“A little information with analysis is better than a lot of data collection with
little analysis.”
The Challenge
All organizations collect data—often automatically through computerized systems, either for internal auditing or as part of day-to-day operations—but this information is not often leveraged for impact assessment. ReadyMade Impact Assessment helps development organizations make the most use of their existing data, particularly in situations where full-scale assessments such as randomized controlled trials are not feasible or desirable.
The Approach
ReadyMade is an online assessment tool that social enterprises can use to track the impact and cost of small-scale and early-stage projects by incorporating diverse sets of data that are already being collected or can be easily collected.
The easy-to-use, open-source platform helps the user collect data in digital format, clean and input data, filter and anonymize data, find patterns to identify key variables, analyze variable relationships, and report results (visualization and tables). ReadyMade is created for development organizations ranging from government agencies to social enterprises and NGOs.
Updates
ReadyMade has conducted four proof of concept prototypes that assess program impact in health care delivery, agricultural financing, college readiness, and community safe water.
ReadyMade is now ready to develop and test the online prototype, which will integrate open source tools—including the DIL platform, Google Fusion, R, and Shreddr—with an interface that guides the user through the steps of setting up the evaluation, performing the analysis, and providing graphical results with a summary of the organization’s impact.
Lead Researchers
Dr. Clair Brown
Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Work, Technology, and Society at UC Berkeley
Learn More
ReadyMade Papers: