The Foundation Center has long been a crucial source of support for both philanthropic and service delivery organizations in the social sector. In early 2010, it will launch yet another resource in an area crucial to enabling a jump to the next level of progress in the sector: impact evaluation.

What Foundation Center is calling Tools and Resources for Assessing Social Impact, or TRASI, is a database of 150 approaches to impact evaluation for social sector programs and social investments, with contributions from Acumen Fund, Dalberg Global Development Advisors, Independent Sector, among many others. The first document returned in my first search was a great report, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, containing a detailed overview of social impact concepts. An aggregation of knowledge and resources like this (and, importantly, one that is available for free) is a key step in truly empowering the sector with impact evaluation knowledge and tools.

Other essential steps, of course, include continuing to develop these approaches—the impact evaluation field, after all, is nascent—and helping to build the capacity to implement the approaches within the social sector. It is therefore encouraging that TRASI was developed with help from McKinsey, who appears to be working on a very similar initiative of its own. McKinsey is among the institutions that do a wonderful job of creating knowledge—and sharing it. How the sector internalizes the knowledge and builds the capacity to make the concepts central to its work remains to be seen.

TRASI is in beta testing right now, and needs feedback to help improve the tool before launch. Learn more and sign up here, or simply browse the database for resources for your organization. And, in the spirit of supporting progress within the sector, share what you find helpful!

Update 6/23/10: The Foundation Center circulated an email mentioning they've received a lot of good feedback and are launching a new site with features like news articles, reports and case studies later this summer.  They've also created a community space to connect with peers and discuss social impact assessment.