About Paul Bakker, CE, Evaluation Consultant

Greetings, I’m Paul Bakker. I founded Social Impact Squared and I act as Lead Consultant for all of our projects. I am a Credentialed Evaluator and have worked as a third-party evaluation and impact measurement consultant since 2008. In this role, I have worked with non-profit, social enterprise, and government clients of all sizes. I specialize in:

Developmental Evaluation: Using on-time/real-time data to help organizations innovate and increase their impact in complex, changing environments.
Sustainable Livelihoods Framework: Measuring and telling the stories of how organizations help their clients build a complementary set of assets and achieve sustainable livelihoods.
Rigorous Quantitative Methods: Obtaining the most valid estimate of your impact using time-series, longitudinal, pre-post, and comparison group designs.
Principles-Focused Evaluation: Evaluating the effectiveness of operating principles rather than rules (e.g., season to taste vs. add 1 tsp of salt; exercise power-with vs. power-over; pursue clients’ priorities vs. focus on predetermined outcomes).

View my full CV here.

My favourite moments as an evaluation and impact measurement consultant include:

Seeing how our work enables our clients to make meaningful changes that improves their work and people’s lives.
My clients telling me that I truly listened to them and the people they serve.
Communicating their impact stories in more authentic, significant, and useful ways than they could have done on their own.

I love evaluation because:

I always wanted a career that improved people’s lives. Evaluation and impact measurement allows me to help many organizations improve their social impact in varied, purposeful ways.
I greatly enjoy working with numbers and using my advanced statistical skills.
I also greatly enjoy talking to staff and clients to gain a deep understanding of the issues and tell their impact stories in an authentic way.
Evaluation is not just data—it’s about relationships. To get accurate data, staff and clients need to trust me and know that I care about and want to help them.
I am constantly learning. My career lets me continuously learn about different topics, such as helping people work toward sustainable livelihoods, improving youth development, improving health outcomes and behaviours, and increasing employability.