Charity impact: working out what would have happened anyway (bookings closed)

Date:

05/11/2012

Organised by:

PEPA (as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2012)

Presenter:

Mike Brewer and Sue Holloway

Level:

Entry (no or almost no prior knowledge)

Contact:

enquiries@pepa.ac.uk

Map:

View in Google Maps  (N1 9RL)

Venue:

NCVO, Regent's Wharf, 8 All Saints Street

Description:

This course is jointly organised by PEPA and Pro Bono Economics as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2012.

 

Course Description:

When asked to quantify their impact on society, many charities find it hard to identity what would have happened had there been no intervention. This workshop is an accessible introduction to impact evaluation for practitioners designing interventions, featuring Case Studies presented by volunteers from Pro Bono Economics.

At its heart, impact evaluation asks “what impact did an intervention have?”. Answering that requires one to understand or estimate the ‘counterfactual’ - what would have happened had there been no intervention?  This is highly relevant to third sector organisations, with growing pressure on charities to measure performance and results and quantify their wider impact on society. Many that are making good progress in measuring their own outcomes still find it hard to identify an appropriate control group.

This free half-day workshop is an accessible introduction to measuring the counterfactual for representatives from third sector organisations.  It is jointly organised by Programme Evaluation for Policy Analysis (PEPA) and Pro Bono Economics (PBE) as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2012.  PEPA’s aim is improve the design of evaluations, and the way that such evaluations add to the knowledge base: it is achieving this through research into evaluation methods, substantive applications, and training and capacity-building activities.  Pro Bono Economics is a charity which matches volunteer economists with charities wishing to address questions around measurement, results and impact.

An opening session by Professor Mike Brewer, PEPA will explain the impact evaluation problem, the importance (and difficulty) of producing a counterfactual, and the main techniques for estimating the counterfactual. Volunteer economists who have worked with PBE will then present practical case study sessions based on PBE’s existing work for charities..

Provisional schedule:

9.30 - Registration

10:00 - Welcome

10.10 - Why do we need a counterfactual, and how can we produce one? Mike Brewer (PEPA)

10.40 - Case study 1: Comparison with the national average, Fraser Thompson (Foundation Training Company)

11.10 - Coffee Break

11.40 - Case study 2: Before and after, Tim Battrick  (Making Every Adult Matter pilots)

12.10 - Case study 3: Synthetic counterfactual, Greg Thwaites (Barnardo's)

12.40 - General Q&A and wrap up, Lorraine Dearden (PEPA).

13.00 - Lunch

 

Cost:

Free

Region:

Greater London

Keywords:

Frameworks for Research and Research Designs, Evaluation Research, Case Study, Frameworks for Research and Research Designs (other)

Related publications and presentations:

Frameworks for Research and Research Designs
Evaluation Research
Case Study
Frameworks for Research and Research Designs (other)

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