The Value Herald, Issue 12, Winter 2015

 

Welcome to the Winter 2015 Demonstrating Value Newsletter! 
The Value Herald quarterly newsletter shares engaging ideas, useful advice and informative resources from Demonstrating Value. In this issue we look at what certain models and frameworks can tell us about social and environmental change,  along with our usual mix of what's interesting out there, technical tips and ideas.  If you like our newsletter, share it with a friend!

In This Issue
The Value Herald shares thoughts, insights and conversations from our blog. In this issue...

Don’t forget to browse through Upcoming Events for exciting opportunities to learn and network. And as always, we love to hear your thoughts on Demonstrating Value and social enterprise measurement and evaluation!

 

The Technical Corner


Connecting the Dots: Helpful Frameworks for Measuring Action and Impact 
When it comes to measuring and demonstrating value, we don't have to reinvent the wheel. Considerable work, thought and testing has gone into advancing many useful frameworks for understanding impact in social and environmental areas.  These include not only useful indicators but important relationships between them that, as a whole, give us a picture of not only the 'what', but the 'why' of impact.  Here's a look at a few:  environmental change and quality of life / happiness 


Issues & Ideas
 


Why S.M.A.R.T. goals may not be that smart
S.M.A.R.T is a useful (and catchy!) guideline for grounding goals in reality. (Goals should be: S – specific;  M – measurable; A - achievable; R – relevant and T - time-based.)  Sometimes though I think we go too far in setting out goals as a performance measures, rather than separating out the two. Does S.M.A.R.T limit goals to what is easily measured, rather than what is an inspiring and useful direction for the program?

 Read more   
 

DV Resources & Tools


Start the conversation early: helpful questions to evaluate the success of the social enterprise journey
At planning and start-up, the social enterprise is at the front of everybody‘s minds, but once it is up and running, it often falls to only a few people, and attention will turn to other issues.   Periodically it can be really beneficial for both the non-profit ‘parent’ and the social enterprise to step back and talk about what is working, what isn’t and how to make it better.  Demonstrating Value’s tool, the Social Enterprise Evaluation Question Set, can help..  Read more

 

Tools Out There

Is my Website Awesome or not?! A Review of BDC's Website Evaluation Tool
Do you look good on a smart phone? How popular are you?  Is your coding up to snuff?  If you aren't an expert in understanding website analytics, you may like this tool. I learned a lot, not only about my site, but about what is important to consider.    Read more

 
 

Upcoming Community Events
 
February 11 (webinar)
Translating Evaluation Findings Into Action
Kylie Hutchinson presents this CES webinar on translating evaluation findings into action. More info

February 12 (Victoria, BC)
Demonstrating Value
Steve Williams will show participants how to build a management and reporting dashboard  in this NET2VIC Workshop. More info

 February 17 (webinar)
Demonstrating Value to Measure Impact in Non Profit Organizations (webinar)
Bryn Sadownik presents a  Conference Board of Canada webinar about the Demonstrating Value framework. More info
 
February 23-25 (Toronto)
Evaluating Community Impact
Three-day workshop that covers the latest and most practical evaluation ideas and practices. More info

February 25 (Ottawa)
Annual learning event
CES one day conference for evaluators in Ottawa area to develop new competencies and connect with peers. More info
 
March 5 (webinar)
Impact: Six Patterns to Scale Your Social Innovation
Al Etmanski explores how we can pay attention to the deeper patterns of change (based on his new book) More info

 April 22-24 ( London, ON)
2015 Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise
Three days of training and working sessions, networking, policy dialogue, and sharing our stories. More info
 
April 27- May 5 (Vancouver)
Sustainability & CSR Management Course
The Accountability Project's  modular course on integrating CSR and sustainability effectively in business structures and processes. More info

 May 24-27 (Montreal)
The Canadian Evaluation Society's national conference
Dialogue and workshops about theoretical, philosophical, and practical issues in evaluation. More info