What are Foundations talking about?
Well, they’re talking about how to measure which nonprofit programs work, and how to replicate that, the usual, right? But now, they’re talking about the power of the internet, and how to harness that for program evaluation purposes. Basically, how to crowd-source best practices and evaluation techniques.
Mark Kramer from Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy is talking about his whitepaper on evaluation techniques for nonprofits to measure their impact.
So could we use the internet like a giant filing cabinet, but actually filled with useful best practices information, entered by our 1.9 million nonprofits?
Nonprofit Web 2.0 Guru Amy Sample Ward helped the Wagn team to create Meyer Memorial Trust’s Connectipedia, which functions almost as a giant, infinitely expanding Cabinet of Curiosities (I think there’s a Terry Pratchett story about that) for nonprofits to create cards about their issue, their nonprofit, and their ideas about who is doing the best or most groundbreaking work on a particular issue. The way this has one over on a filing cabinet is that all of the cards are connected to each other, and there’s a search function, of course.
If we are really going to use a “wikipedia” or “cabinet of curiosities” type of method to help nonprofits develop best practices, I would like to see a bubble graph of nonprofits, parsed out by what their cause is, how they are working on solving the problem, ways they are fundraising, how many people they are helping, evaluation methods, their annual budget, etc.
What do you think? Would you like to see this too?
Would save wear and tear on Program Officers at Foundations, huh?
0 Responses
Thanks for the mention, Mazarine! Connectipedia was a fun project and I still enjoy watching it grow and develop.
As an alternative example, though, in Maryland there was a huge call for a way to connect all the nonprofits and a ning network was created to get them all together online. Unfortunately, without anyone willing to claim responsibility for gardening the space and cultivating the activity there, the platform quickly dissolved.
So, I definitely think that the internet is a terrific space to create collaborative, knowledge sharing places for philanthropic and social impact organizations to connect – but it has to be something the community is willing to step up to, to push for, and to make successful.