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Impact Measurement

by Social Edge — last modified 2008-12-16 11:19

Find all the resources, blogs, and discussions about measuring and managing the impact of social ventures.

Blogs

SVT on Impact Sara Olsen & Brett Galimidi from Social Venture Technology (SVT) help organizations measure, manage and communicate social and environmental impact by using innovative metrics, analysis and information management tools.

Read the latest:

2008-12-02 Investing in Large Scale Social and Ecological Challenges

Investing in/funding of large social and environmental challenges requires a systematic approach to investment decision-making, but one that allows for unique and contextual expectations of returns to be set.

Earlier this year, our company was commissioned to develop an investment evaluation framework for a group of high net worth individuals who were exploring the development of an ecolodge in Rwanda as a means of addressing, at least in part, the social challenges stemming from the genocide and the ecological stress of decades of environmental neglect plus the repatriation of survivors to previously unoccupied areas that lack the necessary carrying capacity to rebuild communities.

Depending on how you read it, that last paragraph describes either a worthy attempt to use commerce and local assets to help solve a social problem or a grandiose vision that seems unattainable even with the best of intentions. As such, there are a few key questions you might be asking yourself...

2008-11-16 The Field's Love-Hate Relationship with Standards

2008-11-03 A Moment to 'Preflect'
2008-10-21 SoCap '08- join the impact conversation
2008-10-06 Whose value?
2008-09-22 Addressable Impact: Market Size and Relative Value
2008-09-09 To Standardize or Not to Standardize: Some Core Principles
2008-08-24 Impact 3.0

Also check out the blog Forging Ahead where social entrepreneur and consultant debate and discuss impact, social return on investment and more:

2008-11-14 The Balance Sheet, part 1 Is FORGE seeking the highest return?

2008-11-08 Promise vs Hope What can you credibly measure and deliver?

Discussions

Design for Social Impact Hosted by Jocelyn Wyatt, 2008-08-19

Outcomes Measurement Hosted by Debra Natenshon, 2008-03-04

Beyond-the-Walls Leadership (1) Hosted by Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant, authors of Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits, present how some of the most successful nonprofits achieve wide scale, systemic social change. This is the first of a three part discussion series and examines the first two practices of High-Impact Nonprofits - Advocacy and Business Partnerships. 2008-02-28
Beyond-the-Walls Leadership (2) Part 2: Evangelists and Networking
Beyond-the-Walls Leadership (3) Part 3: Adaptation and Leadership

New Metrics for Today's Social Entrepreneurs Hosted by Patrick O'Heffernan 2007-06-19
Scaling Capacities Hosted by Steven LaFrance who shares the seven critical scaling capacities for effectively growing impact, 2007-10-04
Social Entrepreneurship is about Innovation and Impact, Not Income Hosted by J. Gregory Dees, 2003-09

Global X Video Interviews

Fazel Abed, Founder of BRAC, "You need to be ambitious! Build an organization to its full capacity and grow it. Don't be satisfied too early, and you will have a bigger impact in your work."

Edgardo Salomón, Founder of FINSOL His keys to making a big social impact are to hire the right people and plan to scale. "The most important challenge is access to managerial talent. Capital is always available for good projects. The main problem is talent." "There is no success without scale, and that's why networking is so important"

[more Global X Interviews]

Podcasts

Jessica Shortall - Uzbekistan, 2008-06-18 Jessica Shortall, Peace Corps volunteer in Uzbekistan (2000-01), is the Founder of Catalyst Strategy Advisors in London, where she advises businesses on how to operate for the social good while making a profit.

Omar Yaqub , 2008-06-18, Omar Yaqub helped start an $11 million investment fund in Canada for non-profit organizations, co-founded a software company and works for MBAs Without Borders. Blended value uses lines of questioning that empirically explore how a project or business has improved people’s lives or the environment for the better. Rather than looking at activities undertaken, it focuses on impact.

Gary Kosman, 2008-05-20, Gary Kosman received an Echoing Green fellowship in 2003 to launch America Learns, a for-profit educational performance and accountability firm now reaching more than 20,000 students across 14 countries. Gary Kosman tracks his social impact through constant interviews with his clients, and he asks his customers to provide case studies of good practice.

Steve Wright - Micronesia, 2008- 06-18, Steve Wright, Peace Corps volunteer in Micronesia (1989-1991), now with the Salesforce Foundation, where he helps the non-profit sector use data more effectively. “Maintain rigor on using data to measure your social impact and keep it pre-eminent. The bottom line is a better world; not more revenue.” He urges social entrepreneurs to use data to understand their progress both internally and across sectors.

Heather Franzese - Mali, 2007-06-05, Heather Franzese, Peace Corps volunteer in Mali (1999–2001), worked for Oxfam, KickStart and Transfair, the global organization that enables sustainable development and community empowerment by cultivating equitable global trade and certifying and promoting Fair Trade products. While there, she would calculate the SROI – Social Return on Investment- on the funds she raised. She discusses the ways in which she did those calculations, pointing out that different businesses and organization may do it differently.

[more podcasts]

Jobs

Echoing Green, Development Associate, New York, NY, 2008-12-11

The Deshpande Foundation, Program Officers, Hubli, Karnataka, India, 2008-12-10

RESULTS Japan, National Director, Tokyo, Japan, 2008-12-07

NESsT,NESsT Enterprise Development Manager, Santiago, Chile, 2008-12-06

Gray Ghost Social Venture Fund, Investment Analyst, Atlanta, GA, 2008-11-18

[more impact and investment jobs]

Opportunities

Poverty and Social Protection Conference 2009, 11th- 13th of March 2009, Bangkok, Thailand. 2008-12-03

FT Climate Change Challenge Accepting entries Nov 13, 2008 - January 30, 2009, 2008-11-13

Unite For Sight Conference, Saturday, April 18 - Sunday, April 19, 2009, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA, 2008-11-17

[more opportunities]

Wiki Resources & Information

Hybrid Model

Impact Assessment

Scaling for Social Entrepreneurs

Other Blog Mentions and Impact Seminars:

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, What's the IMPACT of this all?, 2008-03-27 Skoll World Forum session vdeo and blog post on interactive session exploring various approaches to assessing impact.

Empathy as a Tool for Social Impact - IDEO

Measuring Impact through Social Capital Assessment 2008-04-18 This session focused on SOCAT--a method used to assess community needs and assets before, after, and during a project is implemented. How do you know your ...

Metrics for Love?, 2008-04-29, Omar wrestles with age-old questions of how social entrepreneurs actually measure the ‘good’ they’re putting into the world…

The Five Meanings of Scale, 2007-02-27, Introduction by Peter Frumpkin

BACO Metrics & Measuring What Counts, Keely Stevenson, 2007-01-30

Social Impact Assessment The Rockefeller and Goldman Sachs Foundations hosted a conversation among grantmakers and investors on the topic of Social Impact Assessment in March 2003. ...

Business Social Ventures - Critical Path for Global Impact? Sponsored by Ashoka (November 2003 - Closed)

Double Bottom Line The Rockefeller Foundation's Double Bottom Line Project produced the first catalog of methods that for-profit and nonprofit social ventures and enterprises ...