THE “REVOLUTION” IN EMPIRICAL RESEARCH

Elena Avramenko was awarded in the Development of Methodology of Social Projects Evaluation category for the development and elaboration of methods for economic assessment of social impact and a series of publications in the Positive Changes Journal.

Elena Avramenko is one of the authors of the methodological recommendations “Development of a model for assessing the socio-economic Impact of NPO projects[30].” The guide describes possible strategies for conducting socio-economic analysis of the impact of NPO projects at the level of describing the steps for “manual” calculations (on savings of state funds, characteristics of the quality of life of beneficiaries, etc.).

Elena Avramenko has been a regular contributor to the Positive Changes Journal since its first issue in December 2021[31].

What set the vector for the development of the impact assessment methodology for all of 2022? Such an event, according to the winner of the prize, was the presentation of the Nobel Prize to three scientists: Guido Imbens, David Card, and Joshua Angrist, “for their methodological contributions to cause and effect analysis.” The methodology proposed by the scientists makes it possible to find variations in the data of a “natural” experiment, which can give reliable results in assessing the influence of factors on social and economic characteristics.

Also, the Global impact Investing Network (GIIN) has seen great progress throughout 2022 in the development of impact assessment tools and methodology, according to the expert.

“According to GIIN, the impact investments market was $1.164 trillion in 2022. In the fall of 2022, GIIN launched Impact Lab, a first-of-its-kind industry initiative that will conduct groundbreaking research and development on behalf of the entire market to better understand impact effectiveness and the relationship between impact, risk and financial return. Impact Lab is designed for collaboration between leading investors and stakeholders to take the market to a new level of sophistication, while creating and accumulating an impact information base for informed decision making,” says Elena Avramenko.

Working with partner organizations' field trials, the lab will introduce the science, methods, and calculations needed to create impact performance analysis tools that will form the basis for more reliable impact analysis. The founding partners of Impact Lab were: GIIN, Temasek investment company, Visa Foundation, EQT foundation as investor and incubator.

IF WE HAD NOT DONE THE EVALUATION, WE WOULD NOT HAVE GIVEN NEW LIFE TO THE PROJECT

Moscow Toy factory was recognized the Best Case of Introduction of Evaluation in the Activities of a Social Enterprise. The mechanics of the project is learning how to create cotton toys. The target audience of the project is women over 50, unemployed, mothers of children with disabilities, mothers of large families. A description of the case can be found on the pages of the Positive Changes Journal[32].

Svetlana Modnova, founder and head of the Moscow Toy factory, highlighted the main points of 2022 and noted what the organization has achieved thanks to the evaluation.

“In 2022 we produced about 10,600 toys, won two grants from the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives to promote our projects in the regions, and launched the cotton toy museum, the only specialized museum in Russia, which is located on the territory of our factory. As for the evaluation, it brought to light things we had not been paying attention to before. We taught the craft of cotton toys to about 3.5 thousand women in Russia. Those who live near Moscow were attracted to work at our factory to fulfill corporate orders. The evaluation showed that women who live in remote regions are very willing to get involved in our work. We have developed a technology of the “artel” type for the production of cotton toys, which was popular in the 30's and 40's of the 20th century. Today 30 regions of Russia work with us,” says Svetlana Modnova.

The evaluation also found that one-third of the women who were trained in the project wanted to teach the craft and start their own business. Some in the form of a family workshop, some in the form of a club in a community center or in a small community.

“If we had not done the evaluation, we would not have seen this need. The evaluation pushed us to give new life to the project — we developed a methodological manual, where to start, how to teach, what materials to buy, how much money is needed to start this activity,” added Svetlana Modnova.

EVALUATION IS A CONVERSATION IN THE LANGUAGE OF NUMBERS AND VERIFIABLE FACTS

Yakov Samokhvalov, General Director of the Yugra Center for Civic and Social Initiatives Foundation, was awarded in the Best Program of Social Impact Assessment at the Regional Level category.

The prize was awarded for the development of a systemic solution to aggregate information about the activities of socially oriented non-profit organizations, volunteer associations and civic activists from various open sources, the formation of an open database on its basis and the creation of a mechanism for a single operator of grants from the Governor of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug — Yugra for socially oriented non-profit organizations and individuals implementing socially significant projects.

The Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug — Yugra is a region known for its achievements in the development of civil society. At the end of 2020 the Yugra Center for Civic and Social Initiatives launched a new solution, which aggregates information from volunteer associations and socially oriented non-profit organizations — the unified personal account of the activist of Yugra (abbreviated as UPAA or ELKA in Russian). This is an electronic service, by registering in which an NPO can tell about itself and participate in the ranking of regional organizations. The rating is calculated automatically based on data collected by the system from public sources and data provided by users themselves, but verified by the foundation's staff. Activists can thus position themselves favorably in the eyes of their colleagues, the authorities, and journalists.

Director of the Yugra Center for Civic