NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 - JANUARY 2012
goodroot is a GmbH now, has moved into new office space in Berlin and hosts a Vodafone Institute Fellowship program. Details on this, our new strategy and new engagements will follow suit. Since our website is under construction and Susanna is on a writing and thinking retreat December 2011 -January 2012 the NEWS section will be updated thoroughly by the end of January 2012. Until then we are excited about what will emerge and wish you all the best.
OCTOBER 2011
Over three years have passed since goodroot was founded. I have run the platform basically as a freelance enterprise with strong partner networks. Now it is time to move on to the next step. goodroot will grow, move into proper office space at the HUMBOLDT-VIADRINA School of Governance in Berlin, establish a GmbH and employ staff. This website will hence be considerably updated and renewed until the end of this year. Until then we are all in working mode...so bare with us and visit again soon for news.
SEPTEMBER 2011
My work with the Projektfabrik in Witten is in full force and will lead to a first evaluation report to JP Morgan by the end of this month. These donors are investing in German Social Enterprises and are interested to see how their grantees are measuring social impact and developing their organizations in order to scale. All my work in the social investment sphere in Europe and the US during the past years are culminating in this assignment now and somehow it feels like putting it all together.
A lot of things are going on in Germany related to impact measurement in social enterprises and foundations! The European Venture Philanthropy Association is going to discuss the prospects of a German branch this month in Berlin and New Philanthropy Capital in London has finally announced that they are in the midst of launching an Analysts Society for the Non-Profit Sector in Europe. goodroot is looking forward to be an active part in this endeavour. And together with the Decision Institute we are implementing a Grantee Perception Report with the Herbert-Quandt Foundation in Bad Homburg.
The Mercator Kolleg für internationale Aufgaben has launched its new programme year and i am delighted to both teach and help evaluate it. Last but not least the German Society for Evaluation will hold its annual conference in Austria this year and i am presenting the results of a Somalia consultancy together with GPPi.
The rest is writing and thinking about a book with a colleague of mine about financing and measurement patterns in the German Public Sector. We will argue against logical framework evaluation approaches and scetch out practical ways how to think and act in complex dynamic project environments when there is no linear planning possible whatsoever...
AUGUST 2011
I am back in Berlin. Slowly coming to terms with the Somalia experience. Started to work with Projektfabrik, which i absolutely enjoy. There also will be numerous teaching assignments and some strategic work with my humanitarian team at the GPPi. On top of it i am planning a sabbatical at the end of the year: writing and thinking about what has happened with goodroot since 2008 and where it should go from here.
JULY 2011
My assignment for the UN Somalia has come to an end. I am staying in Kenya until the end of the month and then will be back to Berlin to start working with the Projektfabrik on an impact measurement methodology for all their operations in Germany over the next years. I am very much looking forward to this since they are really doing relevant work.
The Somalia experience has been a truly twisted one. On the one hand it is absolutely interesting to work in such environments and get intimate insights into these UN operations (who gets that, i am grateful). On the other hand it is very tragic to see how little can be done and how much people are suffering right now in the catastrophic drought at the Horn of Africa. So I am leaving with very mixed feelings.
MAY/June 2011
I have been exploring Kenya´s tech entrepreneur scenery over the past days and weeks and i have to confess: if i were not under contract by the United Nations in Somalia at the very moment, i would happily chip in at the iHUB in Nairobi helping with proposals, ideas or just linger and get inspired. Great people all around. Consider the growing Ushahidi platform, african tech entrepreneur Erik Hersman and Mobile technology blogger Anahi, who set time apart to chat with me over crowdsourcing and disruptive mobile techology in Somalia. Or consider innovative Monitoring and Evaluation professionals in the region, which will probably help the UN getting better with impact monitoring on the ground in Somalia.
But not to forget: i am happily working on M&E for the UN Somalia:-) and not for an entrepreneurial african tech company. But will not it the clue to combine it all? I guess it will.
APRIL 2011
Being in Somalia brings a whole new perspective on Monitoring and Evaluation in the UN cosmos. Apart from being in Africa, two articles of mine about Social Impact Measurement in Germany have just been published. One in Stiftung&Sponsoring (2/2011), the other in Forschungsjournal für Soziale Bewegungen (01/2011). I am having a week long stint in Germany to teach at the HUMBOLDT-VIADRINA School of Governance about utilization focused evaluation together with Felix Rübcke from the Decision Institute. What an interesting change project this school has become. I am honoured to be part of it. Also we have held a workshop with the Quandt-Foundation in Bad Homburg on their future strategy and possibilities of impact planning for new projects.
MARCH 2011
I am in Somalia and Kenya for four months to work with the UN Country Team Somalia on Monitoring and Evaluation of the United Nations Somali Assistance Strategy. In particular we are interested in real-time and remote M&E through technology, which nicely pursues my work with the betterplace lab on beneficiary feedback systems.
FEBRUARY 2011
We (goodroot and Decision Institute) are working on multiple fronts in the German foundation sector to develop Theory of Change models, advocate for better impact and inclusion of beneficiaries in prospective foundation projects. This leads to multi project management on our side:-) but is fun because for the first time (in a long time) we are convinced that even in Germany something can be moved...
Together with my GPPi partners we are working on M&E and evaluation strategy for the future of humanitarian assistance. Valerie Amos will be coming to Germany soon and we are all looking forward hearing the under secretary general for humanitarian affairs perspective on the future of OCHA, the UN and humanitarianism.
My team "Neue Vermögenskultur" at the Stiftung Neue Verantwortung is thriving and i am currently working on quality criteria for social investments and triple bottom line investments.
I have evaluated the online video competition i ran with my betterplace lab team a couple of months ago to test whether social media and video would be useful for assessing quality of international NGOs work and here are the results.
JANUARY 2011
The year has started with a number of interesting facilitations, among them a future search conference for a multi year education project in Essen/Duisburg, a strategy workshop for a German foundation and an M&E training for two smaller NGOs working on international exchange programs with Zambia.
I have taught a class about Venture Philanthropy and Impact evaluation at the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft in their Public Management BA/MA and wrote two articles.
And i am recruiting! goodroot and the betterplace lab are looking for a qualified research and project development intern for at least 3-6 months. The TOR and background is here. I am looking forward to your applications by end of January the latest.
The work with my betterplace lab team is reaching new heights. We had several project development meetings with foundations and a telecom company in Berlin and Hamburg and are happy to announce that our Stakeholder Feedback ideas are meeting increased interest and - at last - sponsors! We are still intrigued by the prospect of channeling beneficiary feedback into developmenta projects to describe and show project impact!
I am working with Ashoka Fellows on Impact Measurement at the university of Witten Herdecke last week of January and am invited to speak at a Teach First Dinner. And not to forget: i warmly greet Al-Marsad in the Golan Heights, who are about to evaluate their program together with goodroot once we secure sufficient funding. I have worked with them for many years while living in Palestine and am very happy to see the first human rights organization in the Golan Heights thriving.
NOVEMBER 2010
Lots of stuff is going on! On the Monitoring and Evaluation Side i am preparing a teaching module on self evaluation and the international context of social impact assessment for the Humboldt-Viadrina School of Governance in their Master of Public Policy Program. In particular it is combining the work of the MIT Poverty Action Lab, methods of utilization focused evaluation and organizational learning. I am also reflecting on these topics via an interesting learning experience with Prof. Ed Schein on Change Management with the Presencing Institute in Boston.
The work with TickerTXT and the betterplace lab - where we think about and develop digital tools for beneficiary feedback in international development - has led to a platform called fairGAIM, which is about to be pursued and professionally launched in the coming months. I am pretty sure this could be a real innovation and - who knows - even lead to the launch of a proper social business.
I also just joined the Stiftung Neue Verantwortung and their team on "Neue Vermoegenskultur", where we are from now on writing, thinking and lobbying for a new social investing culture in Germany, hence spreading ideas about Strategic and Venture Philanthropy.
A stint with the German and International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement informed me about their international humanitarian assistance practice, leading to new insights and potential future involvement with this humanitarian community. I did this to better inform my evaluation work with the humanitarian team at the Global Public Policy Institute.
Last but not least the formative evaluation of the program "Mitwirkung in Sicht" by BildungsCent has been published and i am honoured to have worked with this great team on the professional development of its services.
OCTOBER 2010
Is it possible to document outcomes of international development projects from a beneficiary point of view via video and SMS Feedback? Together with the betterplace lab we are conducting action research on these topics: on the one hand we have launched a video contest and are eager to interpret the results in a few weeks; on the other hand we are in the midst of piloting SMS feedback systems to get feedback on individual developmental projects.
The next test will be with Wiebke Koch and her team at the extraordinary project "The Glass half full", her journey through rural India which will detect needs from a beneficiary point of view. We will equip her with digital feedback mechanisms together with TickerTXT.
Also i just have taught training modules on international development evaluation at the Mercator Stiftungskolleg and designed a workshop for project managers at the Stiftung Mercator how to deal with many partners in complex projects, develop a Theory of Change together and evaluate during the execution.
This month I am also going to visit the Ashridge Business School in the UK to see whether their acclaimed Organisation Consulting Programme makes sense for the goodroot work; i will also be in New York to have conversations with a number of Social Venture Funds on their current Social Impact Measurement Systems and besides that attend the Bucerius Summer School Reunion in the same city. This month will also see me participating in an International Red Cross Training for potential advisors and delegates getting prepared for humanitarian missions worldwide. With this i intend to combine my methodological Real-Time-Evaluation interest with concrete humanitarian work on the ground.
SEPTEMBER 2010
I just attended an accreditation course with Cognitive Edge in Amsterdam and learned how Dave Snowden and his team use strategies to link software and qualitative research methods to allow the collection and tagging of multiple sense-making items (mostly human stories). Their methods are kind of mindblowing because they offer a way to interpret anecdotes and other forms of unstructured data for interpretation and real use in organizations. I will be trying to combine these methods with Michal Pattons work on Utilization and Developmental Evaluation as well with my own thinking and practice on Theories of Change.
My betterplace lab team, the Humboldt-Viadrina School of Governance and myself have hosted an exciting workshop how to deal with user and beneficiary generated feedback in international development projects (primarily for the betterplace.org platform) on September 3. We have learned quite a lot (the Blog post is in German). Here (PdF) is how we crafted the invitation. A proper documentation will follow asap.
AUGUST 2010
A weeklong retreat with my betterplace lab team in sunny France led to new energy and focus. We are cooperating with TickerTXT, who are piloting together with grantees from the betterplace platform a real time feedback system via SMS. The idea is to continuously get feedback about aid and development projects, hence furthering their progres and impact.
I am getting more familiar with Utilization and Development Evaluation and participated in the Claremont University Evaluation Workshops with Prof. Michael Patton and Prof. Michael Scriven. At the same time i am using all the learning for new workshops and training series on how to measure social impact (for example for the Mercator Kolleg fuer Internationale Aufgaben next month). So it is a summer full of learning, reflection and eventually new products.
A handbook on how to develop a Theory of Change for German Foundations is also in the making.
JULY 2010
I have moved into new office space together with the Decision Institute in Berlin.
The betterplace lab team has gone online and i am proud of the bunch of inspiring people and colleagues who made that happen. We research digital technologies for the social sector and develop tools for you to use. Especially the ideas around beneficiary feedback in international development projects is something, that goodroot is heavily investing in.
Ashoka and Co. have released a new reporting standard for Social Entrepreneurs and i consider this a step in the growing field of impact measurement in the german social sector.
June 2010
The huge Cluster II evaluation for UN OCHA is done and here are the results. Additionally the UN has produced a short film about our work in Haiti, Uganda, the DRC, Gaza and Myanmar and it can be seen here (via utube).
Susanna on behalf of the betterplace lab is teaching a workshop on how to measure impact in social entrepreneurial organizations at the AnSchub Conference for Social Entrepreneurship at Leuphana University in Lueneburg and is attending the ANDE Metrics Conference in Washington DC of the Aspen Institute to discuss recent developments in the growing Impact Measurement field. Later this month she will also take part in a discussion at the Stiftung Neue Verantwortung in Berlin on what kind of measurement actually makes sense in the social sector.
May 2010
At the moment i am attending a training where Sandra Janoff and Marvin Weisbord from the Future Search Network share their 30+year experience facilitating large groups and running effective meetings. Amazing what you can do with good process and intelligent structure.
The Cluster II evaluation for UN OCHA is done and official reports will be out soon.
The "Mitwirkung in Sicht" Programme by BildungsCent in Berlin, where coaches are sent to primary schools to work with all stakeholders on specific tasks to help develop the school environment for the better is closed now and while applying a participatory Monitoring and Evaluation system with them over the past year we see results! We will publish the report and important lessons learned in June.
April 2010
At the betterplace LAB we are currently launching a video contest to see the impact of social projects. I am so interested whether film and video can really be used as a monitoring and evaluation tool in the NGO world.
The Cluster II evaluation together with GPPi for UN OCHA has come to an end. And the reports will be officially out in a couple of weeks.
March 2010
A new book on the prospects of Venture Philanthropy in Germany and Europe is out and i have written together with a colleague of mine from the Stiftung Neue Verantwortung about Social Impact Mesurement Methods in Strategic Philanthropy. You can order the book here or contact me when you are interested in learning more about it.
The Cluster Evaluation II together with GPPi and URD has held a stakeholder feedback workshop in Geneva on its Zero Draft of the long awaited Synthesis Report and we are quite busy now to finalize the first official draft.
goodroot has a cooperation with Mission Talent now and is looking forward to mutual learning and sharing experiences.
February 2010
goodroot is relaunched and updated!
After a little break I am back to work and have started an exciting project with betterplace to design a stakeholder feedback project for their online donations. What is the idea? To let monitor and evaluate the beneficiaries of donations themselves to judge about quality and impact. We will soon start a Blog with the betterplace LAB about digital technologies for the social sector and i can say i am pretty excited about the prospect of all of these ideas. We will set up a monitoring system allowing beneficiaries to use video and SMS to rate on the performance of projects on the platform. That will not only enhance transparency but also serve as quality checks. Just check some of the cutting edge thinking of these developments at Ushahidi and Frontline SMS. I am also always inspired by the work of Ken Banks at kiwanjanet and Christian Kreutz at crisscrossed. They are really making my days with their absolutely interesting Blog entries!
The UN OCHA Cluster Evaluation II slowly comes to an end and i am working on the Synthesis Report together with my team at Gppi. I was a long journey with six country studies in humanitarian crisis situations to contribute to the global humanitarian reform project. We are all looking forward to global reactions and feedback to our work.
December 2009
The Cluster II evaluation for the UN requires some report writing: so we are writing the Gaza and West-Bank report. Apart from that: an article about Social Impact Measurement is finished, we are finalizing training modules for a foundation in Germany and cross checking what is going on with BildungsCent and their revised monitoring system. Susanna is hiring staff and preparing a book about social prototyping in philanthropy and ...apart from that ... looking forward to the holidays at the end of the year.
November 2009
How is the United Nations delivering humanitarian aid to vulnerable population in crisis situations? We are looking at that mechanism together with gppi and are in Gaza this month to evaluate the humanitarian response.
October 2009
- back in Berlin. Further developing Theory of Change work with BildungsCent and Stiftung Mercator. Writing and article about Venture Philanthropy in Germany. And writing the Myanmar report:-(
Europe is getting cold...but there is a very interesting fellowship program out there in Zurich and it connects professionals with promising social enterprises abroad. We love such initiatives. Deadline for application is October 26. We encourage to apply! Very promising move by the LGT Venture Philanthropy.
I have written a short piece on the importance of strategically setting up thematic funding networks by german foundations at "51 Grad" of the Mercator Foundation.
September 2009
- in Myanmar. Evaluating the Cluster Approach in HumanitarianAid for UN OCHA Headquarters. We have teamed up for this with gppi in Berlin and URD in Paris.
August 2009
Our intern Miriam Rinawi has successfully completed some basic work on a feedback system for betterplace (thank you!), we are increasingly thinking about user led evaluation systems in online philanthropy and how to use mobiletechnology and mobile ratings when it comes to beneficiary led quality control in international development projects. Imagine that! Would be a revolution in the aid business!
The Case study series on impact philanthropy is further being worked on, Susanna is in Heidelberg at the Center for Social Investment.
July 2009
- working on user led feedback systems with BildungsCent and http://www.betterplace.org
June 2009
- goodroot joined the Global Public Policy Institute to evaluate the Cluster Approach of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) from now until 2010.
May 2009
- At New Philanthropy Capital and Bertelsmann Stiftung´s initiative there has been a gathering of non-profit-analysts who possibly will form an association in the future. It was a stimulating conference to build the field. Look here for schedule and more details.
April 2009 - Back in Berlin. A brandeins book has been published featuring pre-goodroot work and Susanna has written about an innovative foundation in Germany which is doing extremely interesting integration projects all over the country.
February/March 2009
- We are in Khartoum / Sudan to conduct evaluations for an international development agency
November 1/2, 2008 - We will be at the Vision Summit in Berlin this weekend. If you are also there and would like to meet or discuss ideas with goodroot write Susanna an eMail at info(at)good-root.org
October 25, 2008 - We have been just publishing an article about monitoring and evaluation in international development in the book: Leadership as a Vocation: Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the McCloy Program at Harvard University
Edited by Guido Houben and Tim Maxian Rusche 2008, 221 pp., pb., € 39.00, ISBN 978-3-8329-3747-8, Nomos. If you are interested you may get it here.
October 20, 2008 - goodroot is online