We say that AllPeopleBeHappy foundation acts as a social venture capitalist, not a charity. So how do we measure the impact of our investments? That turns out to be a very difficult question to answer. In our 2012 Annual Report we quantified the metrics we received from our grant recipients and calculated that ~50,000 people were impacted by the ~$400,000 we invested in projects during our first 5 years of operation. So what does each individual get for that $8 investment? If the investment was spent on seeds, gardening tools, and training for a farmer, should we only count the first year’s metrics? Obviously there is no easy way to answer such a question, and perhaps the answer isn’t as important as evidence that the impact from the initial investment is growing. In a recent newsletter our longtime partner, The Kossoye Project wrote, “Household gardening is spreading among urban people in the city of Gondar who are very poor and in constant need of nutritious food. These include “street children” who could not be supported by their families in the countryside and were forced to go to the city of Gondar to beg and scavenge for food. The leader of a local non-governmental organization heard about our program and requested seeds and training for 120 street kids they rescued from miserable street lives. We provided seeds and training so each child has her or his own garden at the shelter where they live.” That is exactly the kind of thing that one hopes for from this type of project, people observing the successes of their neighbors and friends and seeking out the same opportunities. There is no way that indirect and long term impacts can be accurately quantified. The important thing is that there are some people in the developing world who are happier today because of the Foundation’s investments.
Revisit Blog #4: Metrics
0