Strategic Evaluation Blog

This post originally appeared on Social Impact Analysts Association's blog.

There are two exciting forces at play in the world of social impact.

First, social change funders and actors are taking on increasingly complex challenges, requiring tools “beyond the grant” such as advocacy, network and coalition building, collective impact and systems change. These pioneers are catalyzing change where the paths are uncharted and the solutions have not yet been invented – they are pursuing social innovation. This is a powerful trend.

My esteemed colleague Jeff Kutash told me last week that he’d seen a study that says that the good news is that these days low income children have more “screen time” (think bridging the digital divide) than their more affluent peers. The bad news is that these days low income children have more “screen time” than their more affluent peers. Specifically, research shows that in general, kids of all groups are spending too much time in front of screens, and that low income kids now spend more time than their more affluent peers. Yes, the good news is the bad news in this case. This got me thinking about the danger of outputs or the trouble with wrongly defining the problem. And about microcredit. And foreclosures. Curious? Read on…

GEO’s National Conference kicks off this week and a quick peek at the program makes my heart beat joyously. The theme of the conference is Smarter Grantmaking | Stronger Nonprofits | Better Results. This is what the intersection of strategy and evaluation is all about of course. Naturally, there are several sessions dedicated to the topic of “evaluation.” The joy in my heart comes from how these sessions are framed.