In 2010, more than 3.6 million people visited Yellowstone. 1 In 1961, the Gallup Salt Marsh, a six-acre parcel of private land in Connecticut, was granted to The Nature Conservancy as the organization's first conservation easement. 2 The parcel, worth just $300 at the time, has since been protected from development for the benefit of the public and the larger ecosystem of which the Gallup Marsh is a part. Since 1961, more than two million acres of land have been protected by The Nature Conservancy through similar easements. 3 The National Park Service and The Nature Conservancy are both scaled organizations and they boast similar values. Each exists to protect and preserve the natural environment for its intrinsic social benefits, and for the enjoyment of current and future generations. One is a government agency, the other a nonprofit supported by grants and donations. Starting with Yellowstone, the National Park Service has grown to encompass more than 84 million acres of protected land; its 2009 federal budget allocation was more than $2.9 billion. 4 The Nature Conservancy, meanwhile, has also grown tremendously over the last 50 years; through purchases and easements, the organization now manages more than 17 million acres of land, using $547 million in revenues to finance its activities in 2009. 5 Together, the National Park Service (with 4 percent of the nation's 2.4 bil-
I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of compleity.-attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Over the last two decades, social entrepreneurs have become darlings of the social sector. From the pioneering work of Ashoka to the global stage presented by the Skoll World Forum and the inspiring work of their Skoll Fellows, a new breed of innovative people and enterprising institutions are literally promising to change the world. Ranging from non-profits with highly scalable models looking to transform national education policy to for-profit businesses looking to serve the "base of the pyramid" at affordable health clinics, this diverse range of social enterprises offers alternatives to traditional charity or development assistance. Even big businesses are taking social enterprise seriously as they explore new ways to tap into underserved markets in emerging economies.But for all the innovation, the question remains: So what? Have these new approaches led to enduring change? Are people drinking cleaner water, living healthier lives, or moving out of poverty because of the new products designed to be affordable and accessible to the poor? We think so, but the evidence is nascent and mostly anecdotal. Our objective at Acumen Fund has been to push hard on these questions of measurement and impact: if what we are doing is a real innovation in philanthropy and development assistance, then we should have evidence that what we are doing matters for the lives of millions of people. This is not a simple problem. This article describes our efforts to get an answer to those questions within Acumen Fund and dives into the complexity of measuring social change. The article reviews our work to develop a manageable and somewhat simple approach to this complex challenge, and then looks at how the field of measurement might evolve in the coming years. My aim is to provide some very practical advice about how to produce or consume claims of social impact (or,
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