How much does the organization spend on overhead? How much of the organization’s budget is dedicated to programs? What about fundraising? Are these really the right questions to ask?

More than 1000 representatives from corporations, NGOs and governments gathered in San Francisco last week for the annual Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) conference.  The long-standing conference covered 4 days this year, beginning with pre-conference trainings on Tuesday and carrying through Friday with a series of keynote speakers, group panels, working sessions, and networking events.  As a rookie attendant, I found the event exhilarating and was particularly enthralled by two sessions that incorporated public-private partnerships.

Success in the global marketplace requires innovation and savvy deployment of corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies that deliver business value.  Diversity initiatives are increasingly used to reach consumer groups around the world and ultimately improve business results.  Traditionally, these initiatives are implemented by human resource teams as a core CSR strategy for a company, and rarely tracked to the bottom line.   Over the past few years, innovative companies that aim to reach ethnically diverse consumers are leveraging diversity approaches to better connect  employees groups with product development and marketing efforts.   

A recent blog post at GOOD touched on a key concept in the design of effective data visualization: “Every form of visualization should tell a story. Unfortunately there is limited attention and time to process all the stories. So the gist of the story, or its immediate impact, should be visible right away. The term I like to use for this principle is “glanceability.” What does a visualization tell us before we take time to analyze it?”

At the beginning of our work with a client, we often bring together a team of staff including executives and managers to construct a framework which describes the mission of the organization and the priority intermediate outcomes which combine to producing that impact.  It's an interesting process as a wide range of interests, needs, and responsibilities perspectives come together to form a cohesive whole.  It not only provides a context for ongoing strategic conversations, but it also helps each person see the value of their worth in the context of the organization.

At last week’s sySTEMnow Conference in Milwaukee, a convening of math and science educators and the businesses funding their efforts, I was a panelist for a session titled The ROI for STEM Outreach Efforts: Quantifying Corporate Social Responsibility. Several conferences have begun hosting sessions like this to help employees in CSR departments measure the business impact of their corporate philanthropy and volunteerism.  

It’s conference season and corporate responsibility professionals from across the country are convening under the auspices of a number of CSR-related topics and themes.  As leaders in CSR strategy and social innovation, Mission Measurement staff leads workshops, serves on panels and participates in conversations about the next generation of corporate social responsibility and impact measurement in the context of CSR.  Over the past month, our team has take part the following events:

The social sector is abuzz with language related to measuring results, measurable impact, and outcomes-based thinking these days, but what do these terms really mean for funders? 

This week, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a directive elevating the importance of evaluating programs supported by federal agencies. This is an exciting step taken by OMB—one that demonstrates an overall shift we are seeing in performance measurement.

At a recent client meeting, the Executive Director of a large advocacy and policy organization frustratingly asked, “I wish I had a way to measure our work, in a way that makes sense not only internally, but externally…how can I measure policy and advocacy work?” We hear similar sentiments from the majority of clients, especially those that work on policy and advocacy. Achieving policy change can take years and at the end of the day, is typically measured based on whether or not a piece of legislation has been passed. We, and the people who live and breathe policy and advocacy work, understand that there are many intermediate steps that happen in order to get to that point.

The Obama Administration has signaled that partnerships are a key component of our foreign policy.   President Obama said in a speech at the Clinton Global Initiative on September 22nd, “Today’s threats demand new partnerships across sectors and across societies—creative collaborations to achieve what no one can accomplish alone.

More than a dozen leaders of the corporate social responsibility community in Chicago gathered on Friday, September 18th to share their experiences and ideas over lunch.  Hosted by Mission Measurement as part of the Leaders in Social Innovation (LSI) luncheon series, the discussion drew representatives from banking, healthcare, professional services, insurance, social media and philanthropy.