DARO

Great read from Scott Jackson at Global Impact on how fiscal sponsorship can unlock more opportunities for charitable ventures. In the U.S., fiscal sponsorship helps smaller initiatives scale by cutting down on administrative overhead and allowing them to focus on their missions. DARO and Global Impact are working together to develop similar strategies for charitable projects in Canada that reduce costs, streamline operations, and help initiatives get started faster. If you’re interested in exploring these new approaches to advancing your charitable projects, we’d love to chat — feel free to reach out! https://lnkd.in/esZKzZxy

#NewYork based friends of DARO, please sign up and join David Goodman, Ph.D on this cool panel!

DARO's very own David Goodman, Ph.D joins a panel of experts doing work around the globe to discuss how to use data to enhance impact.

We’ve got a big problem. For as long as social services have existed, people have been trying to understand how to manage and evaluate those services. However, despite our collective efforts, we have difficulty determining whether there’s been an increase in using evidence or, most importantly, whether there’s actually been an improvement in the quality and impact of social services and public benefits programs. We think this is because the incentives for creating, using and sharing evidence about social services and public-benefit programs are fundamentally flawed. Earlier this year we organized a convening in collaboration with Georgetown’s Massive Data Institute to discuss this problem, and we plan on finding more ways to collaborate and continue the conversation. Read our latest blog post where we talk about this problem, the convening and how we might find solutions.  https://lnkd.in/efVVVRwf

DARO partners are doing some really cool stuff!

Please take a few moments to read Paige Kowalski's piece on state-level, cross-agency #governance. While most see this work as a "necessary evil," we join Paige in emphasizing the short- and long-term benefits of focusing on this work as an ongoing "process" that build the #trust and understanding needed to address today and tomorrow's critical data and information challenges.

A great funding opportunity for #community #foundations looking to increase / enhance engagement in their communities.

I’ve consistently argued against calls to "eliminate the final report," seeing them as short-sighted for a sector that thrives on #data and engagement to improve and expand its #impact. I understand that frustration often stems from burdensome funding requirements or a reluctance to reveal challenges, failures, and limitations (and to have those used against you), but if we truly want to achieve our missions, we need to share data and knowledge responsibly and collaboratively. At DARO, we’re exploring ways to incentivize organizations to share all aspects of their data—the good, bad, and ugly—so we can all learn, improve, and grow. While incentives vary across sectors, we can look to successful examples from different fields for guidance. Additionally, innovative solutions are emerging to make final report submissions more flexible, iterative, and efficient, reducing staff burdens and enhancing learning. Check out what Gabe Cohen and True Impact are doing, or the tools from Dan Lammot and threshold.world. These resources can help transform final reports into valuable "learning" documents that can also help to reduce the burden and stigma associated with them. What else are others seeing? Any other solutions to share? Initiatives working to address the burden on #nonprofits? I'd include Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, but from what I have seen, it seems fairly one sided and IMO that is not how #trust is built or sustained. I'm open to being wrong here.

DARO staff - led by Michael Lenczner & Benjamin McNamee - are interested in the use of #evidence (or lack thereof) in the #socialsector - and why #nonprofits and #philanthropy are incentivized to not share their #research and #evaluations - whether good or bad - to help the sector better learn, improve, and serve those most in need. Other sectors have overcome these incentives ... why can't the #socialsector?

Great partnerships are often fueled by great relationships. DARO staff - led by Benjamin McNamee - are privileged to work with such great partners like Ontario Trillium Foundation, SETSI, and Ontario Nonprofit Network. #data #collaboration #infrastructure #ruthlesspragmatism