In a keynote at a NSW Department of Families and Community Services (FaCS) Forum this week Social Ventures Australia’s (SVA) CEO Rob Koczkar focused on the role collaboration and measurement could play in increasing impact in the social purpose sector.
The theme of the forum was ‘creating impact through innovation.’
Mr Koczkar commented:
“As social purpose organisations we must commit to finding new and innovative solutions to the challenging problems that have been with us for a long time and also to be honest about the impact that our solutions are having. Innovation doesn’t just mean ‘new’. It also has to work.”
“If we are serious about changing our communities so that we no longer leave one in seven people in a cycle of entrenched disadvantage, we must have a way of measuring whether our efforts to fix this are working, and to allocate resources to those programs that are really making a difference.”
“Unless we do this how can we effectively evaluate our efforts, fine tune them or even abandon certain approaches if we find they don’t really work? And if we can’t describe the impact we are having, how can we effectively engage partners, raise funds or agitate for system level change?”
“Measurement and collaboration are important not just for individual programs, but for the system as a whole.”
“The three major sectors of our economy; business, government and the social purpose sector each have a role to play in creating a fairer and more prosperous Australia. And if they each have a role, it makes sense that they should be working in partnership to achieve this shared goal. Creating more engagement and alignment between the three sectors will be our best chance at creating large scale, meaningful change.”
“Collaboration is not easy and it mustn’t be treated as an end in itself. But if done right it can yield important dividends.”
Mr Koczkar mentioned social impact bonds as one promising social innovation that embodies the benefits of both measurement and collaboration.
“The guiding idea behind bonds is to encourage new money towards social programs, and to ensure that funding is linked to the outcomes the program achieves. The end goal is a healthier public balance sheet PLUS better social outcomes, demonstrated with measurable indicators.”
