Our support was not only financial; we have helped our innovators at every stage of the process, from defining the scope of their evaluation through to data collection.

View the presentation below for more detail on our approach and read this paper by TSIP, reflecting on their learning from supporting the fund.

Throughout the Fund’s lifetime we’ve also been blogging about our experiences of trying to build an evidence base about social action.

• In July 2015, Patrick Taylor wrote about what it is like, as a funder, to put so much emphasis on the use of evidence. He provides some genuine reflection and insight into the process, including the use of our Standards of Evidence.
• Our innovators have also shared reflections on their experiences. In August 2015, the Access Project and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research wrote about the evaluation they were undertaking.

We recognise that there isn’t a consensus about the importance of evaluation, so we have tried to make the case for more focus on evidence and impact.

Elliot Trevithick of TSIP addresses this in two blogs.

• The first, written in March 2015, talks about understanding the purpose of evaluation.
• This was followed up in November 2015 with a more comprehensive piece on how you can make evidence useful.