Getting to Evidence-Based Policy: Three Perspectives
Why researchers and practitioners are shifting away from expensive new studies toward the effective synthesis of existing research.
Measurement & Evaluation - Most Popular
New ways to measure and evaluate the impact an organization’s work has on society (more)
Podcast
Using Data to Create Social Change
Nancy Lublin describes how working with data has helped DoSomething.org learn and grow.
Crowdsourcing the Future of a Social Movement
How an innovative campaign lifted up the voices of people across the United States to help inform movement leaders about the hopes, fears, and ideas of the LGBTQ community.
Communicating Data to Drive Change
How the Annie E. Casey Foundation has leveraged the power of information and communication to drive public investment in children and their families.
Social Issues
Getting Out the Vote Is Tougher Than You Think
Recent randomized field trials provide evidence that most get out the vote mobilization efforts have very modest effects on voter turnout, much less than previously thought.
Community Engagement Matters (Now More Than Ever)
In adopting data-driven practices, leaders must design and implement programs in ways that engage community members directly in the work of social change.
Who Will Pay for Data?
The quest to build an infrastructure for measuring social impact depends on targeting the right customers.
What Impact Investors Can Learn from the Microfinance Industry
Substitute the word “impact” for “social performance,” and current debates in the investment community sound exactly like the ones the microfinance industry had 10 years ago. The investor community can learn from microfinance’s successful efforts to set standards for non-financial returns—the “other bottom line.”
Civic Engagement
Making Voting Easier Doesn’t Increase Turnout
To the surprise of many, making the act of voting easier hasn’t actually led to higher voter turnout. To increase turnout, we need to get more people interested in politics.
An Outcomes Mindset for Systemic Impact
To achieve broad social impact, we need systemic solutions. This requires government to lead with an outcomes-focused approach that embraces data and technology, aligns financial incentives, learns from policy failures and successes, and acts on new knowledge about what works.