1. CIC Webinar Community Outcomes Project February 16, 2012 Dawn Helmrich, Director of Data and Outcomes United Way of Greater Milwaukee

2. Outcomes Background Requirements for outcomes steadily increased. Accountability to funders is more common. Programmatic outcomes no longer sufficient. Donors want to know larger impact. What can United Way of Greater Milwaukee do?

3. What we did Researched United Ways across the country. Found no common framework for our community. Created a model to work for us.

4. United Way of Greater Milwaukee’s Vision To develop a common set of outcomes and indicators to use as a tool to measure progress over time and identify promising practices that benefit the lives of people while enhancing the community’s ability to address emerging issues.

5. Framework Identify a common issue, e.g., Domestic Violence, Youth Development, Food Pantries Ask questions Strengths? Challenges? Demographics? Local / National issues? Experts? You’re looking at them!

6. Framework Identify outcomes Convene focus groups. Convene roundtable discussions. Establish consensus. Broad is better. Use S.M.A.R.T goals Specific. Measureable. Achievable. Realistic. and Trackable.

7. Framework Indicators Indictors track outcomes. Indicators match measurement tool. Data Measurement Tool Programmatic partner involvement Language appropriate for population Culturally sensitive Tweak, tweak and tweak some more Ready for the long haul

8. Framework The Pilot Project Timeframe appropriate Logical amount of data to collect Instrument for data collection Opportunity for process evaluation NOT benchmark data Feedback session after pilot

9. How to pilot the project Indicator data collection When to administer measurement tool How to administer (different for different areas) Who will administer? Where to administer? Tool(s) to house data Excel Access Web-based system

10. Piloting Data analysis and reporting Determine outcomes to report. (KEY: not all outcomes need to be reported, but they must be measured.) Construct charts and tables in measurement tool for easy program reporting. Collect ALL data from across ALL programs to aggregate. Analyze data from program partners. Present findings to program partners.

11. Piloting Process evaluation What worked? What didn’t? What was useful? What needs to be changed? Who had the easiest time and why? Evaluation is critical

12. Piloting Feedback meeting Who - Partners hold a feedback session What – Share valuable input What - Measurement tools are modified Results - Process is fine-tuned to meet needs

13. Implementation Pilot data collected, reviewed and analyzed Benchmark is set after the first year. Hard work really pays off!

14. Using the data Annual reports, board reports, fundraising United Way of Greater Milwaukee uses data for accountability to donors, benchmarking, filling gaps, accountability of funded programs Share aggregate data White sheets

15. Lessons learned A base of programmatic outcomes is helpful. Gain trust from and among partners. Measurement tools are vastly different based on issue area. Training is crucial. Simple is always better.

16. Lessons learned Length of process varies. (6-12 months) Pilot is vital to success. Outcomes are fluid. Must USE the data. Map to the larger community picture. Be patient.

17. Moving forward Fourteen Community Outcomes projects complete, a few more to go. Collaboration with other funders. Implementation of I-CResults. Broader picture look. Community Information Management.

18. ? ?Questions ? ?

19. Thank You!