Working with partner organizations' field trials, the lab will introduce the science, methods, and calculations needed to create impact performance analysis tools that will form the basis for more reliable impact analysis. The founding partners of Impact Lab were: GIIN, Temasek investment company, Visa Foundation, EQT foundation as investor and incubator.

Moscow Toy factory was recognized the Best Case of Introduction of Evaluation in the Activities of a Social Enterprise. The mechanics of the project is learning how to create cotton toys. The target audience of the project is women over 50, unemployed, mothers of children with disabilities, mothers of large families. A description of the case can be found on the pages of the Positive Changes Journal[32].

Svetlana Modnova, founder and head of the Moscow Toy factory, highlighted the main points of 2022 and noted what the organization has achieved thanks to the evaluation.

“In 2022 we produced about 10,600 toys, won two grants from the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives to promote our projects in the regions, and launched the cotton toy museum, the only specialized museum in Russia, which is located on the territory of our factory. As for the evaluation, it brought to light things we had not been paying attention to before. We taught the craft of cotton toys to about 3.5 thousand women in Russia. Those who live near Moscow were attracted to work at our factory to fulfill corporate orders. The evaluation showed that women who live in remote regions are very willing to get involved in our work. We have developed a technology of the “artel” type for the production of cotton toys, which was popular in the 30's and 40's of the 20th century. Today 30 regions of Russia work with us,” says Svetlana Modnova.

The evaluation also found that one-third of the women who were trained in the project wanted to teach the craft and start their own business. Some in the form of a family workshop, some in the form of a club in a community center or in a small community.

“If we had not done the evaluation, we would not have seen this need. The evaluation pushed us to give new life to the project – we developed a methodological manual, where to start, how to teach, what materials to buy, how much money is needed to start this activity,” added Svetlana Modnova.

Yakov Samokhvalov, General Director of the Yugra Center for Civic and Social Initiatives Foundation, was awarded in the Best Program of Social Impact Assessment at the Regional Level category.

The prize was awarded for the development of a systemic solution to aggregate information about the activities of socially oriented non-profit organizations, volunteer associations and civic activists from various open sources, the formation of an open database on its basis and the creation of a mechanism for a single operator of grants from the Governor of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra for socially oriented non-profit organizations and individuals implementing socially significant projects.

The Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra is a region known for its achievements in the development of civil society. At the end of 2020 the Yugra Center for Civic and Social Initiatives launched a new solution, which aggregates information from volunteer associations and socially oriented non-profit organizations – the unified personal account of the activist of Yugra (abbreviated as UPAA or ELKA in Russian). This is an electronic service, by registering in which an NPO can tell about itself and participate in the ranking of regional organizations. The rating is calculated automatically based on data collected by the system from public sources and data provided by users themselves, but verified by the foundation's staff. Activists can thus position themselves favorably in the eyes of their colleagues, the authorities, and journalists.

Director of the Yugra Center for Civic and Social Initiatives Foundation commented on how UPAA works.

“The unified personal account is a system that motivates people to talk about and reflect on what they do. We aggregate all available information from open sources, collect and segment it according to certain areas and derive a certain rating value. In the competitions that we run as the operator of the governor's grants, we make sure that some things that are checked by the competition experts cannot be rated lower than on the platform, for example, the value of the experience of the organization, the team. And this motivates people: we noticed that they add information about themselves, some data is verified. All of this is of value to the public sector, the journalistic community, and active residents of the region. The system is largely self-developing. We set the rules, and the system is filled with data,” says Yakov Samokhvalov.

He also notes that in 2022, interest in evaluation is growing beyond the expert community itself: such approaches are becoming in demand in the federal and regional authorities, and in business. “2022 was a watershed year – we are approaching the topic of the first state-accepted evaluation. We need to understand how public investments – subsidies, budget funds, grants for NPOs – are converted and what value they represent to society, beyond stories like “we helped…” This is a conversation in a language of figures, verifiable facts, which the sector lacked. And the second thing is that the evaluation is needed first and foremost by the organizations themselves. Many organizations seek “long” cooperation with donor organizations, large and medium-sized businesses, and government agencies. But without a fair internal evaluation of its activities, an organization can have neither a strategy nor long-term plans. If there are no long-term plans, it is difficult to attract partners and develop,” says the expert.

Theory of change, open data, evidence-based approach, reporting standard, development of a guide for creating and evaluating impact projects, discussion of approaches to social impact assessment, development of communities of practitioners, great progress in the development of tools and methodology for impact assessment, growth of interest in evaluation as a professional activity – these are the trends the award winners see in 2022.

The award by Positive Changes Journal, a popular science journal about impact investments and social impact assessment, is an annual award. At the end of 2023, we will know the names of new laureates – people and organizations who are making a positive contribution to the development of the impact theme.

Сделать освещение и проложить дорогу к дому, поставить памятник или организовать тропу здоровья, или сделать дизайнерский ремонт в подъезде – эти и другие вопросы вправе решать и получать финансирование на воплощение своих идей сами граждане. Проекты, предложенные жителями территорий, сегодня реализуются большинством субъектов Российской Федерации в формате так называемого инициативного бюджетирования. Как это работает, а также каким территориям и при каких условиях необходимо – в нашем материале.