Finding Your Impact Zone: 8 Questions to Unlock Your Organization's Social Purpose

Purpose isn't just about doing good—it's about doing business better.

Through a deliberate approach to developing your social purpose vision, you can transform good intentions into measurable impact that resonates with your key audiences and addresses critical needs.

The eight questions outlined below serve as your roadmap to discovering where your organization can make its most meaningful mark.

1.     Identify your unique contribution: Begin by assessing your business strengths. Your core competencies provide a natural foundation for social impact initiatives. Organizations can contribute in unique, meaningful and authentic ways when they leverage existing expertise. 

2.     What’s important to you? Next, clarify your priorities. Consider which social or environmental issues genuinely resonate with your organization's values. Areas where leadership already demonstrates passion often become the most successful focus points for corporate social purpose.

3.     Understand your key audiences: A comprehensive understanding of your key audiences is critical. Your social purpose gains traction when it reflects the concerns and interests of employees, customers, investors, board members, community partners, and suppliers. Consulting these key audiences can drive engagement and overall success of your initiatives.

4.     Define your scope: Establishing geographic boundaries helps provide focus. Determining whether your impact should be neighborhood-based, community-wide, regional, or broader will help you allocate resources effectively and measure outcomes appropriately.

5.     Build on existing momentum: Take inventory of current initiatives already underway. Many organizations discover they've been addressing social or environmental challenges without formally recognizing these efforts within a broader purpose framework. This existing work often reveals underlying values that can shape your formal social purpose.

6.     Assess business vulnerabilities and opportunities: Consider how social and environmental factors currently impact your business operations. Climate change vulnerabilities, workforce housing needs, or accessibility challenges represent areas where your purpose might naturally align with business sustainability.

7.     Address community priorities: Examine the most pressing needs in your community or region. Focusing on locally relevant issues often creates more immediate impact and strengthens community relationships. Consider whether your organization possesses the skills and resources to meaningfully address these priorities.

8.     Align with global Frameworks: Finally, map your answers to the above questions against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These globally recognized objectives provide a comprehensive framework for addressing pressing issues and may help identify a deeper understanding of how you can make a difference.

Transforming vision into action

Developing a compelling social purpose vision isn’t just do-goodism. It’s a deliberate business strategy. By thinking deeply about these eight questions, you create clarity that will help you find your fit.

Need help working through the questions? Start with my “Finding your Why” template.