Shared Measurement and Big Data for Good
Traditional tools for evaluation and measurement fail to take into account the complexity of an interconnected and digitized world.
Optimized Social Responsibility Through Evaluation
Three evolving approaches to evaluation in social enterprise could change its use in a significant way.
Implications for the Social Sector
In this panel discussion, experts address how the social sector must ask the right questions when developing metrics.
Embracing Complexity in Social Enterprise Evaluation
In this audio lecture, Brenda Zimmerman suggests approaches for addressing complexity in evaluation systems of social enterprise.
The Paradoxical Break in Philanthropy
Ned Breslin and Jacob Lief discuss funding for long-term impact in the current philanthropic system.
Leadership Trends of the 21st Century
The CEOs of three nonprofit organizations reflect upon the speed and tact with which they must adapt their strategies and directions in a new century.
Saisir les clés du financement social
Pierre Carpentier, Jean-Michel Lecuyer, & Céline Claverie join for a panel discussion on social innovation and finance; not translated from French to English.
Jeff Mason - Improving Philanthropy Effectiveness
How do we know that the nonprofit organizations we support are actually effective? In this audio interview, host Sheela Sethuraman converses with Jeff Mason about his efforts, along with key organizational leaders, to develop an assessment tool that evaluates nonprofit management performances. Their work could become a major contribution to the world of philanthropy.
Randy Komisar - Online Capital Markets for Philanthropy
How do we create an efficient capital market for philanthropy? What are the best ways to marry program evaluation with powerful dynamics among online giving places? What role should public policy take in all this? In this free-ranging audio lecture, sponsored by the Stanford Center for Social Innovation, Randy Komisar offers a venture capitalist's perspective on these questions and more.
Mark Kramer - Moving From Insight to Action
At its worst, program evaluation is a useless activity that generates lots of boring data and irrelevant conclusions. But at its best, argues Mark Kramer in a talk he gave at the 2008 Nonprofit Management Institute, it can be a strategic tool for the genuine improvement of a nonprofit. He offers exemplars of organizations that have used evaluation effectively to advance their missions.
Robert Searle - Can Nonprofits Get More Bang for the Buck?
If you haven't bought a flat-screen TV yet, chances are you're waiting for the prices to drop. Technologies get cheaper by virtue of the "experience curve," a phenomenon where, as companies get better at what they do, costs become lower. In this Stanford Social Innovation Review sponsored audio lecture, Robert Searle argues that nonprofits also can have experience curves, achieving a greater volume of outcomes for the same cost. He discusses the types of outcome metrics on which nonprofits should focus.
Good Measures Conference - Evaluation: New Ways of Working Together
How does an organization get through the evaluation process and live to tell about it? In this panel, part of the Stanford Social Innovation Review's conference on evaluation, funders and fundees on both sides of the table from a variety of organizations in the areas of education and social services talk about what it was like to be in the trenches of successful evaluation processes. They tease out common success factors, including how to work collaboratively across sectors and with multiple constituents.
Good Measures Conference - Evaluation for Learning
Nonprofits tend to collect a great deal of evaluative data but often have no idea how to use it to assess their performance—particularly because doing so properly is a complicated process requiring serious social sciences knowledge. In this panel discussion, part of the Stanford Social Innovation Review's conference on evaluation, two experts talk about how an organization may better use such data—as well as "external" information in the form of theory and advice—to create a "culture of inquiry" focused on learning and improvement.
Carol Larson - Assessing Performance and Refining Strategy
What does it take to keep a large foundation focused on evaluation for self-improvement? As part of the Stanford Social Innovation Review's conference on evaluation, Carol Larson, CEO of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, shares tools, lessons, and strategies for assessing performance to create a "culture of inquiry." Organizational qualities such as innovation, collaboration among stakeholders, and freedom to make "mistakes" are critical elements to foster an effective learning enterprise.
Panel Discussion - Skoll World Forum: Assessing Impact
In considering the effectiveness of your social enterprise, are you making a difference? Do you add value to your constituents' lives? Are you as effective as possible per dollar output? In this panel discussion at the 2008 Skoll World Forum, talented experts talk about the challenges of social enterprises and how metrics can impact organizational learning and innovation, and lead the more effective use of resources.