The starting point for most social enterprises in measurement is to set up a bookkeeping system to track money in and money out. While financial bookkeeping and accounting are fundamental to running a business, it may also be useful to track other aspects of business performance early on to be able to make good operational and planning decisions.
After a certain point, and perhaps dozens and even hundreds of versions of spreadsheets, there comes a time to contemplate whether there is an easier way to track data. You know that countless hours can be spent finding and making sense of data when it comes time for planning, budgeting, and in even day to day activities like sales.
If you've learned about Snapshots and want to design one yourself, here are some design tips, borrowed from graphic designers, that will help you design a snapshot that is effective visually, and which w
Earlier this year, I was invited to lecture about impact measurement for a number of different social enterprise-related classes, both as part of academic programs and incubators. While I mostly stayed fairly practical, 'academic-lite', I thought it would be useful to give an overview of what the field of impact measurement looks like and the options and tools out there.
