250 of you have registered for tomorrow — for a method most of the room has never actually used. That tells us something on its own.

So before we meet, here’s the one bit of Outcome Harvesting worth knowing in advance.

Register Here

Almost everything about this method bends

Run the full six steps, or borrow three. Harvest across a decade, or fold it into your quarterly review. Bring in an external evaluator, or do the whole thing in-house. Anna is refreshingly relaxed about all of it.

One thing doesn’t bend.

The outcome statement

What changed, who was involved, when it happened — and, kept firmly separate, what you did to contribute to it.

THE OUTCOME — what changed, who was involved, when
In March 2026, the district education officer began requiring schools to report girls’ attendance separately.

THE CONTRIBUTION — what we did, kept separate
Our team presented gender-disaggregated attendance data at two district review meetings.

THE SUBSTANTIATION — who else can confirm it
The block education officer, and the minutes of the March review meeting.

Register Here

Here’s where most reporting quietly falls apart

Think about the last programme report you read.

“We ran 40 sessions.”
“We served 1,200 meals.”
“We completed 300 case-management activities.”

Not one of these is an outcome.

Every one of those is a contribution. It tells you what the programme did. It doesn’t tell you what shifted because of it.

Both belong in the record — how you showed up often matters enormously. But when the two get collapsed into the same paragraph, you end up with an organisation that has a great deal of documentation and very little evidence. We see it constantly.

And somebody else has to be able to see it too

An outcome has to be observable enough that another person can corroborate it. Which rules out most statements about how people felt — unless you can point to what that feeling actually changed.

Anna describes the work as closer to investigative journalism than survey research: ring up someone else who was in that meeting and ask whether they noticed the same thing. And if they remember it completely differently? That disagreement is the interesting part. Chase it, don’t smooth it over.

Register Here

Warmly,
4th Wheel Social Impact Team

Most MEAL systems begin by deciding, in advance, what success will look like. A theory of change sets the pathway, a logframe turns it into indicators, and teams collect evidence against them. That works when the intervention is stable and the route to change is reasonably predictable.

A great deal of our sector’s work is not. Advocacy, systems change, coalition building, institutional strengthening and social norms work involve many actors and shifting contexts, and produce outcomes nobody wrote down at design stage. A programme can meet every output target and still miss the change that mattered most — including the ones that went badly.

Register Here

Outcome Harvesting starts from the other end. Instead of asking only whether the predicted change occurred, it asks what changed, for whom, when and where — and what part we actually played in it. It works backwards from observable change to contribution, then tests the claim against other sources.

On 1 September, Dialogue 10 of our Social Impact Dialogues takes the method apart in practice.

Who is in the room

Anna Martin is a Strategist and Complexity Coach at Radicle Development — an evaluator and facilitator whose work sits where complex evidence has to become a decision. She has supported UNICEF, the Ford Foundation, GSMA and the World Anti-Doping Agency on evaluation, learning and organisational change.

Sharon Weir moderates, she co-founded The 4th Wheel in 2010 and has since designed and led more than 150 research and evaluation projects.

Register Here

Three questions structure the session

1. When is Outcome Harvesting the right method — and when is it not? Can it be used while building a theory of change, during implementation, or retrospectively when no evaluation was designed at all?

2. What does a good harvest look like in practice? Who takes part, what does a facilitator ask, and how do you make sure the process reaches past the most senior voices in the room?

3. What do you do once you have the outcomes? How a collection of outcome statements becomes a decision, a revised theory of change, or a clear answer about what to stop doing.

Who this is for

NGO leaders and MEAL heads running programmes where the pathway to change was never fully predictable. Advocacy, policy-influence and coalition teams trying to evidence contribution without overclaiming attribution. CSR and foundation teams who want something beyond output reporting. Funders deciding whether the method fits a portfolio review. Evaluators and researchers working with participatory, complexity-aware approaches.

If the timing does not work, register anyway — we will send the recording to everyone who signs up.

Register Here

Warmly,
4th Wheel Social Impact Team

Last month, at our Social Impact Dialogue—SROI in Practice: Two Stories, One Method—446 people from 35 countries registered, and more than 250 joined us live.

Thank you. The chat was so active that we left with more questions than the hour could hold.

Rather than reply one by one, we grouped your questions into nine themes and turned each into a short, practical read. Use this guide to start with the foundations, jump to the hard parts, or go straight to what the ratio really means.

446 registrations • 35 countries • 250+ live participants

Watch the full webinar →

01 — NEW TO SROI

Start with the foundations

How is SROI different from other types of evaluations? →
A clear comparison of SROI with other evaluation approaches—and when the method is most useful.

Connecting a Theory of Change and SROI →
How your Theory of Change becomes the backbone of a credible SROI analysis.

Getting started: templates and resources for SROI →
Practical tools and references to help you move from interest to action.

02 — DOING AN SROI NOW?

Tackle the hard parts

From outcomes to financial value: how do we select credible financial proxies? →
A practical guide to choosing proxies that are defensible, transparent, and grounded in context.

Discounting factors in SROI →
Deadweight, attribution, displacement, and drop-off—what they mean and how to apply them.

Practical considerations when conducting an SROI →
What to plan for across data, stakeholders, timelines, and team capacity.

03 — INTERPRETING OR USING THE FINDINGS?

Look beyond the ratio

Beyond the ratio: why SROI needs both numbers and stories →
Why a strong SROI combines financial value with qualitative evidence and lived experience.

Using SROI findings: beyond the ratio →
How to turn findings into better decisions, stronger programmes, and clearer communication.

Is AI making SROI easier? →
Where AI can genuinely help—and why human judgement remains essential.

Whether you are new to the method or have been applying it for years, we hope these resources make SROI a little more practical and a little less intimidating.

Still have a question?

Reply to this email and tell us what remains unanswered—or what you would like a future Social Impact Dialogue to explore. We read every response.

— Payal & the 4th Wheel team

Tomorrow at 4 pm IST we go live with Dialogue 9 of our Social Impact Dialogues: SROI in Practice — Two Stories, One Method.

If a funder or a board has ever asked your organization for an SROI, you know the moment. The method sounds simple — value the change, divide by the investment — until you actually have to do it. Which outcomes make the cut? What do you do about change that would have happened anyway? And once the number exists, who does it convince? Tomorrow's hour sits in that gap between the idea and the doing, with two teams who have been through the whole process on live programmes.

Register Here

Sejal Agarwal (Senior Manager – Impact, Oorja Development Solutions) brings the social enterprise experience — valuing what pay-per-use solar irrigation changed for smallholder farmers in Uttar Pradesh.

Rutuja Chaphekar (CSR Manager, Forbes Marshall) brings the corporate experience — valuing what seven years of a girls' scholarship programme in Pune made possible.

Sharon Weir, Co-Founder of The 4th Wheel, moderates, and we close with your questions.

Register Here

What we’ll get into:

• Why each organisation chose SROI — and what they wanted to know that other methods couldn’t tell them

• How outcomes get selected and valued in practice, from reduced irrigation costs to a girl staying in school longer

• What the process asks of your team — the data, the time, and the internal conversations nobody warns you about

• What happens after the report lands: how findings are being used with investors, boards and programme teams

• When SROI is the right method for your evaluation — and when it isn’t

Whether you commission evaluations, run them, or read the reports they produce, this hour is built to leave you with a working sense of the method — not the textbook version.

See you tomorrow at 4.

Warmly,
4th Wheel Social Impact Team

SROI has become one of the most requested and least understood methods in the Indian impact sector. CSR boards ask for it, Funders reference it and the Social Stock Exchange has made impact reporting a precondition for new kinds of capital. But behind the headline ratio — “₹X of social value for every ₹1 invested” — sits a method that demands hard choices: whose voice gets counted, which outcomes get monetized, and how honestly you discount what would have happened anyway.

Register Here

Two stories, one method

On 29 July, our Social Impact Dialogues series returns. The Social Impact Dialogues convene conversations on impact strategy, monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning systems, and the methods that move data into decisions. Our first edition for 2026 puts SROI under the lens through real experiences of undertaking and using an SROI study, rather than theory alone.

Both organizations recently completed an SROI study with our team, and each is using the findings in a different conversation — one with investors, and one with a multi-funder board.

Oorja Development Solutions — the social enterprise: A social enterprise providing pay-per-use solar irrigation and climate-smart advisory services to smallholder farmers in Uttar Pradesh. Sejal Agarwal, Senior Manager – Impact, will share Oorja's experience of undertaking the SROI study, what the process revealed, and how the organisation is using the findings.

Forbes Marshall — the corporate: The Girls Scholarship Programme combines financial scholarships with sustained mentorship and support for girls from tribal communities in Khed taluka, Pune. Rutuja Chaphekar, CSR Manager, will share the experience of applying SROI to a long-term education programme, the complexities of understanding and valuing social outcomes, and how the findings are being used with programme stakeholders.

Sharon Weir, Co-Founder of The 4th Wheel, moderates. Our team conducted both studies, allowing the conversation to go beyond the final findings and explore the practical choices, challenges and learning involved in undertaking an SROI study.

Register Here

Three questions structure the hour

1. Why SROI — what question were you trying to answer that another method could not?

2. What surprised you — about the process, the findings, or your own programme?

3. What happened after — how are the findings shaping funding conversations, strategy and programme design today?

This one is for NGO leaders and MEAL heads considering an SROI study, CSR and foundation teams evaluating their portfolios, funders who receive SROI reports and need to read them critically, and social entrepreneurs building an evidence case for investors.

If the timing does not work, register anyway — we will send the recording to everyone who signs up.

Warmly,
4th Wheel Social Impact Team

gLOCAL Evaluation Week 2026 · Session 3 of 3 · Tomorrow, 5 June · 2:00–3:30 PM IST

The organizations that benefit most from AI won't be the ones with the best tools. They'll be the ones with the best systems.

Over the past decade, organisations adopted new technologies to work faster and decide better. AI is a different kind of shift. It isn’t only changing how work gets done — it’s starting to shape how information flows, how evidence is generated, and how decisions get made.

Register Here

How does evidence travel more effectively from data to learning to decision? What role should technology partners, evaluators, funders, and programme teams play in building these systems? And how do we keep human judgment, accountability, and trust at the centre as AI gets more deeply embedded? These aren’t technical questions. They’re institutional ones.

Our third and final gLOCAL Evaluation Week session moves past individual use cases to the systems that make responsible AI adoption possible — the governance, partnerships, capacities, and collaboration needed to build evidence systems that are trustworthy and future-ready.

Because the future of AI in social impact won’t be decided by technology alone. It will be shaped by the institutions, relationships, and decisions that surround it.

Register Here

What this session digs into:

• Why AI adoption is ultimately a systems challenge, not a technology one

• How evidence can move more effectively from collection to decision-making

• What should stay human in increasingly AI-enabled workflows

• The governance and safeguards a trustworthy evidence system needs

• The roles of technology partners, evaluators, funders, and implementers in shaping evaluation’s future

• What an adaptive, AI-enabled evaluation ecosystem could actually look like in practice

Who should attend: MEL practitioners and evaluators, researchers and consultants, CSR and philanthropy professionals, NGO and programme teams, data and learning specialists — and anyone thinking about where AI in social impact goes next.

This closes our gLOCAL Evaluation Week 2026 series, Evaluation, Evidence, and Trust in the Age of AI.

Register Here

About gLOCAL Evaluation Week

An annual global knowledge-sharing event that brings together evaluators, researchers, governments, NGOs, funders, academic institutions, and development practitioners — one of the largest global platforms for dialogue on evidence, learning, accountability, and social impact.

Warmly,
4th Wheel Social Impact Team

gLOCAL Evaluation Week 2026 · Session 2 · Tomorrow, 3 June · 2:00–3:30 PM IST

We’ve found ourselves returning to one question lately, working inside systems where evidence shapes programmes, funding, and people’s lives:

What happens when tools built to support human thinking slowly begin to shape it instead?

Register Here

AI now summarises interviews, structures reports, surfaces themes, and processes large volumes of data in seconds. The efficiency is real. But evaluation rests on context, interpretation, and judgment — the parts that don’t compress into a prompt.

So where’s the line between automation and thinking? At what point does faster output start standing in for deeper understanding?

That’s the conversation in our second gLOCAL Evaluation Week session.

The questions on the table:

• What in evaluation fundamentally requires human judgment — and what gets lost when the work is over-automated?

• Where do responsibility, credibility, and bias sit when an AI tool drafts the first version?

• How is the evaluator’s role changing as more of the technical work shifts to machines?

A preview of what each speaker will touch:

• Payal Mulchandani — on field workflows: why an AI-built survey form can look clean on paper but break on day one, and why weak thinking upfront means “AI just scales the wrong thing faster.”

• Aditi Chatterjee — on whose voices go missing when AI sets the research agenda, since people with lived experience are largely absent from the data these models are trained on.

• Rahul Shah — on the organisational lens: AI can summarise feedback and compare responses, but reading power dynamics and creating space for people to open up is what makes a diagnosis usable.

• Sharon Weir — on the line evaluators shouldn’t cross: AI can support the analysis, but it cannot be the analyst.

Who this is for: MEL practitioners and evaluators, researchers and consultants, NGO and CSR teams, programme and OD specialists, and anyone weighing how much of evaluation should be handed to a machine.

This is session two of three in our series, Evaluation, Evidence, and Trust in the Age of AI. You can see details for all three webinars here: https://www.the4thwheel.com/event-list

Register Here

About gLOCAL Evaluation Week

An annual global knowledge-sharing event that brings together evaluators, researchers, governments, NGOs, funders, academic institutions, and development practitioners — one of the largest global platforms for dialogue on evidence, learning, accountability, and social impact.

Warmly,
4th Wheel Social Impact Team

By the time you finish reading this, an AI tool somewhere has already summarised a set of interviews, cleaned a dataset, drafted a report section, or pulled themes from open-ended responses.

AI has moved from a future-facing idea to a quiet part of everyday work — in healthcare, finance, education, research. Evaluation is no exception. Yet most conversations about it in our sector still sit at the level of theory and tool demos, rarely touching what the shift looks like inside actual evaluation work.

That gap is what tomorrow’s session is about.

Register here: gLOCAL Evaluation Week

The question we’re asking: not which tools exist, but what does AI actually look like inside real evaluation work — and what should it not touch?

Our team will draw on their everyday work across reporting, analysis, evidence synthesis, and evaluation design to share grounded reflections: where AI has genuinely helped, where it has introduced risk, and why context, judgment, and interpretation still sit with the evaluator.

What we'll cover:

• Where AI is being integrated across stages of an evaluation — and where it isn’t

• What has actually improved: speed, synthesis, first-draft efficiency

• How the work was done before, versus how it’s shifting now

• Concrete examples from reporting, analysis, tool development, and evidence synthesis

• Where caution is needed, and what evaluators should be careful not to automate

Who this is for: MEL practitioners and evaluators, researchers and consultants, NGO and CSR teams, programme implementation staff, data and learning professionals — and anyone watching how AI is reshaping evidence systems.

This session opens our gLOCAL Evaluation Week 2026 series, Evaluation, Evidence, and Trust in the Age of AI — three webinars in all. You can explore the full line-up here: https://www.the4thwheel.com/event-list

Register Here

About gLOCAL Evaluation Week

An annual global knowledge-sharing event that brings together evaluators, researchers, governments, NGOs, funders, academic institutions, and development practitioners — one of the largest global platforms for dialogue on evidence, learning, accountability, and social impact.

Warmly,
4th Wheel Social Impact Team

It’s been a quiet few months on this newsletter. Year-end closing, the start of a new fiscal year, and a heavier-than-usual run of project deliveries pulled us off the page. We’re back — and starting with something we’ve been wanting to talk about for a while.

We’re hosting a three-part webinar during gLOCAL Evaluation Week 2026 — the largest global gathering of evaluators, funders, and development practitioners — to share what we’re actually seeing inside MEAL workflows: where AI is genuinely useful, where it quietly creates risk, and what shouldn’t be automated even when it can be.

Across the three sessions, we’ll work through four questions:

• Where is AI genuinely improving evaluation workflows — and where is it quietly creating risk?

• What should remain human in evaluation, and why?

• How do we build trust in AI-enabled evidence systems?

• How do organisations move from experimenting with isolated tools to building integrated systems for evidence and learning?

Session 1 — Inside the AI-Augmented evaluation workflow: How AI is changing everyday evaluation practice

📅 June 2, 2026 • 🕒 2:00–3:30 pm IST

Everyone is talking about AI in evaluation. But what does AI-enabled evaluation actually look like in practice? This session moves beyond theory to how evaluators are already using AI in coding, synthesis, analysis, reporting, and knowledge management. Using examples from education and skilling evaluations, we’ll discuss where AI improves efficiency — and where human judgment remains indispensable.

Save Seat for Session 1 here

Session 2 — What AI cannot replace in evaluation: The role of human judgment

📅 June 3, 2026 • 🕒 2:00–3:30 pm IST

As AI systems become more powerful, the more important question becomes what should remain deeply human in evaluation. We’ll examine the ethical and practical limits of AI in evidence generation — why context, lived realities, field engagement, and relationships continue to matter — and the risks of bias, exclusion, loss of nuance, and over-dependence on automated outputs in complex development contexts.

This session will explore the limits of AI in evaluation by asking a critical question: What aspects of evaluation cannot—and should not—be automated?

Save Seat for Session 2 here

Session 3 — From tools to systems: Rethinking AI use in evaluation

📅 June 5, 2026 • 🕒 2:00–3:30 pm IST

Most conversations around AI focus on tools. But the future of evaluation may depend less on isolated tools and more on how organisations build integrated systems for evidence, learning, and decision making. This session explores how NGOs, funders, evaluators, and institutions can begin thinking about AI more strategically — through connected workflows, platform-based systems, automation-enabled learning, and real-time data ecosystems.

Save Seat for Session 3 here

This series is for evaluators, researchers, MEAL and learning professionals, NGO and implementation teams, CSR and philanthropy practitioners, funders, and anyone working at the intersection of evidence and decision-making. Whether you’re already experimenting with AI in your work or still figuring out where to begin, you’ll find the conversation useful.

For any queries, just reply to this email.

About gLOCAL Evaluation Week

An annual global knowledge-sharing event that brings together evaluators, researchers, governments, NGOs, funders, academic institutions, and development practitioners — one of the largest global platforms for dialogue on evidence, learning, accountability, and social impact.

Warmly,
4th Wheel Social Impact Team

We’re starting the year with something we’ve been working on for a while

Website

This isn’t just a visual refresh. We’ve designed the site as a space that helps you move through MEAL without the overwhelm—no heavy jargon, no guesswork, just clarity.

Think of it as a place where you can move easily between:

• learning about MEAL as a sector

• seeing how it shows up inside real organisations

• reflecting on what it looks like in your own work

All in one place. Easy to navigate. Easy to return to.

A quick pause before you explore…

Let’s start with a question we get all the time:

Why are we called the 4th Wheel?

If you’ve ever wondered what it means—or had your own theory—we’ve finally answered it with a short, simple video explainer on the website. This page also shares why we started 4th Wheel Social Impact 15 years ago, what the name really stands for, and how that philosophy shapes how we approach social impact work.

👉 Watch the explainer & read our story: https://www.the4thwheel.com/about-us

What you’ll find as you explore the site

MEAL, explained without the complexity

Our Resources bring together blogs, videos, and MEAL event updates—focused on monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning as an integrated practice.

• 📖 Blogs: https://www.the4thwheel.com/blogs

• 🎥 Videos: https://www.the4thwheel.com/videos

• 📅 MEAL Events: https://www.the4thwheel.com/event-list

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Stories from our work

The Our Work section gives a clear, structured view of the challenges organisations bring to us—and how MEAL systems come together to address them in practice.

👉 Explore our work: https://www.the4thwheel.com/our-work

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Tools to pause and reflect

Our M&E Quiz is one of the standout features on the site. It’s designed to help you stop, take stock, and reflect honestly on where your MEAL currently stands.

👉 Take the MEAL Quiz: https://www.the4thwheel.com/me-quiz

---

Our e-store

You’ll also find our evaluation-store, where we’ve begun sharing practical resources—indicators, frameworks, and tools that you can download and adapt for your own work. More to come here over time.

👉 Browse the e-store: https://estore.the4thwheel.com/

This website isn’t meant to be skimmed once and forgotten.

We hope it becomes a space you return to—for clarity, learning, and direction—whether you’re a practitioner, researcher, collaborator, or simply curious about the development sector.

🔶 Start exploring the new website

👉 https://www.the4thwheel.com

Before you go, we’d love to hear from you:

• What did you think “4th Wheel” meant before watching the video?

• Which part of the website did you enjoy or find most useful?

• Is there something you’d like us to build more of?

Reply here on Substack—we’re listening.

Warmly,
Sharon & Payal

MEAL has never been more resourced, more talked about, or more required in India’s development sector. And yet, for many organisations, it still feels like something we do for compliance rather than for learning.

So what is actually shaping MEAL practice in India today?
And is it leading to better decisions and stronger impact?

These are the questions we’ve been exploring over the past few months — through a review of 45+ impact reports, responses from 1,300+ practitioners, and conversations with CSR teams, NGOs, funders, and intermediaries across the country

Click Here To Register For The Webinar

The findings are telling.
And we want to discuss them with you.

Not as a presentation.
But as an honest, collective reflection on where we are — and what it would take to build MEAL systems that truly serve communities, inform decisions, and strengthen impact.

In today’s conversation, we’ll share key insights from the Status of MEAL in India 2025 report, open space for your questions and experiences, and explore what needs to shift — in funding structures, capacity building, organisational culture, and sector-wide practice — if MEAL is to be more than a checkbox exercise.

This Conversation Is for You If:

→ You’re a CSR leader tired of checkbox MEAL and want systems that inform strategy
→ You run an NGO and are struggling to make MEAL practical with limited resources
→ You’re a MEAL professional navigating capacity constraints and competing priorities
→ You’re a funder asking how to support better evidence without adding burden
→ You’re part of the ecosystem — intermediary, researcher, or consultant — trying to understand how MEAL is really practiced in India .

Read the Report

We’ve kept this session deliberately conversational.
Just space to think together about what the sector actually needs.

See you at 4 PM today.

Webinar Registration Here

Warmly,
4th Wheel Social Impact Team

Organisations across India are investing more in Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability & Learning (MEAL) than ever before. Frameworks are being built, data is being collected, and reports are being produced at scale.

But this raises an important question: what is actually shaping MEAL practice in the development sector today — and is it leading to better learning and decision-making?

Our Status of MEAL in India 2025 report looks closely at this question. It captures both the progress being made and the persistent gaps that continue to hold MEAL back.

Click Here To Register For The Webinar

Three Findings That Should Make Us Pause

• 84% of NGOs report having a Theory of Change or results framework.
  Yet only 30% of impact reports actually use these frameworks to guide evaluations or decision-making. For many organisations, Theories of Change are treated as compliance documents rather than living tools for learning.

• More than half (53%) of impact assessments include no benchmarking.
  Without benchmarks, it becomes impossible to interpret results meaningfully — we cannot tell whether observed changes are significant, exceptional, or simply reflective of broader trends.

• 70% of impact reports present communities as homogeneous groups.
  Data is rarely disaggregated by gender, caste, age, income, or geography. While some reports mention barriers faced by specific groups, they lack the structured analysis needed to understand who benefits, who doesn’t, and why.

These are just three of the twelve insights highlighted in the report.

Read the Report

What We’ll Explore Together

To share more findings and reflect collectively, we’re hosting an open conversation on the future of MEAL in India on December 22, 2025, at 4:00 PM IST.

This session is a space to explore, as a sector:

• How do we shift MEAL from compliance to learning?

• What does equity-centred evaluation look like in real practice?

• How can community voices move beyond being data sources to becoming sense-makers?

• What will it take to build MEAL systems that inform real decisions — not just reports?

Whether you are a CSR leader, NGO practitioner, funder, researcher, or ecosystem partner — if you care about evidence, learning, and community voice, we hope you’ll join us. We look forward to the conversation.

Webinar Registration Here

Warmly,
4th Wheel Social Impact Team

We’re excited to announce the launch of our new report, Status of MEAL in India 2025, along with an open webinar where we’ll share key insights and invite a sector-wide conversation on the future of MEAL practice.

Across India’s development ecosystem, something important is shifting. NGOs, CSR teams, funders, and intermediaries are talking more than ever about data, evidence, outcomes, and learning. New tools are emerging, expectations are rising, and MEAL systems are moving from the margins to the centre of programme design and delivery.

Click Here To Register For The Webinar

And yet beneath all this activity lies a quiet but essential question:

What MEAL Practice in India Is Really Telling Us?

• Many organisations now have a Theory of Change, but it isn’t always used to guide decisions.

• There is a clear shift toward outcomes and long-term change, yet sampling and statistical rigour remain weak.

• Mixed-methods approaches are becoming common, but deeper community participation is still limited.

• Digital tools are widely used for data collection, but far less for analysis and learning.

• Equity-focused measurement and benchmarking continue to be rare.

• And across teams, there is a strong call for more capacity building to make MEAL meaningful in daily practice.

Read the Report

To reflect on these findings, we’re hosting a 90-minute collective conversation — a space for the sector to pause together, listen to one another, and examine honestly how MEAL is working on the ground. It’s a moment to pause, name the challenges we often leave unsaid, and envision what a practical, community-centred MEAL approach could look like.

What We’ll Share

• where MEAL practice is strengthening

• the gaps that continue to reappear

• why participation remains limited

• what is holding back learning and adaptation

• where India’s ecosystem is ready for a shift

We hope you’ll join us — your experiences and insights are vital to this conversation.

Webinar Registration Here

Warmly,
4th Wheel Social Impact Team

That’s where tools like Dedoose come in.

Hear from your trainer - Sharon Weir

Register Here

About the Training

Certified Hands-On Training on Qualitative Data Analysis
📅 13–14 November 2025 (Thursday & Friday)
🕒 3:00 – 5:00 PM IST
💻 Live Online Session

Register Here

This 2-day practical workshop will help participants:

• Learn to organize qualitative data using Dedoose

• Code transcripts and responses efficiently

• Identify emerging themes and visualize results

• Translate insights into clear, evidence-based narratives

Why Join

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by qualitative data — transcripts, focus group notes, or case studies — this session will help you find structure and insight in the chaos.
You’ll walk away with the skills and confidence to turn stories into evidence.

📅 Registrations close on 10th November 2025

For any questions, reach out to jayashri@the4thwheel.com

If you’ve ever worked with interviews, focus groups, or open-ended surveys, you know that qualitative data can be rich — and messy.

The real challenge? Turning words into evidence.

That’s exactly what this Certified Hands-On Training on Qualitative Data Analysis using Dedoose is designed to help you do.

Register Now

🧩 What This Workshop Offers

Over two interactive days (November 13–14), you’ll learn how to:

• Code and analyze qualitative data using Dedoose

• Create thematic and inductive codebooks

• Generate visualizations and reports for real-world insights

• Collaborate efficiently on research and evaluation projects

Whether you’re a researcher, evaluator, or nonprofit professional, this workshop gives you practical tools to make sense of complex narratives — fast.

💡 Why This Matters

We live in a world driven by stories and strategy.
Dedoose helps bridge the two — turning interviews and field notes into structured, sharable, evidence-based insights.

You’ll walk away with:
✅ A working Dedoose project built from sample datasets
✅ A certificate of completion
✅ The confidence to apply qualitative methods rigorously and creatively

Reserve Your Spot

👩‍🏫 Your Trainer

Sharon Weir
Co-founder & Research Lead, The 4th Wheel Social Impact
With over a decade of experience in evaluation and mixed-methods research, Sharon brings deep field knowledge and an engaging, practical approach to learning.

🗓️ Workshop Details

🗓️ Dates: November 13–14, 2025 (Thursday & Friday)
🕒 Time: 3:00 – 5:00 PM IST each day
💻 Format: Online, interactive
💰 Fee: ₹6,800 + GST (10% group discount available)

⚡ Why You Shouldn’t Wait

This is an intentionally small-batch training — designed for personal feedback, live coding, and one-on-one support.
No recordings. No replays. Just real-time, practical learning.

If qualitative analysis is part of your work (or soon will be), this training will help you stand out as the researcher who turns stories into strategy.

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For queries, write to jayashri@the4thwheel.com

We are excited to invite you to join our upcoming webinar, Standardizing Empowerment: Akanksha’s Journey with the Youth Empowerment Scale, taking place tomorrow, Wednesday, July 30, from 3:30 PM to 5:00 PM IST.

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This session, part of the Social Impact Dialogues series by 4th Wheel Social Impact, will explore the Youth Empowerment Scale, a tool co-created by Akanksha Foundation and 4th Wheel Social Impact to define, measure, and operationalize empowerment in ways that balance standardization with context.

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You will hear from Nishant and Sharon as they share insights on:

• The co-creation journey of the Youth Empowerment Scale

• Balancing standardization with contextual realities in empowerment measurement

• Lessons from embedding the tool in Akanksha’s programs

• What it takes for other organizations to adopt similar tools

Have questions about this webinar? Reply to this email or contact us at hello@the4thwheel.com.

Social Impact Dialogues is an initiative by 4th Wheel Social Impact to bring practical knowledge and tools to organizations working toward positive social change. Watch our past webinars here.

Defining and measuring “youth empowerment” has long been a challenge in the development sector, especially when trying to balance the need for standardisation with the contextual realities of young people’s lives.

In this session, part of the Social Impact Dialogues series by 4th Wheel Social Impact, we introduce the Youth Empowerment Scale, a tool developed through on-ground collaboration and strategic insight, alongside Akanksha Foundation.

We explore what it means to build a shared language for empowerment and how standardised tools can be embedded and institutionalised to support stronger programming and decision-making. 

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What We'll Explore

➡️ What is the Youth Empowerment Scale: The co-creation journey and why it matters.

➡️ Standardisation vs. Context: Can a shared framework support deeper alignment in programs and M&E?

➡️ From Tool to Practice: How Akanksha embedded the scale into its school and alumni programs using data to guide strategy?

➡️ Adoption & Replicability: Can other organisations use this tool? What capacities and systems are needed?

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This webinar will be particularly useful for:

✔️ M&E practitioners and nonprofit leaders

✔️ Youth-focused program teams

✔️ Strategy and research professionals

✔️ Funders and ecosystem enablers

Have questions about this webinar? Reply to this email or contact us at hello@the4thwheel.com.

Social Impact Dialogues is an initiative by 4th Wheel Social Impact to bring practical knowledge and tools to organizations working toward positive social change. Watch our past webinars here.

Earlier this year, in March, we launched “Impact or Illusion: Current Practices and Challenges in Impact Measurement”, a report developed in collaboration between ISDM and 4th Wheel Social Impact. The study brought together insights from diverse social purpose organizations and experts across the Indian development sector, examining the question, ‘Are our current approaches to impact measurement truly reflective of social change?’. The report identified interactions between funder expectations and practitioner realities, between numerical indicators and lived outcomes and between standardization and contextual relevance.

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Designed as an exploratory qualitative study, the research gathered data from two primary sources: 21 Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) experts and 25 implementing Social Purpose Organizations (SPOs). These SPOs contributed responses from 235 individuals across leadership, management, and field teams, providing a nuanced understanding of how current M&E practices align with efforts to measure social impact.

As a next step, we’re convening a focused webinar on the 25th of June, 2025, to explore these issues further.

➡️ 𝗚𝗮𝗽𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 vision and the current KPI frameworks

➡️ 𝗘𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺-𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝗯𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗿𝘀 to long-term, systems-focused evaluation

➡️ 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 to reposition M&E as a tool for learning and adaptive change

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🎤This session will be led by Sharon Weir, Co-Founder and Strategy & Research Lead at 4th Wheel Social Impact, and Trisha Varma, Director of Operations at the Global Knowledge Hub, Indian School of Development Management.

This webinar is part of that continued effort to deepen the conversation, challenge assumptions, and explore pathways toward more meaningful and grounded forms of evaluation. We invite M&E professionals, funders, nonprofit leaders, and field practitioners to participate. Whether you’ve engaged with the report already or are encountering its themes for the first time, your perspective will add depth to the discussion.

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📄 Read the report here

If you can't attend the live session, please still register to receive the recording and all presentation materials shared during the webinar.

Watch our past webinars here.

We at 4th Wheel Social Impact invite you to the third and final session of our gLocal Evaluation Week 2025 series, “Building Strong Foundations: Institutionalizing M&E Systems for Impact for Future Needs,” on Friday, June 6, at 2 PM IST.

In this interactive workshop, we shift the focus from one-off reporting to embedding Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) into the heart of organizational strategy and culture. Drawing from over a decade of experience, our co-founder Sharon Weir will walk participants through a practical, ten-element framework for building MEAL systems that are contextual, inclusive, and built for continuous learning. Whether you’re just getting started or looking to strengthen existing systems, this session will offer hands-on tools, peer reflections, and a roadmap for making MEAL a strategic driver of sustained impact.

Once you register, we will share the pre-workshop reflection toolkit to help foster peer learning and enable collaborative discussion.

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What will the session cover:

• Why institutionalizing MEAL is critical for moving beyond reporting and toward sustained impact.

• How organizations can embed MEAL into their strategy, leadership, team structures, and everyday operations.

• Practical frameworks and step-by-step approaches to build MEAL systems rooted in context, inclusion, and evidence use.

• Key enablers and challenges in building a culture of accountability, data ethics, and continuous learning.

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This is part of our Inclusive Evaluation, Redefined webinar series during gLocal Evaluation Week 2025, hosted by 4th Wheel Social Impact. To know more about the series: https://tinyurl.com/437ckzsw.

If you can't attend the live session, please still register to receive the recording and all presentation materials shared during the webinar.

About gLOCAL Evaluation Week:
gLOCAL Evaluation Week is a global knowledge-sharing event that connects evaluators, development practitioners, and changemakers to share insights and foster learning. The 2025 edition, taking place from June 2–6, centers on the theme "Evaluation for a Better Future: Environmental Sustainability, Inclusion, and Peace."

Watch our past webinars here.

You're invited to join us at 4th Wheel Social Impact on the 5th of June, 2025 (2 pm to 3:30 pm IST) for the second session in our three-part series for gLocal Evaluation Week 2025! This session takes a closer look at how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being applied in the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) space through real-world use cases, on-the-ground experiences, and insights from across the nonprofit, tech, and philanthropic sectors. Our speakers will share how AI tools are being built and integrated into existing systems, and reflect on the opportunities, challenges, and ethical considerations that come with it.

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What will the session cover:

• How AI can enhance the effectiveness of program design, implementation, and research across India’s social impact landscape?

• What operational and ethical questions emerge when applying AI in work with marginalised communities?

• How are non-profits and researchers in India currently experimenting with AI, and what can we learn from their approaches?

• What infrastructure, collaborations, and capabilities are needed to unlock AI’s full potential in the social impact space?

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What will our speakers talk about:

• Rachana KG, Apurva.ai – On enabling data-driven decision-making in the social sector through AI tools like Apurva Impact and Apurva Insights

• Tony D’Souza, 10x Impact Labs – On designing and testing AI solutions for M&E, including the ChatMnE tool

• Sweety Pathak, SNEHA – On leveraging chatbots to strengthen health interventions in urban informal settlements

• Apurva Srivastava, Dasra – On guiding nonprofits and funders in the responsible and effective adoption of AI

This is part of our Inclusive Evaluation, Redefined webinar series during gLocal Evaluation Week 2025, hosted by 4th Wheel Social Impact. To know more about the series: https://tinyurl.com/437ckzsw.

If you can't attend the live session, please still register to receive the recording and all presentation materials shared during the webinar.

About gLOCAL Evaluation Week:
gLOCAL Evaluation Week is a global knowledge-sharing event that connects evaluators, development practitioners, and changemakers to share insights and foster learning. The 2025 edition, taking place from June 2–6, centers on the theme "Evaluation for a Better Future: Environmental Sustainability, Inclusion, and Peace."

Watch our past webinars here.