aes22 International Evaluation Conference

Elizabeth-Rose Ahearn (University of New South Wales)

Over the past 20 years multiple research projects have been conducted to identify how the social sector within Australia and globally generate their own evidence base and implement evidence into practice. Unanimously these studies have identified a lack of resourcing, internal capacity, clarity from funders, and ability to identify appropriate measurement tools and methods as the barriers preventing the sector from fully engaging with the evidence base. The Centre for Social Impact's Amplify Online is a world first tech solution which aims to alleviate the sector of these barriers.

The platform provides a self-service repository of over 500 outcome indicators, classified into relevant outcome areas, and ranked for quality. Users can either search through the indicators, or have a survey designed for their program objectives based on automated text-based search functionality. The platform then distributes surveys to beneficiaries and stakeholders and offers automated analysis and benchmarking of the data collected via the platform.

Designed for the Australian non-profit sector, the platform is completely free for all Australian small and medium non-profits with a minimal data hosting fee for large non-profits. In this session a comprehensive overview of the platform will be offered including how to integrate it with existing or future evaluation activities for the overall objective of increasing the effectiveness and benefit to society of non-profit programs.