One of the most unique programs at PCV is PCV InSight. However, it can be rather tricky to explain to someone who isn’t familiar with the space. Let me break it down for you.
Even early on, Bud and Penelope realized the importance of tracking our work and analyzing the impact that it had on the community. We were making loans in hopes of producing both financial and social or environmental returns and needed to prove that our model worked. From this need was born our PCV Insight program, an addition that changed the face of PCV – for the better!
It’s easier to understand PCV InSight’s work when you break it down into two sub-programs:
- Impact evaluation: Our InSight Impact Evaluation team gathers data about PCV’s work and investments, and analyzes the impact that we have on the community. It’s thanks to the Impact Evaluation Team that we’re able to quantify the impact of our work to prove that we’re making a difference. Over the years we’ve gotten pretty good at it. So good, in fact, that we now do impact evaluation for some of the most prominent foundations and philanthropic organizations in the country!
- Best Practices & Policy: As we gathered and analyzed data on the social benefits of investments, we started to see trends and best practices emerge. With that information, we are able to continuously improve our own programs, and before long we were sharing these findings with our network. PCV InSight’s Best Practices & Policy team performs research related to impact investing and is now influencing policymakers around the world via our many printed reports – check them out!
To sum it all up, our analysis work and on-the-ground program work are done under the same roof, allowing us to constantly assess what we’re doing and improve how we do it. We then take the best practices that have benefited us for the past 15 years and share it with other organizations that can also benefit from it and who can drive additional resources to underserved communities. You see, it’s all part of our unique ecosystem of change, which you can feast your eyes on below:
We provide Capital (orange) and Advice (blue) to help small businesses, which is analyzed by our Impact Evaluation team (green), which then informs our Best Practices & Policy team (purple), which then helps us improve our programs, and on and on it goes.