Fund, £5 million was raised and quickly [3] distributed to over 80 Christian organisations.
Whilst the speed and scale of these financial figures are a testimony to Christian generosity, it shouldn’t be the only story we are telling. What we value about these funds is their ability to create meaningful change in society, so rather than simply rejoicing at the act of giving, we should partner together to measure and celebrate the social and spiritual impact of this generosity on the world around us.
One partnership that we have valued in the last year is with Stewardship, working alongside them to discover the impact of the Covid Rapid Response Fund (RRF) that they coordinated. Drawing mainly from that project, this article gives three reasons why such partnerships between philanthropists, investors, and impact professionals are so fruitful.
1. Celebrate and prove the value of Christian generosity
Unfortunately, the positive impact of Christianity is often questioned by society. A 2018 study showed that 41 percent of British non-Christians believed that the UK Church made no positive [4] difference in the world (with another 40 percent stating they were unsure). This worrying chasm between perception and reality is in large part due to the failure of Christian organisations, funders, and impact professionals to create effective partnerships to measure and share impact.
The RRF impact evaluation revealed that 71 percent of funded Christian organisations had created positive social impact through their programmes (often in addition to significant positive spiritual impact). Examples included: supporting 1,000 young people experiencing stress and anxiety through Covid-19 mental health projects; facilitating the giving of 2.8 million meals to vulnerable communities through a consortium of churches; and empowering 100 women to remove themselves from a place of abuse to a place of safety.
Within Christian funding circles however, it is often the spiritual impact of these programmes that are called into question. As a 2018 report from the Bible society showed, Christian funders are increasingly keen to find robust measures of ‘spiritual fruit’ rather than rely on [5] anecdotes. Here, the RRF impact evaluation observed a significant spiritual impact including: 1,400 people who became believers in Jesus through funded programmes; 13,000 people asking questions about God and wanting to know more; and 954,000 people receiving information about the gospel. Likewise, 90 percent of leaders who partnered with RRF said that they and their staff had been spiritually encouraged.
When it comes to Christian investing and business, this year we carried out a survey of thousands of ‘business as mission’ organizations globally. From a representative sample of these, we found that nearly 48 percent have activities and are seeing impact in the realm of creating decent work, 33 percent are seeing impact in economic growth, and 20 percent are seeing impact in providing education. In terms of spiritual impact, 40 percent reported to be impacting culture through demonstrating biblical values, 32 percent are seeing spiritual formation in their staff, and 32 percent are reaching the unreached with the gospel. Perhaps as importantly, the majority of business owners were thriving in terms of personal, spiritual, and social well-being.
We know that most investors lack robust evidence of social and spiritual impact in their investee companies and entrepreneurs. But, encouragingly, more Kingdom companies and investors are showing interest in documenting their impact and, indeed, their ‘redemptive edge’ or ‘fourth bottom line’ as different groups call it. As such, partnerships between companies, investors, and impact professionals are increasing, enabling us to celebrate and prove the positive social and spiritual impact of Christian generosity and investment.
2. Steward and build a culture of accountability
In a world with increasing philanthropic and ‘ethical’ investment options, if we are to
futureproof the ‘investability’ of Christian organisations, it is vital to show that we are carefully looking at how money is spent and used to create impact. As a ‘2020 Give.org Donor Trust Report’ showed, when funders are deciding whether to fund a charity, “the top factors are (1) third-party evaluation by an independent organisation, (2) name recognition, and (3) [6] accomplishments shared by the organisation.”
Going through a robust impact strategy and evaluation process, with space for significant critique and external validation, provided Stewardship’s Rapid Response Fund with significant accountability and trust with funders. The process was systematic, testing the ‘impact strategy’ of the fund by asking organization leaders to assess the impact upon themselves, their staff, their programmes, and, subsequently, their beneficiaries.
This approach enabled us to see how organisations themselves stewarded the resources given. Perhaps this contributed to 22 of the 80 organisations raising matched funding, to a total value of £923k, adding around a quarter to the amount distributed by the RRF.
Meanwhile, what we are learning as we launch the ‘Kingdom Impact Framework for Business’ is that faith driven investors think similarly and that evaluations can build trust between investors and businesses. One of the first companies to pilot our tool discovered that their employees’ perception of company culture and Kingdom values differed between sites. This will enable them to make changes, increasing potential impact, and demonstrate that impact to investors.
Partnership with an independent evaluator builds a culture of accountability and ultimately leads to greater trust between the organisation and potential funders. “Good data will boost the confidence, and retain the loyalty of private funders, and therefore increase the volume of [7] philanthropy” and, as we are seeing, of investment.
3. Learn how to improve the impact of future funding
Whilst the response of Christian funders in 2020 was both generous and transformational, it will by no means be the last time that such generosity will be required. And as resources are always finite, it is vital to study what is being given now in order to learn how we can improve
the impact of future Christian philanthropy and investment. If funds and investments are evaluated well, “good data will enable a shift in the culture of accountability from ‘proving’ to ‘improving.’”
The current models commonly used to distribute, or raise, funds require scrutiny also. Some application processes are too costly, or inefficient, and new, disruptive, philanthropic and investment platforms are launching all the time. Whilst responders to the RRF impact report widely praised the fund’s approach, there were key learnings that can be built upon. One improvement voiced by leaders was to facilitate learning between recipient organisations: “At a time of greater isolation, it might have been good to have opportunities to hear the stories, [8] and/or share some experiences between the different recipients.” Perhaps portfolio investors can also do more to facilitate connection between businesses in their networks. We are often struck by leaders mentioning their need for non-financial support such as advice and [9] connection. Our own ‘Impact Strategy coaching’ tools have been developed out of a desire to meet more of these needs.
In summary, impact evaluations that include an analysis of the relationship between Christian organisations and investors/philanthropists will allow sector-wide learnings, leading to increases in efficiency and the strengthening of funding partnerships in the future.
Conclusion
Throughout the last year, our partnerships with Stewardship and their network of
philanthropists have clearly demonstrated three benefits of measuring the impact of Christian philanthropy: first, we can celebrate and prove the value of Christian organisations to funders and wider society; second, we can increase accountability and trust; and third, we can improve
and learn towards a better future. Furthermore, through the launch of our tool to measure social and spiritual impact in business, we are seeing the same lessons hold true. We believe that embedding a culture of measuring and celebrating impact will lead to an explosion of Kingdom investment.
[1]
Danny Kruger. 2020. ‘A report for government: Levelling up our communities: proposals for
a new social covenant’
[2]
Evangelical Alliance, Stewardship, & Eido Research. 2020. ‘Changing Church: Meetings and
money’.
[3]
https://www.stewardship.org.uk/blog/blog/post/681-5-million-raised-and-distributed-to-88-
uk-churches-and-charities-within-100-days-of-covid-19-lockdown
[4]
Barna Group, The UK Church in Action: Perceptions of Social Justice and Mission in a
Changing World (Ventura, CA: Barna Group, 2018), https://shop.barna.com/products/the-uk church-in-action.
[5]
J & N Kurlberg (2018) Trends in Christian Philanthropy
[6]
https://www.give.org/docs/default-source/donor-trust-library/2020-donor-trust-report.pdf
[7]
Danny Kruger. 2020. ‘A report for government: Levelling up our communities: proposals for
a new social covenant’
[8]
All quotes in this section are from leaders of a recipient organisation of the Stewardship
RRF
[9]
www.eidoresearch.com/impact-strategy
——
Article originally hosted and shared with permission by The Christian Economic Forum, a global network of leaders who join together to collaborate and introduce strategic ideas for the spread of God’s economic principles and the goodness of Jesus Christ. This article was from a collection of White Papers compiled for attendees of the CEF’s Global Event.