ICB
Impact Intermediary Capacity Building
Impact Capacity Building Workshops are a key component of ICB HK, a program that works closely with Hong Kong’s leading impact intermediaries with the goal to build capacity of the entire social impact sector in effectively measuring and managing impact.
Through a series of workshops, the program seeks to empower impact intermediaries with the ability to more fluidly navigate, select, and customize impact management frameworks for social purpose organizations (SPOs) – enabled on a digital platform – that helps to build a more transparent, accountable, and automated social impact economy for Hong Kong’s vibrant community of impact investors, social purpose organizations, and their beneficiaries.
Workshops & Participants
We conduct design thinking workshops individually with each impact Intermediary that promotes an environment of value co-creation. We also welcome impact intermediaries to invite selected clients and stakeholders to our workshops if it will help to better understand workflow, values, and what is at stake in each process.
Through ICB, impact intermediaries will have achieved...
- Creating a roadmap for short, mid and long term digital transformation
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Understanding how to protect their stakeholders’ data, handle data privacy and manage data storage with blockchain technology
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Co-creating a Consortium Data Charter, Data-Sharing Manifesto, as well as their own guidelines for Data Ethics & Data Rights
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Configuring a software suite that includes:
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Impact Management Dashboard – enabling both portfolio-level and project-level impact management
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System Library of Impact Management (SLIM) – a digital library of impact assessment tools and outcome/impact metrics that support users to onboard their own impact management framework.
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Frontline Mobile Application – mobile application that allows frontline data collection and verification
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Time Frame (for the 1st Batch of Intermediaries):
Curriculum Themes: (7 Modules)
ICB curriculum is consisted of 7 modules that we think are important for developing the right skills and mind for impact management, understanding how to use software to enable digital transformation, and also learning how to advance the future of social impact through information technology.
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Module 0: Getting Ready - Impact Readiness Assessment, in which we understand the intermediary's impact readiness, their objectives and requirements of doing IMM; their strengths to leverage and weak spots to improve.
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Module 1: Impact Management Standards - In this module we introduced the logic of Impact measurement and management from IDCC technology infrastructural design by demonstrating key features of IMM workflow on IDCC technology platform.
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Module 2: Let’s Do Good - Defining success and how to measure it. In this module we discussed Theory of change with the intermediary to understand their impact goals and how they want to achieve and monitor them.
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Module 3: Digital Transformation - in this module we digitize the intermediary's impact measurement and management (IMM) for their impact strategy and portfolio management enhancement.
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Module 4: Form Your Community - in this module we help intermediary to onboard their SPOs onto IDCC platform and support intermediary to adopt the knowledge and digital tools from previous modules to digitize IMM of their projects .
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Module 5: Value Creation Pilot - in this module we wish to pilot test the defined IMM workflow with SPOs to complete the process of collecting, validating data and communicating impact with all stakeholders
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Module 6: Imagine beyond IMM - in this last module we review our impact journey together and propose digital transformation roadmap for the intermediary to think beyond ICB and be part of the digitized social finance future
Workshop Formats
Workshops are conducted in four different formats in order to guide you through a journey of value co-creation with the entire consortium.
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Presentations: held via Zoom or pre-made on Youtube during the global pandemic.
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Open-ended Discussions: facilitated as a starting point for a collaborative process of consortium development.
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Collaborative Whiteboard Sessions: conducted via Miro during the global pandemic, an online visual collaboration platform for teamwork.
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IDCC Software Focus Groups & Tutorials: step-by-step guidance and tutorials to help you, your colleagues and your stakeholders to create your custom impact framework on the IDCC platform.
What do you need to prepare beforehand?
Bring a flexible mind, an open heart, and a lot of patience to join us on this collective journey – throughout ICB, we will be developing the software ecosystem at the same time as helping to build your capacity to use it – an agile process designed to make sure we co-design tools that really work in the field. Things will break at first (we hope not often), but will get better and better over time until it fits like a glove.
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We invite you and your staff to join us with a strong and clear vision of how your organization makes impact, so that the ICB programme can better enable you to participate in the Impact Data Consortium Chain in ways that will revolutionize your work. We are not here to impose new frameworks and tools onto your existing ones, but to learn about what you do (your workflows) and how our technology infrastructure can support you in different ways (automating your workflows). We hope that together we can develop a new civic technology for Hong Kong to unlock its potential to create positive social impact through collective intelligence and action to build a better Hong Kong for and by its people.
ICB - FAQ
About Impact Framework
Q1: Is IDCC building one standard impact framework on the platform? If so, why should we buy into this framework?
A: IDCC crowdsources impact frameworks globally and locally, such as SROI, BACK(S), SIM, SIA, etc. We do not advocate for any single framework. We allow users to build customized frameworks on top of the theory of change (TOC) model as fit to their organizational goals and objectives.
Q2: How to control the quality of the contributed knowledge (framework, metrics, survey templates) when any users can participate?
A: There might be garbage in and garbage out of knowledge on the platform. However, as all users who contribute the knowledge would have to sign as a contributor, and other users can verify the credibility of the knowledge, this allows other users to judge the quality of the knowledge contributed. Just like Google, even though there are loads of garbage data, we can filter them through the searching engine.
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About Comparing Impact Across Projects
Q3: How do we compare impact if everyone is using different impact frameworks?
A: We believe that comparing impact is important across projects of similar natures (working towards similar SDGs & outcomes). Therefore, we compare projects that use the same outcome metrics. For example, we track and compare the change of “social inclusion for ethnic minorities” across projects that use this metric. Overall, regardless of the diverse impact frameworks chosen for each intermediary and project, we can still compare outcomes by clusters, which we believe would be more meaningful than setting a standard outcome metric for all projects to follow.
About the SLIM App (Systems Library of Impact Management)
Q4: Who will be using the SLIM App to set up the impact framework?
A: Currently in the ICB Programme, the SLIM App is designed for impact intermediaries to create impact framework for their SPOs as part of the training or incubation processes. Both impact intermediaries and SPOs will use the SLIM App in a collaborative approach. In the future, as more different stakeholders participate in the process of impact management the better, we will further customize the design of SLIM App for project participants and community members to express their views. Eventually, this App will become a tool for participatory impact management.
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About Survey Creation
Q5: Can users create their own surveys or do we need to rely on IDCC’s team to create the surveys each time?
A: Users create their own surveys without manual support from the IDCC team. Just like any other survey apps.
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About Data Privacy, Data Protection & Data Ownership
Q6: Do we collect raw data from end-beneficiaries? Would that put their personal data at risk?
A: We develop custom solutions for the consortium participants. If you believe that collecting data from end-beneficiaries will support your work, we will support you in doing that. If you think this does not help you advance your workflow, we will not do it.
We only deploy whatever is relevant and necessary.
In order to protect personal data from ill-intended parties, we encrypt all individual’s personal and sensitive data, which would only be accessed by trusted organizations.
Q7: How do we know that the personal data and organizational data are well protected, free from abuse of ill-intended third-parties?
A: Although all personal and organizational data are stored centrally in IDCC’s server in Hong Kong, each trusted organization (impact intermediary or social purpose organization) would have their own private keys to access and control the data related to their organizations and individuals. It is important to note that IDCC’s staff and related persons DO NOT have the private key to access these organizational and personal data.
Imagine that your data is stored in a security box in a bank (IDCC). The bank helps store your security box, but only you have the key to open the box. The bank does not have the key to open your box. And of course, if we wish to store your security box at home (i.e. purchase your own server), you’re most welcome to do that.
Q8: Where does IDCC store the data of all impact intermediaries? Does IDCC have a central server, or do we each have our own server?
A: All sensitive data (personal and organizational data) are stored and encrypted in IDCC’s server in Hong Kong. Each trusted organization (impact intermediary or social purpose organization) would have their own private keys to access (decrypt to view) the data related to their organizations and individuals.
All data that will be used for auditing purposes, such as decentralized identifications (ID numbers of organizations), data submission records, claims data (claims of project’s outputs and outcomes) will be stored in both the IDCC server in Hong Kong, as well as the network of servers globally (ixo network). This means that each server has a copy of the records, ensuring data immutability.
Q9: Can we control what frameworks, metrics and other data we want to share, and to whom?
A: Yes. You, as an organization admin, a trusted party, have full control over your data permissions. You can decide which data to be shown to “public”, “only consortium participants”, “only to xyz users”, or “secret to yourself”. You can change the data permission settings anytime.
Q10: What will be the ‘exit arrangement’ if we withdraw from the consortium? Where will the data go (both onchain and offchain)?
A: All onchain data will stay on the blockchain, and will not be changed or removed (which is the nature of data immutability). All offchain data stored in IDCC’s server in Hong Kong will be exported as spreadsheets or other formats deemed appropriate, and will be deleted from the server within 30 days of ‘exit’.