AScribe Newswire recently announced the launch of an online database of methods to measure the impact and effectiveness of social investments. TRASI (Tools and Resources for Assessing Social Impact) is available at http://trasi.foundationcenter.org/search.php.

Because the database contains 150 entries, it’s possible to browse it, but you can also do a search across many elements, including approach, purpose, organization, and sector. (You can also do a simple keyword search.) I did a search for assessment methods for the general sector and got 74 results. Results are presented alphabetically in a table and include the name of the resource, the sponsor, approach,and sector. Clicking on the name of the resource gives you more details. For example, the “Base of Pyramid Impact Assessment Framework” describes itself as “…a method that helps organizations better understand and improve their on-the ground poverty alleviation impacts.” In this case there are also links to more details about it and an article in the Harvard Business Review.

In addition to the database, TRASI has a Ning community, short PubHub and link list, and some multimedia. I couldn’t find an RSS feed for the TRASI database but you can sign up for e-mail updates if you wish.