Digital Transformation Insights
IMM and MEL: Can one tool meet impact measurement needs across sectors?
Last week, Salesforce.org, Monitor Institute by Deloitte, and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) released Impact Measurement Today, a white paper outlining a cross-sector approach to impact management capacity building. While nonprofits and governments focus efforts and resources around monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL)...
6 Capacity Building Tips to Scale Your Digital Transformation Strategy
Around the globe, nonprofits are taking an impact-first approach to digital transformation and using technology to work cross-functionally, communicate effectively, and enhance program effectiveness. This webinar, hosted by Salesforce.org, brings together a well-rounded group of panelists – Zak Kaufman of Vera Solutions...
Risky Business: Monitoring and learning from risks in the social sector
Can you remember a project you worked on that went perfectly according to plan? If you can, you are one of the lucky few. The world is an unpredictable place. As businesses, communities, and individuals, we each have our own way of thinking about and preparing for the unexpected, even if we don’t realize it. In the social sector, however, discussions about risk...
7 Benefits of Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud’s New Program Management Module
Salesforce.org has just released a whole slew of new products and feature enhancements that have generated a lot of excitement here at Vera. One of these, the Program Management Module (PMM), has been in the works for a while – we are delighted to see it brought to life and hope it helps many more nonprofits realize the benefits...
A Consumers Guide to Grants Management Systems
In the four years since the last edition, the marketplace for grants management systems has undergone a LOT of changes. This time around, we’re reviewing fewer systems (acquisitions!) but many of them have increased functionality and have improved overall to respond to the many stakeholders, both inside and outside of a grantmaking...
Amp Impact Introduces Click-based IATI Publishing to Salesforce
International development and humanitarian organisations using Amp Impact can now publish their data to IATI with a few clicks. Here’s why this feature is a game-changer. With Amp Impact’s Bellatrix release last November, users can export XML files from the app using the IATI Organisation and Activity standards...
Webinar Recording: Tools and Best Practices to Identify, Manage, and Mitigate Risk
The world is unpredictable. However, the philanthropic market is not structured to deal with the unexpected. No industry standards currently exist for discussing, assessing, or planning for risk in philanthropic investments – specifically obstacles that could prevent a project or organization from achieving the desired social impact...
10 Criteria to Evaluate When Choosing a New Technology
When I look back at our last nine years and more than 500 social sector technology projects (and the systems we’ve replaced), it strikes me that organizations often choose technologies for silly and short-sighted reasons. These range from “my cousin works at Oracle” to “everyone here uses Excel, so of course we’re going with Sharepoint / Dynamics / PowerBI” to “the maps look really cool”...
5 Ways You Can Use Salesforce to Advance the SDGs
Whether you’re working to end extreme poverty, advance health and well-being, improve access to quality education, or all of the above, you’re surely hearing more and more buzz about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs exemplify a growing trend to make information easier to access, use, and understand, but many organizations may be struggling to show exactly how their work is helping achieve the goals...
Addressing the IMP’s five dimensions of impact using Amp Impact
Vera Solutions has designed and built Amp Impact based on 8+ years and 50+ implementations of portfolio-level impact management systems (not to mention 150+ related implementations tracking individual program- or enterprise-level impact). As a Certified B Corp, Vera is committed to amplifying the impact of organizations...
The Inaugural Amp Impact Summit: Creating a Common Ground for Impact Measurement
On April 15, Vera Solutions and Salesforce.org hosted the inaugural Amp Impact Summit in Amsterdam to bring together a passionate group of professionals for an afternoon focused on strengthening accountability and data management in the social sector. We were inspired to see organizations of different shapes and sizes...
Connecting Amp Impact & DHIS2
I’m excited about Amp Impact. In short, it’s Vera Solutions’ impact measurement and portfolio management tool for nonprofits, grant-makers, and impact investors—built on Salesforce. It’s already being used in more than 25 countries, including by the Aga Khan Foundation to monitor 450+ programs across 19 countries and 7 thematic areas and Shell Foundation to manage social and environmental reporting...
Webinar Recap: A Multi-Faceted Approach to Impact Measurement
Earlier this month, we joined the Aga Khan Foundation and the Impact Management Project in a webinar panel, hosted by Salesforce.org, in which we discussed how impact-driven organizations define and measure their social bottom line. Here are out three takeaways from the webinar discussion...