Opinion and CommentToolsTraining and Courses
The Difference is a magazine that launched by Simon McKeon in 2011. The Difference is used as a strategy for organising fundraising and corporate sponsorship for charities that work in the areas of disadvantage covered in the publication.
Since 2007, Social Ventures Australia (SVA) Consulting has completed over 400 projects with over 200 organisations across employment, education, community services, health and indigenous affairs. The SVA Consulting Quarterly brings together what they have learned from their work and the insights they have gained in new practices, novel methodologies and fresh wisdom.
This literature review by Ingrid Burkett, Knode explores the potential for a new approach to investment that focuses on revitalising communities, creating jobs and building economic opportunity. Similar approaches have been used widely in the US and the UK. Investors ranging from banks and superannuation funds to foundations and individuals have invested in funds that are creating quality jobs and economic opportunities in underserved and under-invested communities and generating a viable financial return. The thesis of this work is that similar funds could also provide new opportunities for investment and community regeneration in Australia.
Opportunity International empowers people living in poverty to transform their lives, their children’s futures and their communities. Their 2013 Social Performance Report documents their journey of transforming their social mission into practice.
United Way Australia’s first Community Impact Report documents their community impact in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in 2012, focusing on three priority areas for impact: education, income and health. They developed a framework for representing the varying scale, complexity and nature of their work with input from the Centre for Social Impact.
In this blog, Doug Taylor, CEO of United Way Australia, writes about Collective Impact and how he sees it as a useful guide in tackling a complex social problem for a population group in a local community.
Eleri Morgan Thomas, Director Service Impact, for Mission Australia, talks about the challenges of measuring impact within a large charity in a blog for the Social Impact Analysts Association (SIAA).
Collective Impact is a framework, from Collaboration for Impact, designed to tackle deeply entrenched and complex social problems. It is an innovative and structured approach to making collaboration work across government, business, philanthropy, non-profit organisations and citizens to achieve significant and lasting social change.
The StrategicFrame, developed by the University of Sydney Business School, is an organising framework that helps coordinate the process of measuring and improving an organisation’s performance and impact.
The StrategicFrame brings the focus back to the organisation. It can be useful regardless of your organisation’s mission, size, stage of development, or time available. It can assist you develop a coherent story with sufficient context and depth to communicate your impact, incorporating multiple measurement tools (such as SROI, IRIS, Outcomes Stars or internal measures).
The Australian School of Business at the University of New South Australia offers a Graduate Certificate in Social Impact focuses on building the professional capacity of social managers and entrepreneurs of the future, across the corporate, government and third (not-for-profit) sectors, enhancing their capacity to lead organisations creating social and environmental value and to operate in a changed cross-sector social landscape where the dynamism of the market is also directed at social innovation.
Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia offer a Postgraduate Diploma of Social Impact Assessment. modules include Social Impact Assessment and Cross Cultural Negotiation, Urban Social Impact Assessment, Methodology in Local and Community Studies and Human Geography Research.
The Centre for Social Impact is a collaboration of four universities: the University of New South Wales, Swinburne University of Technology, The University of Western Australia and The University of Melbourne. Their mission is to improve the delivery of beneficial social impact in Australia through research, teaching, measurement and the promotion of public debate.
Developing and maintaining a social licence to operate is rapidly becoming core business for resource companies. KPMG has developed 4-step continuum for measuring the value of direct corporate investments in local communities, drawing on social evaluation and engagement methodologies, as well as economic valuation techniques. This publication discusses the methodologies, challenges and considerations for resources companies and government when valuing community investments.
The Outcomes Star is a case-management and outcomes-measurement tool developed by Triangle Consulting Social Enterprise in the UK. This guide provides a practical approach to implementing the Outcomes Star that will ensure quality and consistency.
This document by Ingrid Burkett, Knode, outlines the building blocks for Place-based Impact Investment in Australia, including possibilities for some early funds. The intent is both to illustrate the potential and also to serve as a call to action to explore and develop the opportunities for this type of approach to produce genuine financial, economic and social outcomes. The approach deliberately provides both a financial perspective and the conditions for successfully achieving impact in communities.
This briefing paper by Gianni Zappalà, published by the Centre for Social Impact (CSI), outlines a framework for understanding and solving social problems.
