Stakeholder analysis

Stakeholder analysis identifies the groups of people that affect, are affected by, or have an interest in, an organisation's work. Stakeholders can be both inside and outside an organisation, including those who may only have an indirect connection with an organisation.

Stakeholder analysis involves mapping out who your organisation's stakeholders are, their degree of interest in the organisation and your interest in them, their influence on you and yours on them. You can then prioritise each stakeholder according to their importance to your organisation and consider how you will manage your relationship with them.

Benefits

It helps you to establish effective relationships, according to how important each stakeholder is to you. It can reveal the breadth of relationships your organisation has: your stakeholder network may be much broader than you think. It’s a good way to explore power dynamics and the different roles a stakeholder may play. It helps organisations to understand how they are seen by others.

Limitations

The analysis will be based on participants’ opinions. You may need to ask stakeholders to get an accurate picture of their interest in, or opinion of your organisation.

When to use it

This tool can be useful at several stages in the strategic planning process:

• get ready for strategic planning: because it can help you to think about who to involve in the process and when
• look in: it could offer a starting point for assessing your partnership working
• look out: you could identify potential new partners or competitors.

More information about this tool is included in our guide Tools for Tomorrow.

Our Funder needs analysis tool will help you to explore in more detail the interests donors and customers might have in you, as well as your interest in them.

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