Many small and medium-sized nonprofits simply don’t have the bandwidth to do everything they want. This tool includes a worksheet and instructions for how to facilitate a group discussion to examine your resources and determine your organization’s realistic top priorities.
These three guides are easy-to-use resources that help evaluators integrate racial equity principles into their daily work. Each guide includes meaningful definitions, innovative models, real-life case studies, and reflective learning exercises.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Guide to Actionable Measurement is driven by three basic principles: 1) Measurement should be designed with a purpose in mind — to inform decisions and/or actions; 2) Do not measure everything but strive to measure what matters most; 3) Because the foundation’s work is organized by strategies, the data we gather help us learn and adapt our initiatives and approaches. This guide includes a results matrix, definitions of terms in our results hierarchy, and a set of measurement guidelines intended to shape internal decisions about depth, breadth, and rigor of measurement across grants and within strategies. The guide also highlights the good practices they aspire to follow to be good stewards and not increase the reporting burden faced by our grantees or distract from their work.
For purpose-driven organizations, data means more than just numbers and graphs–it is about understanding what more you can do to change lives and strengthen communities. The Data Playbook, from Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, provides the building blocks you need to put data to work for your mission through a measured approach to understanding and telling stories of impact.
The Data Playbook section on communicating results breaks down tips on how to design your data visualization to tell a powerful story.
Partnerships for Strategic Impact created a one-pager to help organizations assess their quality of programming. In order for an organization to make the case that a specific impact is the result of programming they are providing in the real world, the authors breakdown what three things to look out for during an assessment.
The Innovation Network's Logic Model Workbook is a do-it-yourself guide to the concepts and use of a logic model. A logic model is a commonly-used tool to clarify and depict a program within an organization. You may have heard it described as a logical framework, theory of change, or program matrix—but the purpose is usually the same: to graphically depict your program, initiative, project or even the sum total of all of your organization’s work. It also serves as a foundation for program planning and evaluation. It describes the steps necessary for you to create logic models for your own programs. This process may take anywhere from an hour to several hours or even days, depending on the complexity of the program.
The Community Tool Box is a service of the Center for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas. This toolkit provides guidance for conducting assessments of community needs and resources.
Data Driven - Creating a Data Culture, deep dives into how to create a data driven culture. It breaks down what a data scientist is, what a data-driven organization looks like, what data organizations do well, along with what tools are needed to support creating culture change.
The Ultimate Glossary of Performance Metrics Every Marketer Should Know, breaks down 32 metrics to help your organization set marketing goals and track the progress of the goals. By digging into results, organizations can understand what worked well, what didn't work well, and then learn from it. After reading this article, you will understand how to be a data-driven marketer for your organization in the areas of content, social media, landing pages, lead conversion, SEO, emails, lead nurturing, public relations, branding, and overall funnel metrics.