Demonstrating Value Blog
You’re reading our newsletter, you’ve likely spent some time on our website and blog…and now you may be wondering, “who are these Demonstrating Value folks?” Well, we’d like to tell you! In the spring issue of The Value Herald, we will introduce you to Garth Yule, Program Manager of Evaluation and Community Impact at the Vancity Community Foundation (VCF), whose duties include managing Demonstrating Value.
Let’s take a moment to update you on some staffing changes at Demonstrating Value. Bryn has taken a year of parental leave and her son is just over three months old now! For the rest of 2012, Garth Yule has taken on responsibility for the program. Garth moved to Vancouver from Ottawa in 1997 and has put down roots here. He was an intern with Bryn while he completed his MBA at UBC, and started working for VCF on a full-...
Fresh, organic produce, locally-grown herbs, farm-fresh culinary delights…what does all of this have to do with Demonstrating Value? A lot, in fact!
Beyond our regular work, Demonstrating Value also leads research and development projects to advance the state of measurement methods, tools and practice to better understand community impact. One such project currently underway is the Farmers’ Market Impact Toolkit Project. Take a look at a recent update from Garth Yule, Program Manager of Community Impact & Evaluation at Vancity Community Foundation to learn more about this exciting work.
Farmers’ Market Impact Toolkit Project
Critics of our modern industrial food system point out that if you ask urban dwellers where their food comes from, many will...
Following up from her webinar “You Say Impacts, I Say Outcomes”, Kylie Hutchinson (Community Solutions Planning and Evaluation) shared an Evaluation Terminology Mind-Map in a recent Community Solutions newsletter. We discussed Kylie’s webinar in a previous post, Navigating the vast ocean of evaluation terminology – but be sure to check out this mind-map as well. It is a great tool for visualizing the complexities in evaluation terminology and will help you understand some of the common themes that link evaluation terms. Take a look at this mind-map and our post about Kylie’s webinar to help make...
Demonstrating Value is crossing borders, with a recent feature on both techsoup.org and techsoupcanada.ca that includes excerpts from the Demonstrating Value Workbook.
Take a look at the article (click on the TechSoup links above) to read more about how Demonstrating Value assists nonprofits, social enterprises, and community investors to ask the right questions about their work, and to develop systems to track and communicate their value.
A big thanks to the folks a TechSoup for also sharing these additional resources that will help you demonstrate...
Client Relationship Management (CRM) systems are a mix of policies, processes and strategies used by organizations to manage contacts and track their interactions with their stakeholders, including customers, suppliers, volunteers, employees, funders, donors, clients and others. Keeping these contacts organized can be difficult (especially as organizations grow in size), so many seek to develop more formal systems for tracking this information using CRMs. Yet selecting and effectively using CRMs can be a challenge, especially for organizations with limited resources. There are many different options. Which one is the best for you?
Demonstrating Value has recently put together a guide that presents guidelines and tips for selecting and using CRM systems. The guide will help you make CRM decisions for your organization by sharing discussions about key decision factors and outlining a selection of CRM software options that could be of use to your organization.
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Our friends at enterprising non-profits have a round of social enterprise socials coming up on topics suggested by social enterprise practitioners. Each social will be interactive and you will have the opportunity to learn from your peers, and to share your thoughts and experiences – register now!
April 19, 2012 | HR & Change Management with KPMG
May 3, 2012 | Strategy Planning with Propellor Social Enterprise Advisors
May 17, 2012 | Risk Management with Propellor Social Enterprise Advisors...
I recently had the opportunity to participate in an insightful webinar facilitated by Kylie Hutchinson at Community Solutions Planning & Evaluation. This webinar, entitled “You Say Impacts, I Say Outcomes” was all about clarifying the confusion in evaluation terminology.
For anyone new to the evaluation field (and even to seasoned evaluation experts), the myriad of interchangeable terms can often lead to miscommunication or even frustration due to the inconsistency and lack of one official “evaluation dictionary”. While there is no immediate solution to solving evaluation term inconsistency, we can help ourselves and those we work with by broadening our understanding of the common themes that link these terms, which will allow us to more comfortably interpret and use...
seToolbelt.org is an open content resource hub that is committed to making free tools accessible to social entrepreneurs to help them plan, start, manage, and grow successful social enterprises. In this week’s seToolbelt Resource of the Week, Demonstrating Value is profiled. Take a look at this post to learn more about some key impact measurement tools developed by the Demonstrating Value initiative, including a Performance Snapshot webinar, the Organizational Sustainability Assessment Tool, and “Why You Matter”, a tool for mapping your social, environmental, and cultural impact.
The seToolbelt Resource of the Week is featured on Social Earth...
NOWBC, a co-op formed in 2008, runs an online farmers’ market and delivery depot ‘clubs’ with a focus on seasonal, local, organic foods sourced directly from small farms and processors as well as local independent wholesalers. The dedicated volunteers and staff at NOWBC believe in the importance of knowing your local farmer and preserving sustainable farming knowledge and farmland. With a mission to build a sustainable local food system by connecting local farms and processors with consumers and building community around sustainable food choices, NOWBC is all about growing and sharing good food.
In their December 2011 e-newsletter, NOWBC shared a story that came to them via Discovery Organics, a supplier held in high regard by NOWBC. In this...
Channeling Change: Making Collective Impact Work
In early 2011, John Kania and Mark Kramer published an article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review entitled “Collective Impact”. This article received rave reviews. As the concept of collective impact percolated in the minds of readers, the authors were faced with an outpouring of responses and interest. In short, people liked this approach to collaboration and its ability to significantly address widespread social problems. When it came to social progress, collective impact seemed to emerge as the answer.
Kania and Kramer recently collaborated with Fay Hanleybrown to publish a follow-up article:...