How to Support Your Data Interpretations
We All Count develops tools, case studies, practices, and systems to improve equity in data science. This information is combined to create the Data Equity Framework, a living, feedback-responsive system for addressing data project equity which is continually updated, added to, and refined.
Ten Reasons Not to Measure Impact—and What to Do Instead
Ten Reasons Not to Measure Impact—and What to Do Instead, a Stanford Social Innovation Review article, simplified the task of improving data collection and analysis with a three-question test. The author emphasized that if your organization cannot answer yes to at least one of the following questions, then your organization probably should not be collecting data. 1) Can and will the (cost-effectively collected) data help manage the day-to-day operations or design decisions for your program? 2) Are the data useful for accountability, to verify that the organization is doing what it said it would do? 3) Will your organization commit to using the data and make investments in organizational structures necessary to do so?
Programs That Work
From 1998 to 2014, the Promising Practices Network (PPN) on Children, Families and Communities (www.promisingpractices.net) provided information on programs and practices that credible research indicated are effective in improving outcomes for children, youth, and families. This document contains the summaries of the Programs That Work section of the PPN website, as of June 2014, when the project concluded.
What Impact? A Framework for Measuring the Scale and Scope of Social Performance
Leaders of organizations in the social sector are under growing pressure to demonstrate their impacts on pressing societal problems such as global poverty. This Social Enterprise Initiative, Harvard Business School working paper reviews the debates around performance and impact, drawing on three literatures: strategic philanthropy, nonprofit management, and international development. We then develop a contingency framework for measuring results, suggesting that some organizations should measure long-term impacts, while others should focus on shorter-term outputs and outcomes. In closing, we discuss the implications of our analysis for future research on performance management.
Effective Partnerships
The Stanford Social Innovation Review breaks down how local governments and nonprofits can work together for large-scale community change using 5 steps of shared leadership.