Human Development Network – The World Bank Approaches to evaluating impact Tris Lumley 31 March 2010

2 About NPC : helping charities and funders to do good, better Our purpose is to help charities and funders achieve greater impact Part think tank, part consultancy Founded in 2001, ~30 people today ResearchConsultingCommunications social issues structural challenges charity analysis advice for charities advice for funders support to intermediaries lead the debate on effectiveness disseminate NPC’s knowledge and tools

3 Individual giving has not kept pace with GDP 1986/1987=100

4 NPC designed to test hypotheses Effective donors need independent analysis to target their giving The availability of independent analysis will catalyse more and better giving But rhetoric far exceeds reality: 1.NGOs lack capacity to measure/analyse 2.Donors not yet driven by effectiveness/impact

5 The problems: So why aren’t charities measuring? Culture Attitudes Money Incentives Skills Capacity Tools Complexity The challenge of measurement Incentives: current evaluation paradigm driven by foundations, focused on programs not organisations, rarely leads to action or increased public knowledge

6 The problems: The case for measuring impact External allows charities to communicate their impact to peers, donors, and funders, thereby spreading best practice and attracting funding Internal allows charities to make strategic and operational decisions based on what works

7 Solutions: How can we move forward? Align incentives for NGOs to develop their own impact measurement capacity Standard organisational reporting Resource to train & recruit analysts Specialised outcome measurement tools Networks & support to develop analysts This will lead to better data to use externally, with donors, governments, partners This will lead internally to continuous improvement and competition on the basis of social impact

8 Outcome measurement tools: Measuring children’s well-being We have designed a rigorous and robust questionnaire for 11 to 16 year olds to provide information about seven domains of subjective well-being: Self: 1) Self-esteem 2) Resilience 3) Emotional well-being Relationships: 4) Friends 5) Family Environment: 6) Home community 7) School This will help charities measure and demonstrate their impact, improve their work, and attract funding We are developing a market-ready technology solution for NGOs, schools in UK, and exploring international growth

9 The problems: What do donors want to see? 300 million people in India are struggling to survive on less than US$1 a day Donors are moved to give by people rather than facts

10 The problems: So why don’t donors follow impact? Culture Attitudes Real motivations Info Analysis Philanthropy advice The donor challenge Motivations for giving: include rational considerations (need, impact) but overwhelmingly driven by emotional/personal (choice/control, relationships, recognition, trust)

11 Solutions: How can we move forward? Incorporate impact into existing donor motivations Harness relationships Build trust on independent analysis/impact Reshape sector – demand and supply side Donor education Strategic philanthropy can be ‘open sourced’ Coordination role for major development funders This will drive greater incorporation of impact into less strategic segments of donor marketplace

12 Donor education: NPC’s charity analysis framework

13 The future: How can leading funders drive change? Real-time evaluation (vs program evaluation) e.g. building outcomes management information e.g. well-being tools e.g. outcomes measurement networks & courses Collaborative evaluation (in real-time) e.g. evaluating system change – Strive (Cincinnati) Accessible platforms for philanthropy e.g. supporting donor advice market e.g. open platforms for range of donor data -From randomised control trials to video -Programs explicitly designed for open partnership

14 Tris Lumley Head of Strategy Skype# tris.lumley Twitter# trisml +44 (207)

15 Strive’s roadmap to success