Identifying

Stakeholders
- By Maianne Preble . Pistachio Thinking . 952.261.4771 . pistachiothinking@gmail.com

Who are stakeholders? Why do they matter? How do stakeholders impact your project and goals? How do I identify stakeholders?

Who are stakeholders? Stakeholders are parties that will impact or be impacted by

your project or goals. The impact on or from a stakeholder may be direct or indirect. Some groups of stakeholders are easy to identify residents of a neighborhood/community, and businesses and organizations based in the neighborhood/community. Other groups may be identifiable with a bit more thought city- and state-wide departments, area religious and civic organizations, and special interest groups. But there are far more potential stakeholders than this small list. Identifying who are stakeholders in a specific neighborhood, community, city, or state project or goal is vital to successfully moving forward.

Why do stakeholders matter? Engaging the right stakeholders is the difference

between a successful project and one that never quite gets off the ground. Stakeholders can make or break an effort. Not engaging stakeholders often results in people feeling overlooked, underappreciated, and generally disappointed in the process of achieving goals. Have you ever gotten an email, phone call, or had someone stand up in a meeting saying WHY DID YOU DO X? YOU NEVER ASKED MY OPION! THIS IDEA IS CRAP, I HAVE A BETTER ONE NO ONE EVER LISTENS! those are the marked signs of stakeholders that have been overlooked in the process of achieving your communitys goals.

How do I identify stakeholders? Identifying stakeholders should be like tossing a

pebble into a lake. The pebble is the idea; the lake all the people, organizations, and other parties impacted by the idea. The initial ripples are those who are impacted the most by the idea, with each expanding ripple a group of stakeholders affected less and less directly by the idea. Stakeholders who are most impacted by a specific idea are those who should be most involved with discussions about how the idea will take shape and be executed.

Basic stakeholders: Here are some ideas to help get you started identifying stakeholders
in your project, goal, or ideas. Level 1: Residents, businesses based in the area, civic and religious organizations based in the area, city and state departments that may be involved in project (ie: DOT, HUD, inspections, sanitation, public transportation, etc) Level 2: Special interest groups (will help with grassroots efforts), Local and State nonprofits, employees of area businesses (nonresidents), members of area civic and religious organizations (nonresidents) Level 3: Tourists (including family/friends of residents), residents of surrounding communities/neighborhoods, customers/patrons of area businesses Level 4: People traveling through the community/neighborhood, former residents