Measuring Nonprofit Effectiveness Means Challenging The Numbers
Funders, community leaders and supporters are increasingly asking nonprofits to prove their effectiveness.
Measurement is not typically high on the list of things to do for health and human services staff members. These dedicated professionals usually do not choose this career path because they love working with numbers and statistics. They have a heartfelt commitment to helping people.
As one of Hawaii鈥檚 largest human services nonprofits, Child & Family Service is all about strengthening families. CFS works with families who have experienced extreme trauma, such as abuse or neglect in their lives, and helps them find the courage to change for the long term and build thriving futures. We believe from the successes of the families we serve that our programs are effective.
But we are also committed to ensuring that each of our nearly 50 programs is producing measurable results. Over the past few years, we have set a course to lead the state in results-based accountability, a nationally recognized model we have selected for performance measures for our human service programs.
RBA asks three questions for each of our programs: 1) How much did we do? 2) How well did we do it? And, 3) Is anyone better off? We have added a fourth question: 4) How can we use the data to get better? We are using an RBA Scorecard that tracks performance measures and strategies that work for each specific program, so that we can develop qualitative as well as quantitative data for program effectiveness.
We recognize that measuring for results is an ongoing and evolving process. Some program interventions are easier to measure for results than others, and our impact on the lives of families may be felt in the long term rather than as short-term change.
Yet, our staff members are challenging themselves to not accept results on face value and to drill deeper to ascertain whether a program is working and what success looks like. In essence, to become more critical thinkers. They are looking not only at what we have measured in the past, but also cost effective ways to improve outcomes, such as providing better support systems for families, enhancing programs that focus on prevention and not just treatment, and cultivating specific coping or parenting skills to create stronger families.
For each of our programs we ask how much did we do, how well did we do it, is anyone better off and how can we use the data to get better?
Increasingly all nonprofit human service organizations, like CFS, are being asked to demonstrate, with hard data and outcome measures, that we are producing a measurable benefit for the people we serve through various programs. Nonprofit organizations that step up to the challenge of demonstrating effectiveness and impact will be the organizations that thrive into the future.
I was fortunate this fall to present an overview of our RBA initiative at the national conference of the Alliance for Stronger Families and Communities, which is comprised of nonprofits across the country like CFS. When peer nonprofit leaders were asked if they were interested in developing effective measurement systems within their organizations, all of them raised their hands. When we asked how many were satisfied with their efforts to do that, no hands went up.
We have set a very ambitious goal that all CFS programs will have outcome data that prove that we are producing a measurable benefit for the people we serve. Our generous supporters, all of our stakeholders and our entire community deserve no less.
