Social Value Analysis Project

Lotterywest is working on a project that will help build a picture of how our work is experienced by the Western Australian community.

We want to understand what people appreciate most about Lotterywest's grant making and community development activities- discovering more about what has been positive as well as what we could do better or differently in the future.

The following steps have now been completed on the project:

• Most Significant Change technique
• Stakeholder survey

and data analysis is now underway.

Most Significant Change technique

We are using a research method known as the ‘Most Significant Change (MSC) technique’. This provides a framework for collecting stories from a wide range of our stakeholders through a structured interview approach. This method has been used in similar kinds of evaluation studies, and will give us a real, qualitative sense of what is important to those we work with, including both positive and negative feedback.

We invited a different group of people to participate in the story selection process, so that we could involve as many of our stakeholders as possible. Nearly 60 participants came together at a workshop on 11 December 2012 to consider a total of 81 stories of change. These stories were considered and compared through a story selection process that set out to identify the most significant changes reported. Twelve stories from among these were selected as demonstrating particularly significant impacts and we will make these publicly available in due course.

Stakeholder survey

To build on the story collection and selection process, we launched a stakeholder survey last December, inviting participation by anyone with views or opinions about Lotterywest.  The survey closed on 31 January 2013. Thank you to the many people who took part.

Independent consultants Clear Horizon were engaged to manage the survey and will now analyse the responses.

We will use the survey responses to build a comprehensive picture of what people experience about the work we do, and where we could provide more help.

Data analysis

We will also be working to put these findings into context, including reviewing:

• what our grants have been used for in the past;
• what are emerging as current trends in community needs; and

• the external environment in which our grants are made.

Next Steps

We will explore opportunities for Lotterywest to improve and build on our service to the WA community.

We hope that this research combined will give us a real sense of what Lotterywest currently achieves for the WA community, and how we can increase our value and positive impact.

For more information about the project, please email us at socialvalue@lotterywest.wa.gov.au