Proving You’ve Made a Difference Measuring your partnership’s impact on your community January 2009

Proving You’ve Made a Difference Seedco Program Sites New York: New York City Alabama: Birmingham, Montgomery, Selma Colorado: Denver Georgia: Atlanta Maryland: Baltimore Tennessee: Memphis Gulf Coast: New Orleans, Baton Rouge Seedco is a national, nonprofit organization that partners with public and private agencies to provide economic opportunities for disadvantaged job seekers, low-wage workers, and neighborhood entrepreneurs.

Proving You’ve Made a Difference My faith inspires me to help my neighbor; I want there to be less poverty in my community. I want the youth in my community to have more opportunities than I did Our partnership wants to raise more money so we can expand the great work we’re doing. We want to energize our partnership and improve our communication s with the partners Why We Are Here Today: Using Data to Reach our Goals

Proving You’ve Made a Difference Our Network Model Partners Community Organizations, Colleges, Training Providers INVESTORS Government, Foundations, Corporations Jobseekers and Low Wage Workers Entrepreneurs and Employers Seedco FundersService ProvidersServicesRecipients

Proving You’ve Made a Difference  Identify Needs/Gaps  Pilot Projects  Set Realistic Targets Innovative Program Design  Share Lessons  Partner with Policymakers Field Leadership  Achieve Scale  Sustainable Increase Impact  Use Data to Improve Programs  Build CBO/Partner Capacity Performance Measurement and Management How We Use Data

Proving You’ve Made a Difference Articulate Theory of Change Create a Logic Model & Client Flow Determine Indicators & Targets Measure and Monitor Manage for Improved Performance Performance Measurement and Management (PM&M) is a data-driven management tool  PM&M Overview

Proving You’ve Made a Difference  Create a Logic Model

Proving You’ve Made a Difference  Create a Client Flow

Proving You’ve Made a Difference  Choose Indicators Indicator = Specific information collected to track whether an outcome has actually occurred Outcome: Students understand 8th grade Math & English Indicators: # and % of students who finish tutoring program # and % of students who improve grades in 1 semester

Proving You’ve Made a Difference Why? Provides basis against which to measure program/ partner success Quantifies the drop- off points in your program Helps you back into a realistic plan to reach your performance goals  Choose Targets

Proving You’ve Made a Difference  Measure and Monitor Where will you get the data? How will you collect the data? What instrument will you use to collect the data? Who will collect the data? When are the data collected? How will you store the data? A small leak can sink a great ship Benjamin Franklin

Proving You’ve Made a Difference  Reporting Network Performance Management Reports often include:  Internal targets and actual performance of each partner  Past/cumulative performance for comparison Report structure and frequency vary according to:  Who is receiving the information  How it will be used One partner (or intermediary) is responsible for compiling data, reports, and management presentations.

Proving You’ve Made a Difference Creating a Learning Network Getting everyone on board Hold orientation to energize your partners  Include as many staff as can fit! Work through PM&M Process TOGETHER  Have representatives from several partners develop forms, procedures, and report templates for different stakeholders Communicate with entire staff of each partner, not just directors!

Proving You’ve Made a Difference Creating a Learning Network Partnership Meetings Intermediary (or lead partner) facilitates presentation Choose one topic to guide discussion  Choose a partner to present at each meeting  Discuss specific challenges, strategies, trends  Encourage transparency and the sharing of ideas Use quantitative and qualitative data to support presentation

Proving You’ve Made a Difference Creating a Learning Network Partnership Data Meetings Develop easy-to-read reports and graphs to share with the group Schedule prep meetings and send presentation to the “presenting” partner before your meeting Ongoing Evaluation and Learning: Continuous Performance Improvement (CPI) If you hold a cat by the tail you learn things you cannot learn any other way --Mark Twain

Proving You’ve Made a Difference Creating a Learning Network Keeping everyone on board! Refresher trainings:  Data Management, Client Flow, Processes Connect partners to technical assistance Reassess goals and priorities regularly Continual evaluation of performance and collaboration

Proving You’ve Made a Difference Thank You for joining us today! For information, visit: Other tools developed by Seedco can be found on our website. Linda M. Rodriguez Senior Program Manager Lindsay Hoffman Program Associate (212)