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Press Release: Acumen Launches 60 Decibels to Make Lean Data an Impact Measurement Standard for Impact Investing
The new entity, supported by lead investor Ceniarth, makes customer-centric impact measurement accessible to all, helping social sector organizations listen to those who matter most
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Region
- Global
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From Counting Women to Valuing Women: Practical Impact Measurement Tools for Complex Contexts
The old way of measuring the gender equality of a company or program consisted of simply counting women – from the number of female employees and clients, to the number of women beneficiaries and board members. The new way is all about valuing women by collecting data on how they are impacted by a company or program. Rebecca Baylor at WDI's Performance Measurement team provides some concrete strategies for gender-based impact measurement and management.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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Why Aren’t More Social Enterprises Measuring Impact? A New Study in South Africa Raises Questions for the Global Sector
South Africa has arguably the most mature impact ecosystem in Africa, with both seasoned and new social enterprises, incubators, accelerators and funders. And a new study from Impact Amplifier and Genesis Analytics revealed a similarly robust impact assessment sector, with 72 percent of study participants claiming to have an impact measurement practice. But as Tanner Methvin at Impact Amplifier explains, those numbers contrast significantly with what his organization has observed on the ground. He explores that discrepancy and the broader findings in this revealing post.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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Investing’s Final Frontier: Impact Measurement
In general, each type of social return calls for its own metrics to answer this basic question: Is this social impact investment/initiative having the intended effect?
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
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‘Results’ Don’t Equal ‘Impact’: What the Social Business Sector Can Learn from Non-Profits’ Approach to Impact Measurement
It’s common knowledge that non-profits are often beholden to data-hungry donors - hence their focus on long-term impact assessment. But how those organizations measure impact has implications for the rest of the social sector - including for-profits, which often lack a clear assessment strategy. Sarah Sterling of Pomona Impact ponders how impact measurement can be improved across the sector, and discusses a simple tool used by non-profits that could be extremely useful for social business.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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Viewpoint: The Next Frontier in Social Impact Measurement Isn’t Measurement at All
If we want social capital markets to fund the social sector effectively, we need to use social impact data effectively when making investment decisions. And investment decision-making almost always requires that we compare social impact data across locations, programs, or organizations. This is difficult, because contexts, missions, definitions, measurement approaches, and values differ. It’s always apples to oranges, and this “comparison problem” not only affects good decision-making, but also our ability to report on impact at the investment portfolio level.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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Building a Collaborative Social Impact Measurement Operating System
If social sector organizations truly want to compete against the large corporations, they must build an efficient performance management system where even the small organization can derive value and understand their limitations.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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Building Efficient Social Sector Initiatives Through New Generation Impact Measurement
The social sector is going through a massive change never seen before. Thanks to the advocacy of innovative foundations, impact investments are now becoming mainstream, along with collective impact programs and other initiatives like social impact bonds and Pay for Success programs. As these trends spread, we are witnessing the rise of thousands of collective impact ecosystems accompanied by improved impact investment models. These ecosystems incorporate different catalysts to impact measurement, when what we really need is a unified strategy of metrics.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Technology
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