A friend of DV finds a new home at Junxion Strategy

My name is Garth Yule, and I was responsible for this blog for about a year while Bryn was on parental leave. It is my pleasure to update you on where I’ve been since leaving my post with the Demonstrating Value program almost exactly one year ago - the short version is that I took a year of leave for arrival of my second child (there must be something in the water around this office!) and have been doing a lot of late nights and drinking from bottles, but not in the fun nightclubbing way. Now that I am back to work I am excited to announce that I am working with the Demonstrating Value tools and framework again, but this time from the position of Engagement Manager with Junxion Strategy, a consulting company that is a frequent collaborator and supporter of Vancity Community Foundation’s projects and programs.

Beginning in March 2014, I am delivering a series of workshops to introduce the Demonstrating Value framework to other funders, investors and membership-based organizations that would like to build the performance management and communication capacity of their grantees, investees, and/or members.

The workshops are designed for funders and their funded organizations to attend together and work through hands-on exercises to pull together goals, metrics and a data development plan into a draft “enterprise snapshot” that plays a central role in the funder/funded relationship.

The first workshop is Wednesday March 19. This full-day session will specifically focus on funders, investors and membership organizations in the local food and agriculture sector. I will be sharing from several of my experiences at Vancity Community Foundation including: supporting the Social Enterprise portfolio; developing performance management tools for the BC Association of Farmer’s Markets; and other projects involving local food businesses and nonprofits.

My future workshops will focus on sectors like Supportive Employment (April 23, 2014), and following that, some variant of green business/clean tech/green transportation for May but still working on the details. Looking ahead six months or more I hope that these workshops will lay a foundation for some Collective Impact projects where we can explore the potential of shared indicators and evaluation methods within and across sectors.

I have come across so many inspiring projects though this blog and the social entrepreneur/impact evaluation community – please send me an e-mail if you would like more information about the workshops or have questions about how it might apply to what you are doing.