This spring is full of social enterprise events, many of which touch upon measuring, understanding and communicating impact. Thanks to enp BC for these event listing!
SFU Employment Dialogue Series: Social Enterprise
Tonight: April 14, 2015 (Surrey)
http://www.sfu.ca/surrey/employmentdialogues/
Social Impact Breakfast Session
April 28, 2015 (Prince George) Contact enpBC for more details
S.M.A.R.T goals are all the rage. They appear everywhere, and are particularly loved in funding application forms and by strategic planning facilitators. According to S.M.A.R.T, goals should be: S – specific ; M – measurable; A - achievable; R – relevant and T - timely. (There is some variations as to the words that make up the acronym.)
Starting a social enterprise in a non-profit often starts with a simple idea – renting out space, starting a gift store, offering a current service to a new (paying) market, providing supportive employment opportunities to clients.
On a daily basis I receive a lot of spam mail about how I can make my website better and drive more people to it. Thus I was a little skeptical when I came across BDC's Free Website Evaluation tool that promises to make it so you can “start improving your website today!” At the same time, I do find it hard to understand how the Demonstrating Value website is performing, particularly as it relates to other websites out there, and I have some confidence that the tool's host, the BDC, is fairly reputable as a federal crown corporation. I always like the idea of free assessment tools.
Measuring quality of life is a HUGE area and is increasingly being done to understand the key outcomes of many programs, particularly in social services, health care, community development and education. This is great! Interest in measuring quality of life gets to the core of what measurement should be about - measuring what matters - rather than sticking with what is easy and not particularly important.
