Hello friend,

Welcome to Theory of Change. Each Thursday, I bring you a 4-minute framework to take on broken systems and turn ideas into action. If you were forwarded this email, feel free to sign up here.

This week, I did one of my favourite things; I helped a social entrepreneur with an exciting new venture. They were brimming with clarity on what they wanted to do — their outputs — but struggled to articulate the difference they wanted to make — their outcomes. If you’ve ever been here (I feel seen), you’ll know how easy it is to fall into the trap of focusing on execution over impact.

That’s where a SOAR analysis comes in. Unlike the familiar SWOT framework, SOAR shifts the focus from problems to possibilities, making it a perfect fit for mission-driven organisations. By the end of this email, you’ll understand how you can use SOAR to balance impact and execution in your own work.

Let’s get into it.

🦅 SOAR Analysis 🦅

What is it?

SOAR stands for Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results. It’s a strengths-based strategic planning framework that shifts attention from gaps and threats (like SWOT) to what’s working and what could be.

How it works.

SOAR, simply put, is a framework to audit your aspirations. At the start of a project or organisational re-positioning, ask yourself, or your team, the following questions:

• Strengths. What do we do exceptionally well? What resources or skills set us apart?

• Opportunities. What trends, partnerships, or gaps could we leverage?

• Aspirations. What is our vision for the future? What difference do we want to make?

• Results. How will we measure success? What are the key indicators of impact and progress?

This isn’t rocket science, and many of you will already be doing some form of this. But I’m always saddened to learn how little time leaders are able to carve out for strategic thinking. A friendly reminder:, the possibility of mission creep is very real. I’m seeing a lot of well-meaning, well-established NGOs at the moment fail to realise that their futures are being eaten by smaller, more-focused nonprofits and/or shifts in funder priorities. Regular reflection is vital.

When to use it.

• You’re a media NGO advocating for press freedom— use SOAR to leverage your global network and an upcoming summit to amplify impact.

• You’re a foundation trying out participatory grantmaking—use SOAR to uncover your role in fostering equity by setting clear aspirations and plans for shifting power to grantees.

• You’re a misinfo nonprofit scaling an education program—SOAR can guide you to identify successful teaching models and align them with opportunities in new underserved regions.

• You’re a climate action coalition pivoting strategies—SOAR helps you turn advocacy wins into expanded campaigns tied to measurable carbon reduction goals.

• You’re a community arts initiative building partnerships—SOAR may bring clarity as you co-develop new creative ideas with folks on the ground.
  

Why it works.

Mission-driven organisations often struggle to balance execution (outputs) and impact (outcomes).

SOAR helps clarify both by rooting strategy in vision and values while staying action-oriented. Personally, I find SOAR energises teams much more than other strategic frameworks developed for corporate settings. And SOAR is inherently collaborative and inclusive - that builds buy-in and shared ownership among communities, teams and partners.

Get started.

Gather your team: Involve key stakeholders, including staff, beneficiaries, and partners. Use the SOAR categories as prompts to explore strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results collaboratively. Identify priorities where your strengths and opportunities align with your aspirations and measurable results. Then develop action steps, ensuring each one ties to a clear outcome.

Take it to the next level.

• Use the “Opportunities” section to brainstorm future scenarios and what-if strategies. Map how emerging trends or risks (like AI, policy changes, or market shifts) could amplify or challenge your strengths.

• Use SOAR as a decision filter. Focus only on projects that leverage strengths, seize key opportunities, and align with aspirations while delivering measurable results.

• Create a living team document of your strengths, updated quarterly. Think beyond internal capabilities to include community assets, partnerships, and intangible resources like reputation or trust.

🔮 FUTUREPROOFING 🔮 

SOAR’s focus on aspirations and results aligns well with growing trends like:

• Outcome-based funding: As we all know, funders increasingly prioritise measurable impact over activities. SOAR helps articulate this clearly.

• Collaborative impact: SOAR can be a shared framework in gnarly multi-stakeholder partnerships, fostering alignment.

• Emergent strategy: The framework is flexible enough to iterate as conditions evolve, keeping your team responsive to whatever political catastrophes your citizenry inflicts upon you .

🪁 PARALLEL PLAY 🪁

Three absorbing distractions to occupy you during these long winter nights.

• The architectural collective Archigram have reformed and relaunched their magazine. Print is not dead? Again?

• 65 social entrepreneurs to watch for in 2025 from the fields of education, impact investing, regenerative agriculture, and more (no journalism though - I wonder why?).

• I’m learning how to take photographs for the first time. Cody Mitchell's portable cheatsheets on the exposure triangle are really helping!

🌊 WAVE GOODBYE 🌊

Thanks for being here. At Evenly Distributed, I coach leaders, entrepreneurs, and creators who want to change things. If you’re reimagining your organisation or community, I believe you deserve the resources, insights, and support to build a fairer future.

I have a YouTube channel! My newest vlog is called Create like no-one is watching, which at the moment is true. So feel free to head over there and drop me a like.

Over at Evenly Distributed, you’ll find a free download of Fundraising HQ (my fundraising database); my €99 "fundraising engine” course; Funder Match, my fundraising GPT; and the Purpose & Profit Matrix (my free framework to figure out your revenue).

And if you were forwarded this email and you like what you see, you can subscribe for more.

See you next week,

Adam