measuring your mission: using data to track organizational health and success-idealware
DESCRIPTION
As a leader of your organization, you'd probably like to see clear metrics to track your programs, outreach efforts, and the financial health of your organization. It can be daunting to define the right measures though -- where do you even start? Based on NTEN's and Idealware's research into what's actually working for nonprofits, we'll talk through what you should think about to define your own data-based metrics strategy, and hear from organizations who have successfully implemented their own strategies.TRANSCRIPT
Measuring Your Mission: Using Data to Track Organizational
Health and Success
Measuring Your Mission: Using Data to Track Organizational Health and Success#13NTCtrack
Laura Quinn, Idealware
Introductions…
Using Metrics for Decision Making
You Have Lots of Data
How Do You Get From Here to There?
Data Isn’t Useful By Itself
It's a Chicken-and-Egg Situation
?
You Need to Balance Desire with Practicality
What Might You Want to Track?
Two Different Types of Metrics
ImpactMetrics
Consider Organizational Health
Financial Heath: Consider Days of Cash
How many days could you operate with just the cash you have in the bank?
Fundraising Health: Consider Donor Counts
• Total Number of Donors
• New Donors
• Returning Donors
• Some Year But Unfortunately Not This Year (SYBUNT)
Marketing Health: Consider Reach
Staff and Board Health: Consider Turnover
Two Different Types of Metrics
ImpactMetrics
Thinking About Program Metrics
Your Own Activity
• Number of houses canvassed
• Fliers posted• Number of classes
conducted• Hours of programming
Attendance and Participation Numbers
• Number registered• Percent who finished the
program• Number who attended a
session• Number of calls to helpline
Initial Satisfaction
• Number who agreed that the training was useful
• Number who felt counseling was worthwhile
• Number who said their question was answered
Longer Term Activity or Satisfaction
• Percent reporting improvement
• Recidivism
• Percent who hold a job one year out
• Reported improvement in health
Attributable Impact
Trying to find attributable impact– as opposed to change caused by other people, or that would have happened anyway—is rigorous, expensive, and generally out of the reach of smaller nonprofits.
Find the Right Balance
A Process For Defining A Starting Set of Metrics
Our Overall Process
Want Help?
We worked on developing this process as part of a NTEN research initiative– and there’s a free workbook to go with it!
http://www.nten.org/research/2013-data-workbook-download
Define What Question You Want to Measure
Define Where You Want to Focus First
Brainstorm Some Tactical Questions
Think through question in the area to define some questions meet some important criteria:
• The answers will help you improve as an org.
• Your organization can impact the answers.
• Numbers can help you answer it.
• You can create a hypothesis of an answer, and then test it.
Pick An Action Question to Start
For instance…• Is our blog worth the time we spend on it?• How can we improve program attendance?• Did our program actually help our clients
quit smoking?
Do Others Care This Area?
Picking the Right Metrics
Metrics Allow You to Measure They help you determine the success of your tactics.
You Can Only Measure Actions
My Question
• I put the programs on Facebook
• I send an email• People register for the
class• People actually attend• Other organizations
pass on the word
How can we improve
program attendance?
Ways to measure actions
in numbers
Relevant Actions
Possible Metrics
Brainstorm Actions that Affect Your Question
What actions could YOU take that would impact your action question?
What actions could your constituents take?
What actions could other people take?
What Metrics Can You Track For Each?
What kinds of numeric data would be useful?
What Data Are You Collecting?
Survey data?
Data from line staff?
Info about staff
or participants?
What Data Can You Get From Systems?
Info on communication reach?
Financial data?
Constituent data?
What External Data Could Be Useful?
Public info from your state or county?
Information from
partner organizations
How Useful Would Those Metrics Be?
Just because you have it doesn’t mean it’s useful in tracking what you’re interested in.
Think Through the Right Metrics for You
Designing a Process for Success
How Will the Metrics be Created?
How frequently will you check in on whether the metrics themselves are effective?
How Will the Metrics be Used?
Create An Action Plan
Getting Started with Metrics For Your Organization
Find Your Sweet Spot
Think of Metrics as a Cycle
It’s Best to Start Small
Make a Snowball…Start an Avalanche
Evaluate This Session!Each entry is a chance to win an NTEN engraved iPad!
or Online using #13NTCtrack at www.nten.org/ntc/eval