Project: Making the Case for End User Voice in Social Investment

Grant: £6,000

The Young Foundation’s (TYF) mission is to develop better connected and more sustainable communities across the UK. TYF has been instrumental in driving thinking, action and change in social innovation in the UK and abroad. This project aims to engage end user beneficiary perspectives in social investment.

There is an interest to bring the voices, perspectives and experiences of end users and beneficiaries of services closer to the source of social investment decision-making. Key insights from end user beneficiaries could improve products and services and present a more authentic assessment of what will make people’s lives better. TYF will curate a project to discuss, challenge and reiterate the case for “user voice”, drawing on expertise from a wide range of sources, with the intent of increasing understanding of its role in the field of social investment. TYF will explore how engaging directly with end user beneficiaries can sensibly sit within the broader discipline of impact management, and as part of the Impact Management Project.

The objective of this project is to engage with and promote the value of end user voice, and to co-design possible routes to test the implementation of user voice in practice. The intended impact is to increase the attention and action given by the social investment sector to the voices, experiences and stories of the people and groups that it works in service of. This approach will help to advance the ‘impact first’ narrative and to ensure that social impact is embedded at the core of the services that intermediaries provide.