Who cares if you’re measuring outcomes?

Plenty of organizations muddle along "just fine", without setting challenging goals that target measurable results.

They make plans and programs, and they help their people, and they're okay with that.

So why focus so hard on setting clear goals and measuring outcomes? Who cares?

Here are some people who probably do care:

  • Your board. When they're deciding whether to approve your next initiative, can you remind them that your last one increased membership renewals by X percent?

  • Grant sources. If your work is funded by grants, you can bet the grant funders want to see measurable outcomes, not just generalities like "we did well".

  • Your members. Members want reasons to believe that you’re helping them. Can you point to successful projects that, for example, helped place X hundred recent college graduates into jobs in the industry?

  • Your supporters. Individual donors, volunteers, and advocates get excited — and more willing to participate — if you can tell them that your new campaign is on track to help X percent more people than you did last year.

  • Future employers. We don’t usually like to talk about this, but it's a real thing. When you're seeking that exciting higher-level position at a new organization, will they be more impressed to hear that you “managed operations” in your previous position, or that you implemented an efficient donor outreach system that increased donor retention by 15% — without increasing HR costs?

  • Maybe just yourself. Maybe you want to know that you're making the world a better place in real, measurable terms. Maybe it doesn't matter if anybody else in the world appreciates that, as long as you can take pride in it yourself.

Who really cares if you're setting and reaching clear and measurable goals in your organization's work?

Lots of people.

All the best,
A.

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