“So What?” – Your Weekly Guide to Advocacy With Impact
Lovingly selected and lightly snarked by Team APEP: David Devlin-Foltz, Susanna Dilliplane, and Christine Ferris
Collect Less Data
Those are three words that we almost never hear these days. Whether it’s faceless companies stockpiling consumer information or humble evaluators seeking to help NGOs assess their impact, we tend to be a little, um, greedy for data. So we did a double-take when we read this blog post advocating “data minimization” as a key strategy for protecting against cyberattacks. The mantra: “If you can’t protect it, don’t collect it.” Makes sense to us. Or maybe we just need to be more responsible about data collection and use.
The name is Bond… Social Impact Bond
Last year we noted some buzz around foundations and Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) – including this white paper and this event co-hosted by our pals at the Aspen Institute Program on Philanthropy and Social Innovation. Some folks were pretty jazzed about the potential benefits of SIBs. Fast-forward to the present day: how are things going? Check out this recent Brookings analysis of the evidence to date on SIBs – and how they stack up against common claims about their benefits.
We’ve got mail!
So we are officially done badgering you for feedback on So What. (Thanks to all who wrote us with comments!) Summary of feedback and fun stats coming next week. But we’ve got an open-mailbox policy and welcome your suggestions whenever they occur to you. Like: Hey, have you seen this? Or: This cool new resource relates to your post last week. We are lucky to count many brilliant minds among our readers, and we value your help in bringing So Whattable items to our attention. Plus, we love getting mail.
p.s.
We draw the line at relaying your shameless self-promotion or posting your latest silly cat video. I mean, come on – we’re serious evaluation professionals. Geez.
The Aspen Planning and Evaluation Program helps leading foundations and nonprofit organizations plan, assess and learn from their efforts to promote changes in knowledge, attitudes, behaviors and policies in the US and internationally. To learn more about our tools and services, visit http://www.aspeninstitute.org/apep.
