The language that many funders and support organisations use can be confusing and used in varring contexts.  This can make it difficult for social enterprises and social entrepreneurs when securing contracts and funding to deliver their work.  I came across a report put together by the The Jargonbuster Group to “Simplify the languate of planning, project management and performance improvement to increase understanding”- it basically picks out top key terms used and explains what they mean.

The Jargonbuster Group was established in the 2003 by the Community Fund who set up an advisory group to look at the language used by the sector. The group was managed by the Association of Charitable Foundations and involved   representatives from a range of organisations including:

• Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF)
• Big Lottery Fund
• Bridge House Trust
• Charities Aid Foundation (CAF)
• Charities Evaluation Services
• Charity Commission
• Community Foundation Network
• City Parochial Foundation
• Evaluation Support Scotland
• Lloyds TSB Foundations
• NACVS
• NCVO
• Wates Foundation

  The report includes terms such as:

• Activities- The Actions, tasks and work a project or ogranisation carries out to create its outputs and outcomes, and achieve its aim.
• Outcomes- The changes, benefits, learning or other effects that result from what the project or organisations makes, offers or provides.
• Soft outcomes- outcomes that are less easy to observe or measure, or which involve some form of change inside people, such as a change in attitude or a change in the way they see themselves.
• Mission- why an organisation or project exists and the broad effect that it wants to have. A summary of the overall difference it wants to make.
• Vision- the ideal state a project or organisation wants the world to be in. what te world will look like if the project or organisation is successful in achieving its mission.

It also covers: aim, baseline, benchmark, hard outcomes, impact, input, milestone, monitoring, resources, targets  and more. The report describes how the terms are used in varrying contexts by different organisations and sets out examples for how they should be used.

Though this wasn’t strictly written for social enterprises or social entrepreneurs it is a good resources for both.

click here to view The Jargonbuster Issue No 1. or go to the CAF website http://www.cafonline.org/default.aspx?page=7589 .

The Jargonbuster report was written by Kevin Ashby (Big Lottery Fund), and by Colin Nee (Charities Evaluation Services) along with others in The Jargonbuster Group.