Qualitative approach

Not every social change can be counted. A shift in confidence, a change in how a community treats its own women, a new sense of dignity — these need to be understood, not just measured. The qualitative approach to Social Impact Assessment is built for exactly this.

The workbook's reasoning: "social impact nature is qualitative, thus qualitative research helps to reveal the broader and in-depth effect of social mission." Where a number alone would miss the story, the qualitative approach digs into it.

Its methods, per the workbook, are Theory of Change, structured interviews, focus groups, and case studies — tools built to capture depth and nuance rather than scale.

The trade-off is effort. Good qualitative research needs a carefully designed research plan and a hypothesis genuinely linked to the project's logic model, so the workbook calls it time-consuming.

Table 7.1 (Chapter 7, section 7.1.2) compares the qualitative approach with the other two SIA approaches:

The workbook also notes a problem shared across all three approaches, but felt hardest for the qualitative one: social change indicators like behavioural or psychological change are difficult to quantify or monetise at all — exactly why a purely qualitative approach exists as a distinct option.

Illustrative NPO; figures are made up.

Sakhi Sangini, an NPO running a women's self-help group programme, wants to understand whether members feel more confident making household financial decisions — not something a simple headcount can show.

Its assessor uses the qualitative approach: 8 Focus Group Discussions with a total of 64 participants, and structured interviews with 15 husbands and in-laws, to understand how decision-making dynamics at home have shifted. A Theory of Change maps how SHG membership is meant to lead to this confidence shift in the first place.

The resulting report cannot state a single confidence "score," but it can describe, with consistent patterns across groups, that women now initiate financial conversations they previously avoided — a depth of insight a survey alone would likely miss.

Chapter 7 (Social Impact Assessment Reporting), section 7.1.2 and Table 7.1, names the qualitative approach as one of three SIA approaches, with Theory of Change, structured interviews, focus groups and case studies as its methods. Expect a question matching "in-depth study of social impact" or "reveals broader effect of social mission" to the qualitative approach.

• Qualitative methods are Theory of Change, structured interviews, focus groups and case studies — surveys and statistical analysis belong to the quantitative approach instead.
• The qualitative approach's chief weakness, per the workbook, is that it is time-consuming and needs careful research design.
• Do not confuse the qualitative approach to SIA with a qualitative indicator within any single approach.
• No single approach is sufficient on its own — pick the approach fitting the organisation's objectives.