Knowledge Centre blogs

Evaluation, on the (Cognitive and Digital) Edge

By: Kieron Kirkland
On: 5th September 2012

How do you make a masterplan for evaluation into a reality? (If you haven’t read the evaluation master plan – you’re missing out - it’s here.)

We’re asking our upcoming Digital Edge project partners to use ‘micro-narrative’ approach to evaluation to understand how their work brings about change (I know – sounds fancy doesn’t it?). In the spirit of openness this blog is partly so that everyone we’re working with can know what all these strange triangles and requests for stories are trying to do. On the other hand, for anyone who is thinking of using storytelling evaluation in their work, this might help you on your journey. more >

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Evaluation, a 3rd way for the 3rd Sector?

By: Kieron Kirkland
On: 30th August 2012

Part of the reason no one’s cracked measuring social value is that it doesn’t exist as an objective ‘thing’. Value is inherently subjective, so it’s no surprise that project leads, partners and funders all fight over particular measures. Really they’re all just fighting over measuring what they think matters the most.

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Evaluation - 10 reasons why you should

By: Kieron Kirkland
On: 28th June 2012

People always seem to post pictures of rulers or tape measures when they talk about evaluation, which, frankly, have to be some of the dullest objects in the world.

image Wikimedia Commons

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Evaluation from the Ground Up

By: Kieron Kirkland
On: 29th May 2012

We all know capturing social impact is difficult, especially when you’re developing new models and trying new approaches. That’s how we all justify spending so long talking about it ;-)

If you’re working with a consistent cohort of individuals over a significant period of time then you can roll out all the nice traditional pre and post measures to track their progress. But, real life’s not generally like that. If you’re working with hard to reach clients sporadically or intermittently, how do you go about capturing and assessing the impact of the work?

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How do funders measure success, especially when a traditional funding model just doesn't cut?

By: Kieron Kirkland
On: 13th April 2012

One of the questions that should keep any funder awake at night is: are we doing the best that can be done with the money?

Answering this naturally leads any funder to ask how do we measure our success?

On one level they can obviously reflect on the work of the projects they fund or partner with. After all, a core measure of success is what happens with the money. But in a wider sense, funders work in different ways and so to understand their effectiveness there has to be an understanding of the strengths or weaknesses of their funding model. For example, are they all about supporting the continuation of work by existing organisations? Or are they an early stage investor who tries to get new ideas off the ground? In this case, how do you measure success when you're starting up new projects? more >

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I would never have thought archiving would be quite such a fascinating thing.. .

By: Kieron Kirkland
On: 7th March 2012

You, like me, probably think of archiving as towers of dusty books locked away in a bomb proof basement somewhere, solely of interest to aged historians. You might also think that this is a long way from the world of open data, however today I’ve discovered that they may be inextricably linked.

This is all thanks to Andrew Cooper, Research Manager at The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund who held a fantastic event today with Jack Meyers, President of the Rockefeller Archive Centre to talk about archiving in foundations.

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