Ear to the Ground: Impact Measurement and Evaluation Online

These days, it’s not hard to find information online. Run a Google search – no matter how obscure – and you can instantly gain access to websites, magazines, newspapers and blogs dedicated to your topic. The difficulty then lies in sifting through the search results for quality content that’s current and relevant to your needs. 

At Demonstrating Value, we keep a close eye on online discussions about social impact measurement and evaluation. Whether it’s for a social enterprise, non-profit or any other type of organization, we want to know! We’ve put together a list of five recent and noteworthy articles that further the conversation of impact measurement and evaluation. Don’t forget to keep an eye on our Twitter feed for interesting articles as well!

From the Guardian Social Enterprise Network: Why measuring impact is essential to any social enterprise
If you need convincing, this article by Laura Fedorciow from Vertico Ventures gives you five reasons why measuring impact is a necessity for social organizations.

From SEE Change Magazine: Measuring and valuing impact
This article from Stephanie Robertson, founder of SiMPACT Strategy Group examines SROI methodology, and the benefits of adopting an outcomes-based approach to evaluation.

From Stanford Social Innovation Review: Using the Right Tools
If you need help understanding the difference between evaluation tools like IRIS, GIIRS and PULSE, look no further. This article by Beth Busenhart, PULSE product manager at App-X goes through each one, with a focus on PULSE in particular.

From Social Enterprise Buzz: How to Measure Social Impact?
If you’re new to social impact measurement, this article gives a great answer to the question “Why measure social impact?” and like the article above, breaks down IRIS, GIIRS and PULSE so they’re easy to understand.

From EPG (Economic and Strategy Consulting): Social Impact Measurement: Current Inconsistencies
As the title suggests, this article examines the inconsistencies in social impact measurement with a focus on SROI.