Week 5 - Metrics & Social Return on Investment
Overview:
"If you can't measure it, you can't manage it." This
common piece of advice from the business world is starting to take hold in
the nonprofit/social-e sector, and for good reason. Many nonprofits in the
past have existed without knowing or sometimes even trying to quantify the
impact they create through their programs. The tide is turning, though,
because more foundations and other sources of funding are developing
internal metrics for evaluating their investments. This, in turn, is being
quickly adopted by social enterprises because it helps them understand
what's working, where they need to improve, and how to prove that they are
indeed solving the problem in their mission.
Logistics:
-
Housekeeping - Anything
that's necessary to take care of beforehand.Ê(10 min).
-
Introductory discussion of why metrics are important -
Discussion should be based on the reasons assigned from last week. Ê[20
min].
-
SROI and an introduction into different ways to calculate
effectiveness - Reference this
article in discussing
different ways to measure social return on investment. Explain/discuss
the pro's and con's of the different methods, and the scenarios in which
one type works best compared to the others. While a somewhat dry subject
(it's mostly numbers a lot of the time), it is very illuminating to
discuss the reasons why there are so many different ways of measuring
value and how they can improve an organization's performance [60 min].
-
How to implement metrics discussion -
Discussion based on how an organization can/should implement metrics, as
well as looking at examples from certain organizations on how they
develop metrics. Do the implementations differ by organization size?
type? industry? If so, how so? [20 min].
-
Wrap Up - Any last
discussion topics should be discussed at this point. If any major themes
developed (varies by class), pull these out and tie into the the last
two classes if at all possible (need-finding, mission, vision, and
theory of change). [30 min].
Exercises:
-
Create a case for why a person would use a specific organization
structure and/or revenue model. The case should define the type of
structure and revenue model used, plus 3-5 reasons why its a compelling
combination.
Readings
No readings for next week. Students are advised to use whatever
authoritative sources and statistics they can find to make their case.
No, Wikipedia does not count, but if Wikipedia's sources at the bottom
of the page are good, they can be used instead.
Next Week:
Next week's class will focus on the organization structure and revenue
models available for social enterprises. Should one choose a for profit
model over a nonprofit model? This question and many others are the
primary focus of next week's class.