July 18, 2005–In community development, measuring the number of new housing units and the amount of money invested in a neighborhood is easy, but these ‘production numbers’ tell only part of the story. The full story lies in the impact of community development work on people and communities—for example, how has a family’s economic status changed since it moved into an affordable housing unit? Measuring such program outcomes has long been a major challenge, but doing so is vitally important to organizations as they seek to improve their work and attract funding.
In response to this need, NeighborWorks® America is launching a user-friendly, web-based service that organizations can use to measure the impact of their work on communities and individuals in a systematic and comprehensive way. The service, Success Measures Data System, tracks changes for individuals, families, and communities benefiting from community-based organizations’ services. So far, 25 NeighborWorks organizations have enrolled in a Success Measures pilot project. Training sessions in three cities have been held so far; an additional 20 organizations will begin the hands-on training program in early fall . Several partnerships that will bring the service to organizations throughout the community development field are under development.
Measuring Social Returns on Community Investments
“Identifying and using metrics to measure the social return on investment in community development is not easy,” said Darren Walker, director of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Working Communities initiative. “Success Measures has created a system and approach that does this and promises to become the standard for evaluating community development programs. It will better help us to support organizations working to create and sustain healthy neighborhoods.”
Success Measures allows an organization to evaluate its programs by choosing among 44 indicators that measure the impacts of housing, economic development, and community-building programs at the individual, organization, and community levels. More than 100 data collection tools for these indicators are provided; those tools include surveys, focus group questions, formats for analyzing public records, and observation checklists. The service allows organizations to create and measure short-term milestones that support long-term goals.
Community-based organizations will use Success Measures to plan, implement, and improve services. Success Measures also promotes knowledge-sharing among organizations in the field of community development by providing a mechanism for organizations to easily share data with each other should they choose to do so.
Many organizations plan to use Success Measures to make a case for new or continued funding. “Success Measures provides a new method of valuing community development work so that funders can see that their contributions are not acts of subsidy or philanthropy, but instead are true investments in the future of our nation’s communities,” said George McCarthy, program officer with the Ford Foundation.
Participatory Process
Success Measures’ evaluation process is set up so that local community members can be involved at each stage. “The participatory approach of Success Measures opens a new way for working with your service recipients,” said Ellen O’Neill, development director of the Silver Spring, Md., Interfaith Housing Coalition. “It gives them a voice and serves as a great leadership development process, allowing small programs to meet many more objectives than just evaluation. With this process, your organization’s entire level of operation is raised.”
The launch of the web-based Success Measures Data System and related training programs accompanies calls by top government officials for more data on the outcomes of community development programs. “The overarching objective of community economic development and empowerment is to help underserved populations accumulate assets and improve their economic well-being,” said Alan Greenspan at the 2005 National Community Reinvestment Coalition Conference. “Measuring the results of programs dedicated to this objective is essential to effectively managing scarce resources and maximizing the impact of these programs.”
Success Measures was initiated in 1997 by more than 300 grassroots practitioners through the Development Leadership Network (DLN), who framed the initial concepts, developed a set of 44 outcome indicators to measure the results of community activities, and captured this work in a guidebook. Through a partnership between DLN and the McAuley Institute, the Success Measures approach was tested in the field and expanded. In 2004, NeighborWorks America assumed responsibility for Success Measures and its implementation in the community development field.
“We are very pleased to launch the Success Measures Data System as a practical way for community-based organizations to measure what really matters – changes in the lives of people and communities,” said Maggie Grieve, manager of the Success Measures program. “This is an exciting opportunity to build a more complete story of the outcomes of community development investment and give community-based organizations the real-time information they need to improve programs and demonstrate their accountability.”
Web conferences allowing participants to view a live demonstration of the Success Measures system will be held on July 27, August 16 and September 15 (and at other times by request).
View Success Measures Web site at www.successmeasures.org, or for more information contact successmeasures@nw.org, or call 202-220-2330. Also see background information on the NeighborWorks Web site.
