Позитивные изменения. Том 2, №4 (2022). Positive changes. Volume 2, Issue 4 (2022)

The prize was also awarded to the Way Home Charitable Foundation for introducing systemic monitoring and evaluation tools into the practice of grantmaking organizations. 2022 saw several significant events for the foundation. Thus, as part of the Association of Program and Policy Evaluators conference, the Way Home foundation specialists shared their experience with colleagues from all over Russia in implementing and using monitoring and evaluation of socially significant projects, including the experience of those who are just beginning to use monitoring and evaluation. For the first time in the eight years of the conference, one of the sections was devoted entirely to the experience of the Way Home Charitable Foundation.

It is also worth noting the victory in the Corporate Philanthropy Leaders contest held by the Donors Forum. In the Best Program Promoting Sustainable Development through Grant Competitions (Best Grant Competition) category, 1st place was won by Severstal with the Way Home Charitable Foundation grant competition.

“This was only achieved through a two-year implementation of the results of an independent external evaluation of the foundation's grant competition conducted in 2019. It is important that despite all the events happening in the country and the world, we continue to develop the theme of evaluation, increasingly promoting the principles of evidence-based social design, emphasizing that positive changes in the lives of beneficiaries, communities and territories is the main purpose of NPO activities,” – says Alena Bogomolova, head of the Resource and Methodology Center of the Way Home charity foundation of the Severstal company, member of the Management Board of Association of Program and Policy Evaluators.

According to the expert, specialists from the foundation's Resource and Methodology Center traditionally work with all new grantees on logical models or chains of social results of projects at the beginning of their implementation. In 2022, the level of training for beginners has increased significantly and the time for this work took half as much as in previous years.

“For us, the question of how to implement a culture of evaluation in an organization is always relevant. This year we added blocks about monitoring and evaluation to the social design training seminars. Thus, when working on social design skills, even those entering the topic for the first time immediately perceive monitoring and evaluation as integral processes in their work. We tested this program in seven districts of the Vologda Region,” said Alena Bogomolova.

The fourth prize in this category was won by the Our Future Foundation for systematizing methods and programs in the field of evaluating the social and economic effectiveness of social enterprises and impact investors. In 2022, the foundation conducted a sample study of the social impact of social entrepreneurs' projects in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra[26]. Three projects were selected for the study: X–Land computer club (Nizhnevartovsk), Seven Dwarfs kindergarten (Nefteyugansk) and Botanica Bar (Nizhnevartovsk). In 2016–2018, these companies participated in a pilot project to develop the social investment market in the region.

The method used by the experts is the Social Return on Investment, or SROI. The Our Future Foundation is adapting it to Russian conditions to evaluate the effectiveness of impact investments. The data from this study helps investors and project managers understand how effectively funds are spent to create a social result.

The foundation has been applying the social impact assessment approach for 15 years, making decisions to fund socially transformative projects in the form of interest-free loans[27].

Natalia Zvereva, director of the Our Future Foundation, notes that in 2022 the discussion of approaches to assessing the social impact intensified. First of all, this is related to the discussion of the specifics of social enterprises of various legal forms. Competencies in determining the approach to social impact assessment at the level of professional standards in the field of social entrepreneurship are important.

“Our experience shows that there is no universal methodology for assessing social impact, because there are differences in approaches for enterprises of different legal forms, different types of activities. For example, it is difficult to evaluate sports and social service projects using the same approach. As part of the Aksel.Sotszakaz accelerator, we saw confirmation of this thesis. The emphasis on industry specifics is one of the important trends in the development of this topic,” says Natalia Zvereva.