The Impossible Happens Blog
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Did Charity Village ever listen to …

I briefly got to work with Paul Taylor when he was ED at FoodShare. Incredible personality. Here is FoodShare’s open letter to Charity Village about the importance of posting salary or a salary range in their job postings.

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Impact and the Social/Solidarity Economy

Social Impact measurement for the Social and Solidarity Economy OECD 2021 PDF This is perhaps the most comprehensive document I’ve read on impact measurement and its relation to social purpose organizations. Fact #1: There exists no single internationally accepted conceptual framework to value social impact nor to understand the drivers

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Roadmap to Social Impact

Ramia, I., Powell, A., Stratton, K., Stokes, C., Meltzer, A., Muir, K. (2021).Roadmap to outcomes measurement. Your step-by-step guide to planning, measuring and communicating social impact. Centre for Social Impact. Hey, the more I’m reading about social impact the more I’m realizing that a Theory of Change and Logic Model

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First Nations Information Governance

I’m taking an online course detailing the First Nations principles of OCAP® (Ownership, Control, Access and Possession). There are 7 modules, each one is about 40 minutes We kick things off with a quote from the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples Vol 3, p. 498 In the

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On Social Impact Measurement

I’m reading an article “Accountability for Social impact: A Bricolage Perspective on Impact Measurement in Social Enterprises” 2019. They start off citing a problematic ambiguity when it comes to social impact measurement: An underlying reason for this ambiguity is that, in contrast to accounting conventions for financial performance assessment, there

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Impact Measurement after COVID19: Expected, unlikely, and ideal

Kate Ruff April 27, 2020 An impact data standard is widely used by impact softwares. Agreeing on a data standard is easier, and smarter, than agreeing on indicators. Think standardizing building materials into 2x4s and 2x8s, rather than residential floor plans. A data standard supports visibility into the degree of comparability

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What if our economy valued what matters

This old system is perversely beholden to indicators like GDP, an indiscriminate measure of “progress” that ends up rewarding the destruction of people and the planet. Mariana Mazzucato A good example of an attempt to change ‘impact indicators’ is this article that argues its time to change the impact indicators

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Key points taken from a guide to social impact measurement

Muir, K. & Bennett, S. (2014). The Compass: Your Guide to Social Impact Measurement.Sydney, Australia: The Centre for Social Impact. The primary purposes of outcomes measurement are to provide evidence of what works and what doesn’t, and why and how to improve effectiveness and efficiency. The 3 Ps to achieve

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Equity in Collective Impact

Centering Equity in Collective Impact Stanford Social Innovation Review Winter 2022 This article is too long. Note the important highlights below. … the single greatest reason why collective impact efforts fall short is a failure to center equity. Collective impact has lasting effectiveness only if it is focused on changing

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RIP Sam Boakye

I worked with Sam when he was co-leading the Out of the Box social enterprise. This picture captures the true humanity of Sam, he had a huge heart and was always gracious to those around him. More here

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Catalyzing Social and Environmental Change: a conversation with Andrea Nemtin

Social Impact Advisors podcast interview with Andrea Nemtin, Executive Director of Social Innovation Canada. The full interview is here. Summary of their conversation: What is Social Innovation the concept? Frances Westley (2008): An initiative, product, process or program that profoundly changes the basic routines, resource and authority flows or beliefs

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For me, the task is not to find a single or synthetic framework, but to find a way of thinking in alliance. Judith Butler

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Social Innovation with Allyson Hewitt

Social Impact Advisors podcast with Allyson  Hewitt, McConnell Foundation Senior Fellow of Social Innovation at MaRS Discovery District. Full podcast interview here Below is a summary of her conversation Social Innovation has to see rubber hitting the road Social Innovation means new ways of doing things that are valued, but

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Simple, Complicated, Complex

Here is a great chart that outlines the important differences between these 3 concepts. Ok. Everybody can take a turn and make sense of these 3 labels any way they want. For me I place these three categories on a temporal scheme. I’ll go first. SIMPLE, is pre-WWII. First and

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Logic Model

This is a simple Logic Model from a project I worked on a few years ago. From the Logic Model you decide what you want to achieve, how to measure it, what the indicators would be, and how to collect the data. From the data you craft a story of

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Capturing your Secret Sauce in a powerful Theory of Change

Social Impact Advisors podcast interview Melissa Sariffodeen, CEO of Canada Learning Code Full interview here Melissa makes some crucial points underscoring the purpose and function of a strong Theory of Change. Below is a summary of her conversation. Theory of Change is theory A theory of change (TOC) is many

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Community Foundations and SDGs

I just connected with a group of academics out of Quebec, the Canadian Philanthropy Partnership Research Network who want to push the envelope on philanthropy and its work on the SDGs. What better than to interview Andrew Chunilall, CEO of Community Foundations Canada. Full interview here: Here is a summary

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A creator is one who exceeds oneself

A creator who isn’t grabbed around the throat by a set of impossibilities is no creator. A creator is someone who creates their own impossibilities, and thereby creates possibilities. Gilles Deleuze

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