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TRASI is scheduled to launch officially in the spring of 2010.
The Foundation Center is pleased to announce the beta launch of an online database of Tools and Resources for Assessing Social Impact (TRASI). TRASI contains a comprehensive listing of 150 approaches to measuring and analyzing social impact for programs and investments. Authored by a range of organizations, including social investors, foundations, NGOs, microfinance institutions, and others seeking social change, these resources range from off-the-shelf tools and concrete methodologies to generalized best practices. In consultation with the respective organizations and authors of these resources, we have classified the approaches in TRASI along 18 categories. For a more in-depth look at the categories, please consult the Terms Defined page or hover your mouse over the search terms in the Basic or Advanced Search pages.
http://foundationcenter.org/trasi/
PBS: three part series on philanthropy (2.2008):
Philanthropy is a mission, and it is also an industry. In 2005 alone, charitable contributions to nonprofits topped $250 billion. The three part series "A Guide to Giving" explores trends in personal and corporate philanthropy and also examines nonprofit accountability. Additionally, the site includes links to resources on the social impact of philanthropy.
http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/features/special/guide-to-giving_home/
Megan Wentworth
Stanford Social Innovation Review
Click here to download "Leading Boldly: Foundations can move past traditional approaches to create social change through imaginative - and even controversial - leadership" published in 2004 by Ronald A. Heifetz, John V. Kania and Mark R. Kramer:
http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/leading_boldly/
Marie Deatherage
"Leveraging Philanthropic Investments To Advance Policy Change,"
by Josefina G. Carbonell from Philanthropy and Aging, Volume 31, Number 2. Pages 29–34.
http://www.aoa.gov/press/for_the_press/articles/archive/2007/Gen.31_2.Carbonell.pdf
"Counter View to Retrenchment: Applying a Different Bottom Line"
by Ted Smith, Kendall Foundation, and Paul Brainerd, Brainerd Foundation. An excellent short summary of reasons not to reduce or curtail grantmaking when foundation corpuses are negatively affected by tough economic times.
http://www.brainerd.org/downloads/bottomline.pdf
