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GOOD READ: Making Social Investment Decisions - What do we need to know?

 

Febuary 26, 2008

Alliance Magazine


I’ve just finished reading Making Social Investment Decisions:  What do we need to know? By David Bonbright.  In the article (Alliance Magazine…read more at http://www.alliancemagazine.org/free/html/dec07e.html,  he makes several valid points:
 
  • The trick to getting impact measurement right at ‘the organization’ is to move out of the organization into the larger ecosystem in which the organization lives.
  • Measuring social change requires a friendly pluralistic model in which qualitative, quantitative, perceptual and empirical data can be assembled into a comprehensible whole.
  • The responsibility of measuring social change work is two fold:  one is to directly measure the outcomes.  The other is to measure the changes in the system around the problem being addressed – measuring system impact. 
  • The resolution will be an ecosystem-level mechanism that captures, analyses, aggregates, compares, and freely publishes organization results for all.
  • From Paul Brest (President of the Hewlett Foundation) in his introductory essay to the Hewlett Foundation’s most annual report, components for the type of information that is necessary for solving important social problems:
    • Basic organizational and financial information
    • A description of the organization’s goals and strategies for achieving them
    • Indicators to trace the organization’s progress towards its goals
    • Evidence of actual impact, where available, and lessons learned.
    • Reviews of the organization by its beneficiaries and other constituents

 
ME:  What good is a system of measurement if no one sees it?  
 
Bonbright suggests that ‘a powerful expression of constituency feedback – particularly where internet usage is highest – is for those who know about an organization to publish their reviews on a public  platform.’
 
He adds that ‘the trick may be to invest in the creation of infrastructure such as open communities of practice and performance measurement commons that accelerate bottom-up processes of joint venturing, merging, imitating, and above all learning.’ 

Posted by allysonreaves on February 26, 2008 06:45 AM |

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