Looking Back to Move Forward
An excerpt from How Social Science Got Better on how the social sciences are becoming more relevant, diverse, and reflective.
Excerpt
Measurement & Evaluation - Most Popular
New ways to measure and evaluate the impact an organization’s work has on society (more)
Heroic Accounting
New proposals for monetizing corporate planetary impacts are alluring, impossible, and perilous.
Efficacy Before Scale
To invest in and grow promising organizations and programs in a way that promotes efficacy prior to significant scaling and expansion, there are three pathways to follow: piloting, testing, and iterating.
How Listening to Constituents Can Lead to Systems Change
Listening to participants allows nonprofits to go beyond the “what” of change to the “how and why,” the first step toward changing unjust systems.
Measuring Climate Risk
Climate Risk Labs (CRL), one of the emerging nonprofits tackling the climate crisis, aims to accelerate climate science research and build partnerships that utilize CRL’s data sets to shape future clean energy solutions.
Bringing Evidence-Based Policy Change to Rural China
Stanford University’s Rural Education Action Program has established a one-of-a-kind research collaborative among Chinese, US, and European universities to improve the lot of rural Chinese families. Its success shows the potential of applying scientific methods to development and forging global partnerships for social impact.
Two Experiments With Outcomes Frameworks
The new public management model of governance has failed. But an emerging collaborative and democratic approach shows promise.
Putting Evidence to Use
Research does no good if its insights are irrelevant or not applied. Ensuring that evidence influences policy requires developing the right ecosystem and levers for accountability.
Getting to Scale: Size Matters. Shape Matters More.
Scale is a verb, not a noun: The trajectory and curve of impact are more important than the numbers.
Putting Participants at the Center of Managing and Leading Nonprofits
Participants are not simply the intended beneficiaries of nonprofit programs. Their organizational experience, in addition to their program experience, should guide nonprofit management to achieve more meaningful social impact.