Measuring what matters is a consultation paper designed to advance a conversation about measurement
in civil society and the goal is to identify more meaningful approaches to organizational learning and accountability.
The paper is based on a series of parallel and intersecting conversations, online and in-person, over a two-year period with 130 people from civil society from all over the world who came together to co-create this document. It is now being published to widen those discussions and to advance the co-creation process still further. It draws on three strands of work facilitated by Candid, the Global Fund for Community Foundations (GFCF) and Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace (PSJP) that all aim to learn from the diversity and complexity of community‐led development and community philanthropy in different contexts and cultures across the world. It is part of a journey towards a measurement system for organizations committed to community‐led development. This effort was not initiated by a funder or regulator. Instead, it was initiated by groups of non-profit professionals, working on different issues in different parts of the world, who recognised a common challenge and desire to improve their respective measurement systems.
To build towards this new system of measurement, the members of this group set out to answer three key questions:
- How can the field organized around people‐led development build a measurement system to demonstrate the added value of this work?
- How can organizations and funders transfer measurement power and responsibility to people who are often marginalized, while simultaneously ensuring robust mechanisms of accountability and transparency?
- What kind of support does the field need to develop measurement practices that contribute to learning and communication in the field?
This is a work‐in‐progress. The paper is intended to serve as a platform for further development. In summarizing past literature and disseminating findings from parallel and intersecting conversations pertaining to measurement, we hope to support further discussion regarding the principles and actions taken by those working in the field to build a more meaningful measurement system for their work.
The paper is authored by Barry Knight and Dana Doan and jointly published by Candid, GFCF and PSJP.
We would love to hear from you. To contribute to this process please leave a comment or write to us at info@psjp.org