All Blog Posts (65)

Watch this short video of Rockefeller Foundation president Judith Rodin discussing the value of social impact bonds as an alternative to traditional giving. 

I am very pleased to share our first report on the field of impact investing, as it increasingly being called. The report, "What Investees Think", presents robust feedback from social enterprises about the performance of their investors.



As Jed Emerson writes in his foreword,



"The power of what Keystone Accountability has brought forward in the current report is shown in…

Each week, the editors of PhilanTopic compile a list of noteworthy posts from and about the nonprofit sector. Here are a few posts from the last two weeks about impact and effectiveness for your reading pleasure. Have a post you'd like to add to the list? Let us know in the comments section below.

In a guest post on the GuideStar blog, Social Solutions…

Mary Gregory is the executive director of the Bella Vista Foundation, one of twenty-two foundations managed by Pacific Foundation Services (PFS). She has been with the company for fourteen years and enjoys the variety of philanthropic styles demonstrated by PFS’s clients. This post originally appeared on the Foundation Center's Glasspockets.org blog,…

Last summer, Matthew Forti of the Bridgespan Group interviewed the director of Strategy, Measurement, and Evaluation at the Gates Foundation, Jodi Nelson for the Stanford Social Innovation Review. In this fascinating interview, Jodi offers insights into how the Foundation approaches measurement and evaluation (M&E) as an integral part of strategic…

In this September 2012 press release, the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) announces their latest report, a study of foundation support for nonprofit impact measurement. The report, Room for Improvement: Foundations' Support of Nonprofit Performance Assessment, includes the following key findings:

1. The majority of nonprofit leaders surveyed, 71 percent,…

3ie published a report this summer highlighting alternative methodologies for qualitative impact evaluation. Some, like Outcome Mapping, are featured in TRASI, while others will be considered for inclusion. These methods attempt to show a cause and effect link between a program's activities and its…

Last week I attended the 1st Pan-Asia-Africa Learn MandE Conference in Bangkok. (M & E = monitoring and evaluation; in this case it was for international development programs). The conference was well organized and there was a good mix of implementing organizations, academics, donors, and a few software folks. I liked the size of the conference because all of us were able to attend all the sessions – no rushing around to other rooms to find particular topics of interest.

Marla…

The Education and Research Foundation of the Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan New York has launched an updated Learn about Charity Effectiveness web site to benefit charity executives, nonprofit board members, foundation leaders, and others. The site features resources such as: 

• Videos of prior BBB Charity Effectiveness Symposium programs
• Whitepaper summaries of symposium…

Each week, the editors of PhilanTopic compile a list of noteworthy posts from and about the nonprofit sector. Here are a couple posts from last week’s roundup about impact and effectiveness for your reading pleasure. Have a post you'd like to add to the list? Let us know in the comments section below.

Is charity more effective than government? Can it…

New York, NY: October 1, 2012 – The Social Impact Exchange announced today the launch of its 2013 Business Plan Competition. The Competition identifies social sector scaling initiatives with demonstrated impact and…

The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) 2012 conference kicked off today in Glen Cove, NY. Over the next three days, sessions will explore themes ranging from triangulating impact to making the case for philanthropy in impact investing to how social impact bonds can be used in emerging markets.

Here's a description from Aspen's web site:

Each year, the ANDE Annual Conference is the largest gathering of members from around the globe. The event is…

Today on the Chronicle of Philanthropy's Prospecting blog, Nicole Wallace talks about how reporting impact is cited as a key fundraising tool in Guidestar's new More Money for More Good fundraising guide, written with Hope Consulting. The authors of the…

Each week, the editors of PhilanTopic compile a list of noteworthy posts from and about the nonprofit sector. Here are a couple posts from last week’s roundup about impact and effectiveness for your reading pleasure. Have a post you'd like to add to the list? Let us know in the comments section below.

On the Huffington Post Impact blog, Global Philanthropy…

Each week, the editors of PhilanTopic compile a list of noteworthy posts from and about the nonprofit sector. Here are a couple posts from last week’s roundup about impact and effectiveness for your reading pleasure. Have a post you'd like to add to the list? Let us know in the comments section below.

Writing on the Huffington Post, management…

Velthuis, S. (2012) Knowing and showing your outcomes and impacts. The Wheel, Dublin.

What's the intersection where new philanthropy meets old? Jane Wales, vice president, Philanthropy and Society, of the Aspen Institute, and Founding CEO of the Global Philanthropy Forum, posits that innovation and learning make up this intersection in this Huffington Post article. Reflecting on the roles of Rockefeller and Carnegie in establishing organized philanthropy, she makes a…

Each week, the editors of PhilanTopic compile a list of noteworthy posts from and about the nonprofit sector. Here are a few posts from March about impact and effectiveness for your reading pleasure. Have a post you'd like to add to the list? Let us know in the comments section below.

In a post on the GiveWell blog, Holden Karnofsky …

On Monday, the Chronicle of Philanthropy posted an interesting piece on evaluation. In it, Caroline Preston looks at the purpose of assessment and those who are tasked with overseeing it - a role that has been formalized at some of the larger U.S. foundations in recent years. Along with outlining the ideal goals of program evaluation using current examples in the field, Ms. Preston provides an…

Do you work in the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector? Does your organization have a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) strategy in place? Want to know more about the M&E practices of others in the WASH sector? Eager to share the M&E challenges you’ve faced and lessons you’ve learned along the way?

Building on the energy of World Water Day, WASHfunders.org (@WASHfunders) and…