Guidance for Developing Outcome Statements and Metrics

Transcription

1 Guidance for Developing Outcome Statements and Metrics For the Baltimore Children and Youth Fund Proposal Measuring your program s impact is an important part of providing quality service to Baltimore s children, youth, and young adults. At the Baltimore Children and Youth Fund, we place a high priority on setting clear goals and measuring progress to make sure that a program really strengthens the community in which it works. By measuring program impact, you will be able to identify your program s strengths and areas for improvements. Additionally, others can learn from what you do well, which means your work could have even greater impact. This document will provide you an overview of outcome statements and the use of metrics to measure your project's success. Upon conclusion of reading this document, you should feel comfortable drafting your project's proposed outcome statement and developing the proposed metrics and targets to support your work. Let s start with some basic terms. Your outcome statement defines what your entire proposed project hopes to achieve and clarifies the impact it wants to make. Metrics are specific ways to measure whether your program s activities are helping to achieve your project outcome. While you are implementing your program, you should review your metrics to clarify how you might adjust your program s actions to improve progress toward your outcome. (We will provide more information about different kinds of metrics and examples below.) Targets are specific numbers that you want to achieve in your programs. Types of metrics You can use two primary types of metrics to measure your project s progress towards the overall outcome: Activity metrics track the completion and effectiveness of proposed actions. Activity metrics help you know if you are doing the things you planned to do, if you are doing them well, and if you are completing them within your proposed time frame. Outcome metrics track your progress toward your desired outcomes. Outcome metrics help you know if you are getting the results you expected within the proposed time frame. *Tip: Outcome statement vs. outcome metric can be confusing! Remember the outcome statement is the overall project goal and the outcome metric is the way you will measure progress toward the outcome.

2 This chart shows the relationship of activities and outcomes. Remember, your program s activities should result in meeting your program s outcomes. Start with your outcome statement. Creating your outcome statement will help guide you in creating your metrics. Clear outcome statements describe the results you expect to see should your project successfully achieve its intended mission. The outcome statement clearly describes the end state, along with what impact looks like for your initiative. The statement also answers the question So what? Who cares? or To what end?. EXAMPLE Johnny wants to open a summer lemonade stand to make money for a school trip in November. He knows he needs to measure his progress throughout the summer to make sure he is doing all the right things to meet his goal on time. Johnny s outcome statement: To sell enough lemonade to raise $200 for his school trip by October 30. We will return to Johnny s example later to see how he creates his metrics. Remember, your outcome statement should help us see the link between what your program is doing and the measurable change (numbers) that shows you are having the impact you want. Determine Your Metrics. Grantees will be required to track metrics on their progress toward the outcomes of their grant-awarded work in their quarterly status reports. This means that if you become a grantee, you will submit data on certain mutually agreed-upon metrics that best demonstrate the effectiveness of your activities and the outcomes of your work. You are the visionary and expert for your program, and you need to help us see the impact that you envision. If your proposal is approved for funding, we will work with you to

3 fine-tune how you will show your success in measurable ways (See METRIC NEGOTIATIONS AND AWARD CONTRACT below). In your proposal, follow the RFP s instructions to propose your outcome statement and the three (3) metrics that you think would best measure the impact your grant-specific work will have. As a guideline, you should list one (1) outcome metric and two (2) activity metrics. What makes a good metric? Think of your metric as simply answering the question How do we know we achieved what we set out to achieve? What we set out to achieve is our outcome. How we track our completeness of proposed activities and measure our progress toward the outcome are the metrics. You do not need complicated metrics that require the help of a researcher or a data scientist. We do not expect that level of complexity. We just want you to identify specific ways to measure your program s success. Once you have defined a metric to measure your success, you should then consider an achievable target, such as a specific number rather than just higher or more. You should have a target for the end of the project the overall outcome target, which will be part of your outcome metric. You should also determine targets for milestones as you run your program specific targets for each outcome and activity metric. Using your targets, you can measure your program s progress for a given metric and make changes as needed in your activities. Be sure that your targets are realistic, based in your program s goals, and achievable throughout the timeframe of your program s activities. EXAMPLE Returning to Johnny and his lemonade business: Johnny s outcome metric is the percent of $200 that he is able to raise by October 30th. Johnny s outcome target is 100 percent. Throughout the summer, Johnny will measure how well he is making money selling lemonade using the following activity metrics and targets: Activity Metric 1 : Number of days per week that he sells lemonade. Target three days a week. Activity Metric 2: Number of glasses of lemonade sold per day. Target 20 glasses of lemonade per day. Regularly checking these metrics will allow Johnny to see if he is selling enough glasses of lemonade each week to meet his outcome target by October 30. Based on this information, Johnny will decide whether he should adjust his actions by checking his activity metrics against his targets periodically throughout the summer. For example, depending on the progress he notes, Johnny could ask if he should sell lemonade on more or different days, charge more per glass, or advertise differently. EXAMPLE SUMMARY: Here are Johnny s outcome statement and metrics in a chart. You will fill out your proposed outcome statement and metrics in the same type of chart in your proposal.

4 Outcome Statement : Johnny will sell enough lemonade to raise $200 for his school trip by October 30th. Metric Type Metric Target Outcome Percent of $200 raised 100 Activity Number of days selling lemonade per week 3 Activity Number of glasses of lemonade sold per day 20 EXAMPLES FROM THE PRIORITY AREAS Please look over these examples to help inspire you in your writing. Please do not just copy and paste these examples into your proposal. We really want to know what impact you envision that YOUR program will have. Sample Outcome Statements for Youth Investment Priority Sample Outcome Statements Strengthen the Village Young fathers/mothers increase responsible parenting skills. Young parents spend more time interacting, reading to, talking with, and playing with their children. Young people increase their use of relevant support and service networks. Young people increase their associations with positive peers involved in productive activities. Youth-serving facilities are better equipped and receive necessary cosmetic improvements. Fostering Authentic Youth Leadership, Empowerment + Self Actualization Building Sustainable Bridges to Educational and Economic Advancement Opportunities, and Enterprise Ownership Young people exhibit increased self-esteem, self-mastery and positive self-concepts. Young people assume new leadership roles in their communities. Young people participate in quality play and recreational opportunities. Young people participate in quality arts-related activities. Young people increase use of positive stress management and coping behaviors, and exhibit healthy lifestyle choices. Young workers obtain or maintain employment. Young people are knowledgeable about financial management and other work-related concepts. Young people experience an increase in earnings. Young people participate in the planning and operation of a small business. Young people increase educational credentials

5 Sample Metrics for Youth Activity Metrics Outcome Metrics Number of youth served in a certain age bracket Attendance for program Percent of young adults that completed the program Development of program charter Percent of youth with improved summer school attendance Number of youth with after school jobs Number of young adults re-enrolled in GED programming Number of students applying to college TIPS FOR DEVELOPING METRICS As you work on your proposal, ask yourself the following questions before proposing your metrics: Does each metric measure the most valuable work we will do as part of this grant proposal? Does it represent the meat of our work? Does each metric show progress that we can attribute directly to our work, as opposed to other programs work? Or does the metric propose a larger gain, such as city-wide high school graduation rates, that we really cannot to attribute to just one program? Will checking and considering these metrics regularly help us improve the impact of our work? What data will we need in order to show whether we met the metric? Can we collect or access the needed data, so we can show the data in our reports? How will we collect data or access data? If we need to collect the data ourselves, do we have a clear plan for how we will collect, store, and calculate the data for quarterly reporting? Baltimore Child and Youth Fund Reporting Expectations and Requirements: The process below details the expectations and requirements of each applicant and potential grantee throughout the different phases of the proposal process. PROPOSAL SUBMISSION: Applicants need to submit their proposed outcome statement, three metrics, and, if possible, targets for each metric in the application portal. Use the table format below as a reference for developing your outcome statement, metrics and targets. You will find this table in the application form for you to submit this information. Outcome Statement: Metric Type (choose: outcome or activity) Metric Target

6 METRIC NEGOTIATIONS AND AWARD CONTRACT: If your project is selected for funding, we will begin working with you to develop the final metric immediately after the award selections. You will have guided conversations with UPD Consulting (on behalf of Associated Black Charities), to determine the right metrics, targets, and calculations for your program. UPD will also help you refine your metrics and targets for final submission. NOTE: If you are selected as a grantee, you must submit your FINAL outcome statement, metrics, targets, calculations, and justifications before we will finalize your contract. The Fund also requires that you submit quarterly reports on each metric to show progress and evidence of your project s impact.