,

“…the Jewish innovation sector would benefit from new tools, beyond logic models, to help plan, assess and evaluate the work of the innovation sector”

Logic models were first developed in the early 1970s based on engineering models that rely on quantifiable inputs and outputs. Logic models provide a managerial tool for program planning and to evaluate the effectiveness of programs. Logic models often ask people to think and plan by reverse engineering – starting from the ultimate outcomes or desired results in order to devise the best path to achieve those results.

But how can Jewish innovators and their supporters create a logic model (based on those engineering models that rely on quantifiable inputs and outputs), when so much of what Jewish innovators AND Jewish traditionalists do is largely unquantifiable, focused on producing “meaning” and “engagement,” and appears qualitatively slippery?

A consensus emerged from this conference: the Jewish innovation sector would benefit from new tools, beyond logic models, to help plan, assess and evaluate the work of the innovation sector. This could help innovative organizations strengthen their work as well as help funders make funding decisions. The development of new tools to engage these questions was beyond the scope of the meeting. But one clear outcome of the meeting is that coming up with new ways to capture and map the creativity, flexibility, vitality, and dynamism of the Jewish innovation sector using different visual, conceptual, and analytic tools is a challenge and opportunity.

Caryn Aviv, “Haskalah 2.0”, Jumpstart Report 2 (Summer 2010), 11-13.