In a blog post, Laurel Molloy, founder and chief consultant of Innovations Quantified (IQ), shares her perspectives on the 3 Steps to Plan Programs for Maximum Impact. Laurel begins by asking the reader to pretend you are a passenger in a car humming down the highway. The driver turns to you and blissfully says, “I’m not sure where we are going, but we’re making great time!”
Have you ever been part of a social sector organization where everyone is working hard on their own tasks, but nobody seems to have a concrete idea how they are making a difference in the lives of those they serve? If so, you are not alone. Laurel continues her driving metaphor by comparing impact-focused program planning to using your car’s GPS. In order for a GPS to function properly, you must enter your desired end point. In order to maximize your organization’s social impact, you must start with your desired outcomes in mind. Laurel breaks down the process into these fairly straightforward steps.
1. Clarify whom you intend to impact and why.
2. Let your outcomes inform your approach.
3. Consider there’s more than one path.
But when it comes to a comprehensive outcomes measurement strategy, there is one more key element you’ll need to become a fully equipped, high-achieving, impact-centric social sector powerhouse: real-time data collection and reporting. With this additional step, nonprofit organizations can operate with exponential efficiencies and agility that is needed in today’s fast-paced environments.
4. Collect and analyze data in real time
Maximizing your organization’s social impact requires the ability to react and respond in a timely manner. Having a case management and reporting software solution that can accelerate steps 1-3 listed above helps to maximize both time and money—and ultimately, reduces the harm that might be inadvertently produced as a result of manually collecting new data sets for analysis. Here’s how SureImpact puts social sector organizations on the fast track to achieving steps 1-3 in the quest to maximize social impact:
1. SureImpact is a case management solution that can help your organization segment and analyze your participants through a gender or equity lens, or any additional number of combinations of participant demographic information. Having this knowledge is critical when prioritizing the deployment of resources in the form of relief, programs, services, resources, and much more.
2. Similarly, SureImpact’s features include reporting capabilities on outcomes data, empowering organizations to understand the precise combinations of services and programs that produce the best results for your participants, so that you can do more of what works.
3. Slicing this data into multiple viewpoints opens up countless possibilities in terms of how your organization might alter its approach to providing its much-needed services. The revelations that unfold from these perspectives shed light on new paths forward to generate even greater impact.
SureImpact covers all the bases Imagine if you had had such a solution in place prior to COVID-19? How might your organization have thrived through the process of pivoting to measure participant needs—and successfully meet those needs, with more customized delivery, and in an even more timely manner? Having access to this real-time data is essential for organizational agility, enhanced quality, and social impact.
SureImpact has been specifically designed for the social sector by professionals with more than 20 years of experience working with hundreds of nonprofit and government agencies. By investing in SureImpact as your case management and reporting software solution, your organization will have the ability to put rapid innovation into practice, more easily satisfy the needs of your beneficiaries and your community, and create real, lasting change. That is social impact at its best.
Contact SureImpact today to learn more. Also, check out our on-demand webinar “Demystify Data to Drive Your Organization’s Impact.”
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