Fund for Shared Insight: 2015 Grantee Interview Themes

In October 2015, ORS Impact interviewed representatives from the 14 organizations that received grants from the Fund for Shared Insight. The purpose of these interviews was to capture insights from the experiences of grantees in their work to date, with the goal of informing discussion and decision making during the November Core Funders meeting. More complete reports of progress on activities and outcomes will be based on the reports by grantees due in January 2016.Findings are summarized below by key groups of grantees, as well as by current areas of interest of the funders

Feedback Loops and Openness: A Snapshot of the Field Baseline Report

Fund for Shared Insight ("Shared Insight") is a collaborative effort among funders that pools financial and other resources to make grants to improve philanthropy. Shared Insight believes philanthropy can have a greater social and environmental impact if foundations and nonprofits listen to the people they seek to help, act on what they hear, and openly share what they learn.In early 2015, ORS Impact conducted a baseline assessment to set a bar against which to measure progress over time, as well as to inform near-term decisions based on a deeper understanding of the field's current state. We explored the current state of philanthropic and nonprofit practice related to feedback loops, as well as foundation openness practices through key informant interviews, a media analysis, reviews of foundations' and sector-serving organizations' websites, and use of existing secondary data sources, such as the Center for Effective Philanthropy's report, "Hearing From Those We Seek to Help: Nonprofit Practices and Perspectives in Beneficiary Feedback." Methods are described more fully in Appendix A, as well as the strengths and limitations of each method in Appendix B.This memo lays out our findings in each area, as well as considerations and implications for Shared Insight going forward. We also lift up a few emergent findings that arose from the data collection process

Event 22 February 2012: The Impact Agenda

The Impact Agenda – an ESRC-funded seminar series – will host speakers at Seminar 5: New Frontiers of Impact on Wednesday, 22nd February 2012 from 9.00am until 5.00pm at Manchester Business School West

Google Scholar citations: a way for academics to compute citation metrics and track them over time

Citation metrics are used by many academics and researchers to gauge the influence of their work, and to gain a better understanding of the impact of their research. The Impact Blog has already given a lot of coverage to Anne- Wil Harzing’s Publish or Perish software, and now it looks as if Google may be catching up… after feedback from users, Google are now introducing Google Scholar Citations, which aims to be a simple way for academics to compute citation metrics and track them over time

A qualitative exploration of the collaborative working between palliative care and geriatric medicine:barriers and facilitators from a European perspective

Background With an increasing number of people dying in old age, collaboration between palliative care and geriatric medicine is increasingly being advocated in order to promote better health and health care for the increasing number of older people. The aim of this study is to identify barriers and facilitators and good practice examples of collaboration and integration between palliative care and geriatric medicine from a European perspective. Methods Four semi-structured group interviews were undertaken with 32 participants from 18 countries worldwide. Participants were both clinicians (geriatricians, GPs, palliative care specialists) and academic researchers. The interviews were transcribed and independent analyses performed by two researchers who then reached consensus. Results Limited knowledge and understanding of what the other discipline offers, a lack of common practice and a lack of communication between disciplines and settings were considered as barriers for collaboration between palliative care and geriatric medicine. Multidisciplinary team working, integration, strong leadership and recognition of both disciplines as specialties were considered as facilitators of collaborative working. Whilst there are instances of close clinical working between disciplines, examples of strategic collaboration in education and policy were more limited. Conclusions Improving knowledge about its principles and acquainting basic palliative care skills appears mandatory for geriatricians and other health care professionals. In addition, establishing more academic chairs is seen as a priority in order to develop more education and development at the intersection of palliative care and geriatric medicine

Five minutes with Conor Gearty: “It is very frustrating that my online project The Rights’ Future counts for nothing in my professional life. It is not teaching; it is not scholarly research; and it does not have impact”

Following the success of his collaborative online project, The Rights’ Future, Conor Gearty tells us how interactive blogging became his most enjoyable academic work to date and how creating his online presence has become a mountain with no summit

Five minutes with Bora Zivkovic: “The blog is a way for me to promote young and new voices, that’s why they call me The Blogfather!”

One of the best known science writers and bloggers in the online world, Bora Zivkovic is the chief editor and community manager of the Scientific American blogs network. Here he discusses his duty to encourage and promote new scientists, and the role of science communication in the 21st century

Podcasts of over 1,000 LSE lectures available to download through iTunes U, including lectures from the LSE Impact Conference

Over 1,000 podcasts of the London School of Economics and Political Science’s public lecture programme are available to download from the iTunes online store, LSE on iTunes U, LSE announced this month

Five Minutes with Tim Gowers and Tyler Neylon: “The boycott has made Elsevier more concerned about its public image”

Earlier this year Tim Gowers sparked debate about the future of academic publishing when he declared his intentions to boycott Elsevier. With Tyler Neylon’s work on the Cost of Knowledge website, the pair discuss how they made a splash in the comfy world of academic publishing