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Measurement, Why Bother?
Winter 2003 In This Issue:
A Message from Melinda Tuan, REDF’s Managing Dir.
“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” — Sign hanging in Einstein’s office at Princeton We agree with Albert Einstein. A life of contentment, the satisfaction of a job well done, the look on a child’s face when she knows she is loved. How can one count these things?
At the same time, we firmly believe that there are things in the nonprofit sector that can be counted and must be measured. How else will we know whether we are making progress in the fight against poverty, homelessness, and joblessness? How can we know which are the most effective strategies and ensure our precious resources are used in the best way possible?
Here at REDF, we measure our results on several different levels and have confidence that what we fund works. Individuals’ lives are improving, and the social purpose enterprises are increasingly profitable and growing. Additionally, we believe our portfolio organizations are stronger and have become more effective over time, and we know that society is better off in part because of the work of REDF Portfolio members.
Rubicon Programs, a long-time investee of REDF, is an organization that has achieved amazing outcomes across all these levels, and embraced an organization-wide culture of measurement along the way. At Rubicon, they know how to count what counts...
Rubicon Programs
Let’s run the numbers for Rubicon Programs:
Rubicon’s excellent work in social enterprise has gained it worldwide recognition. In 2002, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship selected Rubicon Programs’ Executive Director Rick Aubry as one of the top 41 Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs in the world
Since the late 1990’s, Rubicon’s measurement activities have placed it at the forefront of the nonprofit field. With the launch of their OASIS/CICERO system in 1999, Rubicon raised the bar for all nonprofits and funders regarding the use of information within a nonprofit and the possibilities for timely, accurate reporting of social outcomes.
To learn more about Rubicon Programs, its enterprises, and its measurement activities, download An Information OASIS and visit Rubicon’s website at www.rubiconprograms.org.
What’s New with SROI?
Our methodology for calculating a social return on investment (SROI) has not fundamentally changed since we released our SROI Reports in 2000. This by no means indicates that we believe our SROI work is complete. Our hope has always been that others would take what we’ve done and improve upon it, as many have done to date. The SROI Methodology paper and SROI Excel Model continue to be two of the most frequently accessed items on our website, but we admit they can be a bit dense to get through. With greater ease of access and understanding in mind, Cynthia Gair, REDF’s Portfolio Director, has recently written a user-friendly guide to SROI called A Report from the Good Ship SROI. We encourage you to check it out! |
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