Insights

As a team who seek to inspire our clients to better understand and maximise their impact, we also receive a great deal of inspiration from our clients and the work we do together. Reflecting on this virtuous cycle, the team thought about what we found inspiring during 2024 – the specific moments, opportunities, clients and projects.

There was an abundance of choice across the 75 projects we worked on with 52 clients from many fields and sectors. Whether working with for-purpose organisations, or corporate and government clients, they all share the common ground of seeking to bring about positive change and be part of the solution to challenging social and environmental problems. Below are some of our inspirational highlights, including internal opportunities and projects (B Corp recertification is something to celebrate!).

Inspiring moments, opportunities, clients and projects in 2024

• Think Impact celebrating 10 years of supporting organisations to manage for better impact – having started as one person to becoming a growing team of 15, with two staff promoted in 2024!
• Our increased focus on evaluation work, and further broadening of our work in sustainability.
• The expanded number and diversity of First Nations projects, from storytelling to systems change, in areas including restorative justice, health, media and community housing. And how valued it is to spend time on Country and in conversation, learning with First Nations stakeholders.
• The multiple clients who work in significant and complex areas in their local communities, such as family and domestic violence and youth services. There is much to be gained in learning how these organisations provide support, give and earn trust and respect, and as a result can achieve amazing outcomes.
• Having a client find us, identify strong alignment with our values, then choose us for their sustainability project.
• Seeing the transformed career opportunities and confidence of individuals working on a large transport infrastructure project that incorporated a unique diversity and social procurement initiative.
• Seeing innovative social enterprise projects come to fruition, facilitated by referrals and long-term connections.

Overall, there was a strong and shared feeling that it is a privilege to do the work we do, and to support our clients in their journeys to manage for better impact.

Emerging priorities for social impact in 2025

The team also discussed the emerging issues, challenges and opportunities we foresee for 2025, with these four things top-of-mind:

• Recognition that the landscape of social issues is ever shifting with growing inequality and shrinking social cohesion in parts of our community. This is challenging and we need to consider how we strengthen the ways we can walk alongside clients while keeping ourselves grounded.
• Continue to improve our practice, particularly in the context of working with First Nations clients and initiatives – think about our continuous learning and collaborations that support what we need to do and culturally respectful ways of doing it.
• In recognition that we live in a time of information overload and decreasing attention spans, there is a need to increase our use of storytelling and more creative, visual approaches for how we translate and communicate data.
• Keeping an eye on changing technology, such as artificial intelligence and how this can enhance our work while managing the risks associated with data use and the implications for data sovereignty.

As we embark on the year ahead with new challenges and trends emerging, we look forward to continued learning and growing in the work we do. There is much more shared inspiration to come!