by Paul Carttar
From the Harvard Business Review Blog Network.
This piece explores the results of a 2012 study by The Bridgespan Group in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. This review found, out of 200,000 nonprofit organisations founded between 1975 and 2008, only 1% had grown to an annual revenue of $50 million or more.
The author goes on to say, “my experience also showed me that there’s a critical issue holding back those who want to do good: Lack of evidence.
If you can’t tell which organizations or models are truly generating social impact, you can’t know which warrant investment. Yet there is an astonishing dearth of reliable evidence on the performance of different programs, practices, and approaches for solving social problems. And there are deep disagreements about what “impact” is, how it should be measured and how much evidence is enough. Funders and investors are making decisions in the dark.”
The piece finishes with a brief overview of the emerging methods for evaluating the social impact.
The comments beneath the piece add to the thinking about evaluating social impact.
Find the piece here.