I2I’s Heart-2-Heart on Why We’ve Nixed Stakeholders, #SquadAdditions, and Emergent Learning

This is an archived newsletter from April 2023. Want to read the newsletter in real time? Click here to subscribe!

On Our Minds

Pop quiz! When you hear the word “data” — what first comes to mind? Statistics? Stories? Your phone on 5G loading puppy videos? 📊

When it comes to measuring social impact… data = people.

Whether collected via surveys, interviews, focus groups, monitoring, observations… social impact data often represents how people are affected by or experience social programs, policies, or investments.

We previously referred to these people as stakeholders. Any Eval 101 course will tell you to start by “engaging stakeholders” to design an evaluation that collects data from (and with) individuals affected by the program or strategy.

This is how we were originally taught to approach evaluation projects. But you should know by now we are not the type to simply do what we’re told. 🙃

As lifelong learners, we’re equally committed to unlearning. Lately, we’ve been unlearning the term “stakeholders” — after we realized it has roots in colonialism and is harmful to Indigenous communities. The coolest thing about ‘unlearning’ is the new learning that follows.

Shedding ‘stakeholders’ is easy — but what should we use instead? At I2I, we started using the term ‘ecosystem actors’ to refer to all people who are interested in, influencing, or impacted by a defined system.

Not only does this allow us to decolonize our language, but it helps us think bigger about all institutions, communities, and individuals involved in the systems we work in.

This small shift in language + perspective led us to start new projects by developing an Ecosystem Actor Map. Read our blog to learn more about how we use Ecosystem Actor Mapping to understand systems and inform data collection sampling.

BTW "ecosystem actor" gives way more intergalactic celebrity vibes than colonizer. Do you agree?

In Our Hearts

Who doesn’t love a good glow-up?

This past month we’ve made some small steps to spruce up the ol’ website. On our Coffee 2 Cocktails feature, we’re bumpin’ a new Spotify playlist, rockin’ our 2023 mood boards, and featuring our latest Goodreads selections.

And most importantly, we’re stoked to feature some new faces on the website! Stop on by I2I's digital abode and get to know Blake and Sahiti. They are pretty rad.

And remember, you can always access archived versions of our newsletters at The Intersection (FOMO is real, you gotta catch up).

Up Our Sleeves

If learning (and unlearning) really is a never ending journey, then I2I Partners Nina + Kathleen are embarking on a new leg of the trek!

The duo recently kicked off a 5-month intensive training with the Emergent Learning (EL) Community Project.

Nina + Kathleen are immersing themselves in the EL principles and practices to discover shared lines of sight in I2I’s work; pose powerful questions that invite a wider, more diverse, circle into our thinking process; make our thinking visible and assumptions explicit; and share patterns and insights across teams, networks, & communities.

Want to (emergently) learn more about how we’re using EL with our foundation partners? Hit reply.