Stakeholder Engagement

Core Practices:

• Integrate social stakeholders into mainstream markets.
• Integrate market players into social sector.
• Increase interaction and dependence among all stakeholder groups.
• Influence market player behaviors.

Synergies:

• Engage stakeholders in devising a coherent shared value system.
• Use stakeholder choice as an adaptability mechanism.
• Use a distributed approach that support grassroots innovation.

Tensions:

• Be mindful not to create a culture in which traditional social work is seen as a dead-end, undermining social staff morale.

Synergies:

• Capture stakeholders' spending power.
• Engage donors in a longer-term investment approach.
• Use stakeholders to diversify human resources.

Tensions:

• Be mindful that increased integration might forfeit traditional fundraising channels.
• Engaging in market mechanisms means less time for traditional fundraising.

Synergies:

• Leverage stakeholders’ knowledge and skills by promoting the concept of “user-led innovation”.

Tensions:

• Increasing stakeholder engagement required accepting slower stakeholder-driven trial and error processes.