Reports Database:
Women Leaders of the Future Program, Social Return on Investment Analysis

“The Women Leaders of the Future (WLF) Program has been carried out in cooperation with Sanofi Türkiye and the Association of Women Entrepreneurs (KAGIDER) since 2011. The program aims to develop competencies and professional networks of young women who are senior university students or new graduates and to make a strong start to their careers. Since 2011, the program has reached 1,300 women through training and mentorships.

This report covers both the impacts of the WLF Program on its stakeholders and the Social Return on Investment (SROI) assessment for the year, 2022. 2022 was selected for the SROI analysis as this is the final year in which online training was delivered and the aim is to evaluate the social value generated through the online training.

The main findings of the SROI analysis are summarized below:

• The SROI analysis shows that the WLF Program generated a total value of 4,979,931.63 TRY of social value through activities in 2022, with a total investment of 736,153.00 TRY. This means that in 2022, every 1 TRY investment in the WLF Program generated 6,76 TRY in social value (1:6,76 TRY). The SROI ratio of 1:6,76 showed that the WLF Program created social value above its’ investment in 2022. The sensitivity analysis highlighted that the likelihood of outcomes occurring without the program (deadweight) and the influence of other contributing programs and networks (attribution) significantly affect the impact of the program. These dimensions should be carefully considered in future program design, and enhanced data collection would contribute to a more holistic understanding of the program’s value.
• Impact values were calculated by monetizing the outcomes experienced by stakeholder groups including training participants, mentees, mentors, co-trainers, term representatives. In this context, it was observed that the groups with the highest total impact values in 2022 were the WLF training participants (n=263), and corporate mentees (n=63).
• For training participants, the most valuable outcomes were the development of entrepreneurial awareness (743,639.81 TRY; relative importance: 8.6) and a sense of solidarity (602,325.50 TRY; relative importance: 9.1).
• Solidarity is identified as the outcome with the highest impact value for training participants, WLF2WLF mentees and WLF2WLF mentors. Therefore, solidarity is identified as the common change experienced by the program participants, indicating a deep sense of belonging and collective empowerment generated by the program.
• Among mentees, besides solidarity, empowered self-identity and increased self-efficacy were highly valued.

Similarly, besides solidarity, WLF2WLF mentors evaluated volunteering and personal growth as significant outcomes they experience.

• For co-trainers, personal growth and increased social well-being stand out as the most significant outcomes, while term representatives report enhanced psychological empowerment, improved employability and career development.

Furthermore, the findings of the study indicate that the WLF Program also has an impact on other stakeholder groups. This is evidenced by the fact that a large proportion (93%) of the WLF training participants responded to the questionnaire declared that they shared the contributions of the program with others in their social and professional circles. Participants shared their insights on women’s roles in social and economic life along with information about business life, career planning and entrepreneurship with people in their networks. In line with this, by sharing their insights with others, they believed that they helped empowering women around them, instilled hope for women to develop their careers, made them feel that they are not alone, and increased other’s interest in the program.

Finally, supporting online activities with physical meetings (such as organizing regular alumni meetings), developing activities that will support a strong career start (offering internship opportunities etc.), establishing special communication channels for professional groups where sectoral information will be shared, improving the mentor-mentee communication system, keeping Google mail group communication more active and up-to-date could serve as channels for further improvement and greater impact in the coming years.”