Theory of Change: Planning for and Measuring Your Impact

Underlying any promising new social venture is a carefully conceived and testable hypothesis about how the venture will achieve its intended social impact. Expressing the cause-and-effect logic by which the venture's inputs, activities, and outputs will generate desired outcomes, and identifying any critical assumptions inherent in this hypothesis, the "theory of change," is central to the venture's strategy and is critical to measuring and communicating the results achieved. In this session we will discuss and apply tools for articulating and refining a theory of change; we will also provide an overview of approaches to measuring the performance of a social venture and for using this information for management and organizational learning. Optional final 30 minutes to include focus on global health, in collaboration with the Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator at Duke (SEAD, www.DukeSEAD.org ).Facilitator: Matt NashManaging Director, Social Entrepreneurship, Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative (I&E)Center Director, Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator at Duke (SEAD)