In May last year I wrote about how commissioners could improve their commissioning of external evaluations for social impact. It struck me that the advice I gave was quite technical (well it was for the UK Evaluation Society’s journal) and there were a few things not included that most of Read more…
Social Impact organisations have a lot to think about and keep on top of – not only whether or not they are reaching their target beneficiaries and making a difference in their lives, but also: paying the bills and generating enough income. It can be tempting to constantly look for Read more…
A couple of weeks ago I was part of a learning event held by one of my clients. I had recently led a two-person team to deliver an organisational evaluation of their performance and results over the past three years. We delivered a five minute summary of our results together Read more…
Supply chains might seem like an odd topic for social impact organisations to be concerned about, especially when most people think of supply chains as being something that manufacturers and retailers need to be aware of. Well, maybe not. You see increasingly social impact organisations, especially social enterprises, are making Read more…
Following on from my last blog, the title of this one seems pretty self-explanatory. Indeed we have known for over a decade that increasingly supporters and donors are more motivated by causes rather than organisations and that working together can tap into significant social and social media campaigning. Except that Read more…
It is easy and tempting to put everything into a nice little box with a label on it. Makes it seem manageable, do-able. At least until we try to assess whether we’ve actually made any improvements. Most of time the changes that we thought would happen somehow don’t seem to Read more…
More often these days small organisations are being challenged to ‘prove it’ when it comes to the results that they say they have achieved. Many can’t and some won’t. For decades now larger social impact organisations have been developing and embedding monitoring and evaluation into their structures, systems and processes. Read more…
Content for this blog post comes from an unpublished paper that I have edited and revised for Aperio Group (UK) Ltd For the last two decades there has been a drive to increase the amount of private investment and philanthropy going into the third sector and development sector. Social investment Read more…
Every year it seems that social impact makes huge strides forwards! In thinking through the past twelve months and looking ahead the following trends have emerged, at least from my point of view! Getting better at measuring complex issues: There is a growing acceptance that tackling and measuring individual issues such Read more…
We talk a lot about how important it is to measure outcomes and sometimes impact – and to share these results widely. But when you look closely at what organisations are really putting up on their websites, it is often just numbers or percentages. Numbers are great. Numbers are important. Read more…