The Social Yield is an Australian impact consultancy with a vision of a flourishing society.

We help purpose-driven organisations create social value for the communities they serve.

By making sense of complex evidence, we enable our clients to

focus on the interventions that matter most.

OUR WORK

The Social Yield provides support across four domains:

INQUIRY

'What's needed, and by whom?'

Achieving positive social outcomes requires informed decision-making. We work with clients and communities to identify their most pressing concerns, and we synthesise and interpret best evidence from research, evaluation and engagement so that interventions can meet community needs and deliver meaningful social returns on investment.

STAKEHOLDER EXPERIENCE RESEARCH | Good practice reviews | Environmental scans | Strategic gap analyses

IMPLEMENTATION

'How do we get there?'

Implementation means putting knowledge to work for tangible outcomes. By utilising findings from research, evaluation and engagement, organisations can innovate and better respond to the communities they serve. We help close the gap between research and practice by transforming high-quality evidence into policy, strategy and advice tailored to specific contexts and professional practice environments.

strategies | planning frameworks | social & organisational policy | SERVICE IMPROVEMENT ADVICE

EVALUATION

'What works, and why? What social value have we created?'

The purpose of evaluation is to determine the efficacy and value of an intervention. We take a utilisation-focused approach, designing evaluation strategies to meet the information needs of end users. Our evaluation work includes mapping theories of change, identifying a program's strengths and limitations, and assessing the gap between strategic intent and outcomes.

formative & summative evaluations | EVALUATION & monitoring frameworks

KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE

Telling the impact story and building collective knowledge.

Purposeful knowledge exchange can provide transparency, assist with planning, promote innovation and support communities of practice. We capture and transfer knowledge so that those who share the same goals can gain new insights, improve impact delivery, allocate resources more effectively and foster a richer understanding of social value creation.

reports | ISSUES papers | COMMUNICATION strategies & tools | impact narratives

some of the questions

we've helped our clients with:

'In what ways are our services creating public value, and what are the strategic gaps?'

Local Government organisation

About

Mission

The Social Yield's mission is to help others create positive outcomes for communities. We do this by enabling organisations to make informed decisions about how to target effort and resources.

Our story

Director and Principal Consultant, EJ Baird, established The Social Yield Pty Ltd in 2017 after two decades supporting and documenting the creation of social value.

Since first launching her private practice in 2005, EJ has produced dynamic consulting solutions for numerous government, community and education sector organisations in both Australia and Canada. These include the local governments of Waratah-Wynyard, Circular Head, Central Coast, Melbourne, Yarra, Merri-bek, Port Phillip, Darebin, Knox, Banyule and Brimbank; regional and State-level entities such as the Cradle Coast Authority, the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment and the LGPro Corporate Planners Network of Victoria; and community and education sector organisations such as the Vancouver School Board and the Affiliation of Multicultural Societies and Service Agencies of British Columbia. Between 2009 and 2013, EJ Baird was Director of Pacific Social Planning Ltd, a boutique consultancy based in Vancouver, Canada.

Prior to establishing her private practice, EJ held social and strategic planning positions in Victorian local government and worked as a social researcher in academia and the private sector. She has also served as a sociology and healthcare educator at the universities of Tasmania and British Columbia. A former journalist, media researcher and professional writer, EJ is expertly positioned to craft engaging communications and support knowledge exchange.

EJ Baird (QPR)

Director and Principal Consultant

MPubPol&Gov (Deakin); MA (Toronto); GCert in Evaluation and GDip Aust. Indigenous Studies (Melbourne). Member, The Research Society, the Australasian Evaluation Society and the Social Impact Measurement Network of Australia.

The Social Yield is a proud Company Partner of The Research Society

How we work

The Social Yield specialises in tightly defined projects that maximise client value. Our knowledge solutions are individually tailored to help clients reach their goals. For multidisciplinary projects, The Social Yield may partner with other highly regarded professionals to form bespoke consulting teams.