The Compass: Your Guide to Social Impact Measurement

The Compass is your guide created by Centre for Social Impact to navigating social outcomes and impact measurement. This guide is for everyone working towards the creation of positive social impact in Australia and who wants to know if they are making a difference. The Compass explores and explains key topics, concepts, questions and principles of outcomes measurement

The Travel Companion: Your guide to working with others for social outcomes

This is your guide to working together to achieve social purpose. The guide is for everyone working towards the creation of positive social impact in Australia and who wants to know whether and how they might work with others to make a difference. At the Centre for Social Impact (CSI) we recognise that there is an increasing focus on how people can create social change by working across organisations and even sectors but that navigating the literature, guides, tools and approaches can be overwhelming and challenging. The Travel Companion will help you understand what it entails to work with others and help you along your journey. It explores and explains the key topics, concepts, questions and principles related to working across organisations. If you are interested in understanding whether you need to work with others to achieve your social purpose, the approach to working together that might best suit your needs, and what can help you work together effectively, this guide is for you

The Effects of Jackpots on Responding and Choice in Two Domestic Dogs

The current study investigated the impact of delivering a jackpot on response rate and response allocation in two domestic dogs. For the purpose of this research, a jackpot was defined as a one-time, within-session increase in the magnitude of reinforcement. Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of delivering a jackpot in both single-operant and concurrent schedule procedures. Experiment 1 investigated the impact of a one-time, within-session increase in the magnitude of reinforcement on response rate in a single-operant procedure. Results of Experiment 1 showed no clear change in response rate after the delivery of the jackpot. Experiment 2 investigated the impact of a one-time, within-session increase in the magnitude of reinforcement on response allocation in a concurrent schedule procedure. Results of Experiment 2 showed an increase in response allocation to the jackpotted contingency in both subjects. These results suggest that a jackpot, as defined here, has no effect in single-operant procedures while having an effect in concurrent schedule procedures. These effects are similar to those reported in the magnitude of reinforcement literature

The Navigator: Your guide to leadership for social purpose

The Navigator is your guide to leadership for social purpose. At the Centre for Social Impact (CSI), we believe that effective leadership for social purpose is one of the keys to achieving a better world, where people have the opportunity to achieve their goals free of discrimination and social inequality, where complex social problems are addressed, communities are diverse and thriving, and where organisations across sectors work together to grow positive social impact

Why is financial stress on the rise? Financial Resilience in Australia 2016

Despite an uninterrupted record of two decades of GDP growth in Australia, individual and household economic markers suggest a more precarious position at an individual and household level. Income inequality is high, household debt levels are up, the cost of living is higher than the increase in CPI and this year’s financial resilience report finds that the number of people facing financial vulnerability in Australia has increased

Participation in sport and recreation by culturally and linguistically diverse women: Stakeholder consultation report

In June 2006, the Australian Government Office for Women in the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaCSIA) engaged the Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC) at the University of New South Wales to research how culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) women participate in sport and recreation, and the factors that may limit their full involvement. The project is designed to inform the development of policies and programs to effectively support the inclusion of CALD women in sport and recreation activities, as players and in non-playing roles. The project is being conducted in three stages: a data review and analysis (completed in August 2006); consultations with key stakeholders (the subject of this report); and focus groups with CALD women about their experiences and perceptions of sport and recreation activities (to be conducted in early 2007)

Family resilience where families have a child (0-8 years) with disability: final report

Using the findings from the primary data collection with families and stakeholders, this report develops the understanding of resilience in these families. It also analyses service practices and models and looks at how services can assist families to build and maintain resilience. Using the findings from the primary data collection with families and stakeholders, this report develops the understanding of resilience in these families. It also analyses service practices and models in order to identify and define elements of practice that build family resilience, detract from family resilience, and are crucial to the maintenance of resilience during times of transition. The report concludes with a section on how services can assist families to build and maintain resilience

Money Stories: Financial resilience among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians

This report builds on previous work on financial resilience in Australia and represents the beginning of an exploration of the financial resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Overall, we found significant economic disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. This is not surprising, given the histories of land dispossession, stolen wages and the late entry of Indigenous Australians into free participation in the economy (it is only 50 years since the referendum to include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as members of the Australian population)

Indirect costs in the Australian for-purpose sector: Paying what it takes for Australian for-purpose organisations to create long-term impact

Indirect costs (or overhead) are a fraught topic in the not-for-profit world. Many people across philanthropy, government, the public and the media all expect them to be minimised, or not to pay for them at all. Yet they are essential to running a functioning, effective organisation. In the context of a struggling NFP sector, this is a crucial issue to ensure the long-term effectiveness of Australia’s charities. US research has shown that one of the key drivers of NFP vulnerability is insufficient funding of charity indirect costs. This is called the “non-profit starvation cycle”, in which funders having inaccurate expectations of how much overhead is needed to run a not-for-profit means that charities under report their costs to funders. This leads to a sector starved of the necessary core funding required to create resilient charities delivering long-term impact on complex social issues