ABSTRACT
People enter the social sector to make a meaningful, positive difference in the world. It is almost a job requirement that they bring passion and conviction to their work. The field of evaluation came into being in the 1960s; largely to assess the effectiveness of government funded social programs. In the ’60s and ’70s, the US federal government funded large independent field studies often conducted by social science researchers at universities or independent research institutes, using largely quantitative methods. The 1990s also marked a surge in bringing business thinking and MBA students into the social sector, particularly in the field of social entrepreneurship. Randomized Controlled Trials had been deployed in the social sector since the 1960s and especially in the 1970s when Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation began using the methodology especially on the global stage where there had been a long history of failed development projects.
