A look at how the Tamarack Institute, one of Canada's largest intermediary organization to support place-based change, played a role in supporting local collective impact initiatives across Canada to accelerate systems change in support of a living wage. Check out the article at the Stanford Social Innovation Review: https://ssir.org/articles/entry/how_field_catalysts_accelerate_collective_impact ...
The collective impact framework has been adopted by countless social innovators across the world as a way for diverse people, organizations and sectors to work together to move the needle on complex challenges. In this article published by the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Sylvia Cheuy, Liz Weaver and Mark Cabaj...
Intermediary organizations can amplify the efforts of on-the-ground social innovators to tackle complex issues in a variety of ways: e.g., help coordinate their efforts, create or enhance different capabilities (e.g., evaluation, social finance, leadership ), develop, test and - if possible - scale promising solutions, as well as "do whatever...
The ability of those eager to make progress on the world’s most pressing challenges – climate change, economic inequities, racism - depends on their ability to innovate, change systems and transform the deeper worldviews that help keep stubborn problems in place. Yet, the effort of change-makers is often hampered by...
Performance and outcome metrics are a central element of most evaluations. However, they are often so mis-used that they provide misleading picture of what is really happening on the ground, which in turn can lead to terrible decisions. This engaging and easy to read book, Tyranny of Metrics, describes how...
It is notoriously difficult to track and assess initiatives to tackle complex issues that unfold over time, with diverse actors, and whose primary aim is to change systems. In his new book, Outcome Harvesting, Ricardo Wilson-Grau provides an exciting and practical path forward....
Changing the systems that keep stubborn problems like homelessness or racism in place. Its easy to talk about. Everyone seems interested. Few people are quite sure what it means or practice or how to evaluate it. This inquiry framework offers one way to think about, plan and evaluate such efforts....
The idea that diverse organizations in the community working together can improve their chances of success by adopting 'shared measurements' is one of the core principles of the wildly popular collective impact approach to social change. This paper argues that the 'why' of shared measurement is clear, but the practice...
Developmental Evaluation (DE) is - an approach to evaluation that supports - rather than undermines - the efforts of social innovators trying to make progress on complex problems. This new book by three experienced evaluators explores some "exemplary" examples of DE - including a case study of Vibrant Communities Canada...
Many social innovators tackling tough problems are driven and guided by principles, not models or blue-prints. This very important new book by Michael Quinn Patton breaks new ground in how to evaluate their efforts....