W05 Solution & Impact

The main idea and topic of this past week focused on “Solution & Impact Evaluation”

  Social innovation impact must be measurable and proven. It’s not to measure impact in order to entice donors and investors, instead, evaluation of solutions and impacts  is for the benefit of the people in whom the program was intended to claim to help. One of the most difficult social innovation roadblocks in verifying that a solution actually works and doesn’t create more problems.  

Reflecting on the article “Hurling and Community Service” and how to go about setting goals. I was taken back by the negative outlook & attitude of the article “Starfish Hurling and Community Service”. I had heard the story before, but in the context of individuals worth in a religious setting— and simply took away from it that each person matters versus looking at it from the perspective of an approach to solving “world problems”. Despite the negative tone, the author, Keith Morton, made five good points on how hurling starfish should be cautiously correlated with resolving social issues. Ecology and emotion were two of the five points that made the most impact on me. I did agree that nature has a way of balancing itself and that often men do not see all sides and interfere with that balance. I also agree that there needs to be a balance between an emotional response and a knowledgeable one. When a goal is triggered by emotion and it is critical that knowledge of the big picture be closely coordinated in providing help for that situation. 

✨ Something from this weeks study that I found helpful was that an effective piece of evaluation is, one, a powerful and clear mission statement, and, two, to create a metric to measure success. 

1. A powerful and clear mission statement. It needs to have approximately eight words made up of a verb, a target population or setting, and an outcome that tells us something to measure. For example, “get African families out of extreme poverty” 

2. To create a metric to measure success, you need to accurately describe success. Three words that are used to describe the results/success of nonprofits are: Outputs: These are the activities done by the nonprofit; such as meals served by a soup kitchen are outputs. Outcomes: These are the observed effects of the outputs on the beneficiaries of the nonprofit; such as the degree to which the meals served by the soup kitchen reduce hunger in the population served by the soup kitchen. And Impact: This is the degree to which the outcomes observed by a nonprofit are attributable to its activities; such as the degree to which a reduction of hunger in the population the soup kitchen serves is attributable to its efforts. *While a soup kitchen might serve a lot of meals and correctly observe that hunger is subsequently less prevalent in the population it serves, the reduction in hunger might simply be attributable to an improving economy, or a new school lunch program or some other activities that are not part of the soup kitchen’s efforts. 

    The difficulty of obtaining knowledge and the value of the knowledge. Outputs “1,2,3,...” are relatively easy to count/measure and are often selected based only on a theory about what is helpful. If the outputs counted do not lead to anything meaningful, the “results” are meaningless. Outcomes “measure”   It is more difficult to measure the observed effects of the nonprofit’s activities. However, the observed outcomes may not actually be due to the nonprofit’s activities. If that’s so, the “results” are meaningless. Impact “knowledge”  …Very difficult to measure. Requires some form of analysis which attempts to hold static the effects of other influences. This is the gold standard because the results are proven.

    FOR EXAMPLE: If you are trying to get in shape, you may well try to lose weight. Output: The amount of calories you consume minus the amount of calories you burn. Outcome: Your observed weight. Impact: The degree to which your level of health is improved by your weight loss.  Outputs are obviously a good place to start. You can’t legitimately argue that you are trying to lose weight if you pay no attention to the amount you eat and workout. Outcomes are better. You can directly observe your weight and know the degree to which your diet and exercise plan appears to be having an effect. Impact is best. You may be restricting calories, working out and observing a reduction in your weight. But only a rigorous evaluation can eliminate the potential effects of outside influences. Maybe your weight loss is due to a serious undiagnosed medical issue or some other influence that has nothing to do with your effort. 

    The story suggests that if you are trying to get in shape, you may well try to lose weight. It also shows that there is a path of action which is right and one can avoid the traps of politics, context, or complex and contradictory human relationships. It avoids, therefore, the shadow side of the service, the sticky problem of who deserves our help.