How To Make Sure Your Nonprofit Is Accomplishing Its Mission
What do a GPS and a nonprofit have in common?
When operating effectively, they both utilize evaluation.
A GPS works by constantly receiving data from GPS satellites, radars, and radio signals. With this ongoing feedback, it uses real-time evaluation to keep you from getting stuck in traffic, caught behind wrecks, or stalled in a construction zone.
Similarly, nonprofits utilize various forms of evaluation to ensure they are on the most efficient path to achieve their missions.
Or at least, they should be.
But like any good GPS, you first need to know where you’re starting from in order to plan the route.
So let’s go back to the beginning–before the stress of engaging and retaining donors, managing community outreach programs, and finding the right volunteers.
Why did you create your nonprofit in the first place?
You probably started your nonprofit because you wanted to:
Help people in need
Make an impactful change in people’s lives
Benefit and strengthen your community
Build long-term economic stability
Any of these ring a bell?
You brainstormed your vision, committed your energy to the process, and executed it.
But the months have added up, and years later you’re not where you thought you’d be. Your resources are dwindling, you’re struggling to find adequate funding and volunteers, and your community doesn’t look that much different from when you started.
If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone.
1 in 2 nonprofits is destined to fail within a few years of beginning. And nearly 1 in 3 nonprofits will completely cease to exist in just one decade.
Why?
Lack of strategic plan and evaluation.
Planning processes is a critical first step in achieving your nonprofit’s mission. But without evaluating each process along the way, you won’t ever know if you're actually accomplishing what you set out to do.
What does evaluation practically look like for nonprofits?
The core purpose of evaluation is to answer critical questions regarding a program’s effectiveness through periodic analysis.
In its simplest form, it’s looking deeper into processes and outcomes.
Processes refer to the internal operations of how you run your programs–“Is this program running the way it was designed to run?”
Outcomes are assessed as you answer the next question, “What is happening as a result of the process?”
If evaluation is a new concept to you, honing in on these two factors are the easiest places to start.
Practically, evaluation can be done through:
Surveys
Assessments
Attendance data
Enrollment information
Dosage
Interviews and focus groups
But evaluation doesn’t have to stop there.
Some more robust nonprofits dig deeper into evaluating long-term community impact. They look at how the programs they offer affect the community at large. Some others get into Cost-Effectiveness Analysis or Cost-Benefit Analysis to determine how many dollars are made or saved for every dollar invested in a client.
These evaluations are particularly important for nonprofits that provide services for free.
Use evaluation to answer the questions you need to be answered in order to do your job to the best of your ability and achieve your mission.
For example, if a nonprofit is providing alcohol recovery services, driving questions might look like:
Are we operating our program as it was designed? Are we serving the number of people we expected? Do they represent the communities we expected? Are they receiving the required dosage of the program?
Are our clients remaining sober? Does the quality of their life improve? Do they have better relationships with family and friends?
How much is that saving the client who otherwise would have had to pay?
How much does it cost to treat a person suffering from alcoholism in the healthcare system?
If we can help people with alcoholism get into recovery, then how many dollars are we saving the public health systems or community health clinics?
Each piece of data accumulated from these forms of evaluation act as those satellite signals that keep you on track to fulfill your mission. You might discover areas where you’ve unknowingly detoured, or find an alternative exit that can get you back on track.
What should nonprofits evaluate?
Short answer: everything
Long answer: whatever the main thing is you need to know in order to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of your programs and prove to your funders that your program is working successfully.
For instance, if you’re a food center that is needing to configure the demographics and SES status of the people you serve, having them spend an additional 15 minutes filling out your survey when they swing by to pick up food may not work because your clients may not have time to spend the extra time.
Instead, brainstorm simpler ways you get the information you’re seeking:
Are there just 1 or 2 questions they can verbally answer on their way out?
Could you give a condensed survey on slower days?
Do you have an intern who could ask specific questions to every other person?
Boil down the main 3 to 5 key leverage data points and make those your focus.
This is where theories of change (the why) and logic models (the how) come in handy.
Theory of Change
A Theory of Change is a causal model of why you think your program works. You can think of it as a ladder.
Programs and activities are at the bottom, while your long-term vision is at the top. To reach the top, you strategically build in each step of change that needs to occur in order to achieve your vision.
Let’s say you offer a short-term alcohol recovery program, but your ultimate goal is for each patient to remain sober and have healthy family relationships.
Well, providing just a 2-week recovery program may not be enough. You may need to initiate a community outreach program where you help clients find and receive mental health services and hire a family liaison officer or find a partner nonprofit to help them rebuild damaged relationships.
Each step of this process is a new rung added to your ladder.
“In order to see people with alcoholism reach long-term sobriety, we first must do A, B, then C.”
Now that you know what the steps are, how do you actually execute them?
Answer: logic models.
Logic Model
A Logic Model shows you how you actually build the rungs into your ladder by focusing on processes and outcomes.
It’s rigged with classic if-then statements:
If we have these resources then we can provide these services.
If we provide these services then we will be able to achieve this outcome.
If we achieve this outcome for 5-10 years then we can achieve this community outcome.
Logic models take all the internal-operational-mumbo jumbo and help you know what needs to be evaluated to actually see changes in clients’ lives.
In other words, the exact processes and outcomes need to be measured.
Some things you’ll need to know every year, like how many clients are staying sober. Other things you can change your focus on as new situations or data points arise.
But why are measuring processes so important?
If you’re not actively measuring how your program is operating, your clients may be relapsing into alcoholism and you won’t know why.
You can’t expect to reach your destination if you’re setting out on your journey with an outdated printed map from MapQuest.
BONUS:
Both the logic model and the theory of change are foundational pieces for key performance indicators (KPIs).
If you submit a grant using a well-written KPI based on the resources and data you actually have, you don’t have to worry about making false promises and disappointing your funders.
Conversely, if you write a KPI that is not in alignment with the actual data you can collect, expectations will be miscommunicated and oversold. It’s important to accurately depict what your data can collect.
And speaking of funders…
How does evaluation affect donor growth and nonprofit success?
Evaluation provides you with clear information regarding what your programs can do, but also what they can’t do … And that’s a good thing! Using the information gathered through your evaluations helps you either grow your programs or figure out where your gaps are.
Either way, it’s a win-win.
Let’s look at how evaluation affects donors: Say you have a prospective donor who has the expectation that your alcohol recovery clients will immediately be employed and receive living wages upon graduation. That’s a great outcome – But not what your program does, and therefore not a good measurement of a successful outcome.
Effectively using your data to communicate clear processes, outcomes, and expectations benefit both parties.
Advertise your successes and celebrate what is working, but don’t shy away from sharing areas of growth with your funders.
Communicating the areas of growth with clear plans of how you will pivot makes you more transparent and trustworthy, and actually increases the likelihood of your nonprofit’s success.
Don’t forget that your funders are key stakeholders. They are on the journey with you.
Picture them riding in the car with you as you set off toward your destination. As you come across a road that’s closed due to construction, would you expect them to blame you for the unforeseen roadblock? Of course not, you’ll probably find them to be quite understanding!
But don’t expect that same level of trust to continue if you stay stuck, fail to assess the situation, and refuse to find an alternative route.
Plan, assess, refine, implement, repeat.
How does evaluation affect program growth?
By utilizing surveys, assessments, and other evaluative tools, you’ll be able to connect the gaps for the people you’re serving.
Take in the information, get over the speed bump, and figure out a more efficient path.
Let’s say your program primarily services women and requires a significant time commitment. Then you notice women are dropping out of the program early and ask yourself why. What needs to change? Through evaluating key elements, you might find that most of your clients are moms, and the time commitment without childcare is simply too long.
With this new information, you now have an opportunity to refine. How can you meet that need so moms can get the help they need?
Remember, evaluation is all about increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of your programs.
If you use evaluations appropriately, your programs are more successful. When your programs are more successful, your nonprofit is more successful.
But the opposite is also true.
If you’re not evaluating:
You may be straying from your mission because your processes are leading you blindly
You may not be achieving the outcomes you want to achieve
You may lose current funding or fail to acquire new funding
You may not be growing as quickly as you intended
You may be shrinking and struggling to keep your doors open
But don’t panic…
If you want to utilize effective evaluation, Serve Denton can help.
Evaluating your programs can sometimes feel daunting, but it doesn’t have to be scary.
Maybe you:
See blatant gaps in your processes but don’t know how to initiate change
Are overwhelmed with your current workload and can’t imagine adding to your plate
Don’t have the manpower or resources to executive effective evaluations
Are overwhelmed and don’t even know where you start
If any of these resonate, Serve Denton can help
Serve Denton’s Shared Services program was designed to be your very own Nonprofit Accelerator and help you reach your destination as efficiently and effectively as possible.
You can partner with us to begin an incremental approach that helps you make small changes in the ways you’re interacting with your clients to get the data you need to see the success you want.
Don’t keep executing a mission you never intended to achieve…
Partner with Serve Denton to harness the power of evaluation and take the next step in executing your true mission.