Choose Indicators and Manage Data
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Define indicators for your outcomes.
- Explain data-collection practices.
- Understand how to balance your needs for data with your participants’ expectations and needs.
Select Indicators
The data-collection plan component of your strategic evidence plan focuses on indicators that measure your outcomes.
A comprehensive and clear set of indicators tracks the inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes you learned about in the last unit. Each indicator relates directly to your theory of change. When done well, choosing indicators enables an organization to focus its resources where they’re most effective, improve its offerings, and measure the effectiveness of program activities.
[alt text: Effective indicator selection can help you in data analysis.]
When selecting indicators, think of these two questions.
-
Is the indicator important? Good indicators measure what really matters, rather than what’s easiest to track. For example, it’s easy to measure your number of social media followers or website visitors, but does that have a direct, meaningful effect on program results?
-
Can the indicator be measured? Not every indicator is practical to collect and analyze. For example, you can’t feasibly measure the exact percentage of calories program participants receive from fresh food. Instead, you can measure fresh food distribution or survey participants to find the number of servings of fruits and vegetables they eat each day.
Understand the Different Types of Indicators
Indicators can be classified into a few categories which help you better understand your work. Read on for some different types of indicators, including examples from an anti-hunger organization.
Program or Outcome?
Program indicators, also called outputs, measure progress within a particular program or activity. For example, to measure the output of a nutrition-counseling program, you could measure the percentage of people who complete the program. You could also survey participants about their satisfaction after they complete the program.
Outcome indicators measure progress toward your desired results. For example, you may track an outcome indicator of the number of meals a participant skips each week to measure an outcome of increased food security. To capture this measurement you would likely have to survey participants some time after they complete a program. That requires more effort from both you and participants than outcomes such as program completion percentage or satisfaction. This is often true of outcome indicators: They’re harder to measure, but more meaningful to show the effect of a program on participants’ lives. Whatever outcome indicator you choose, measuring it consistently is key to improving program performance.
Quantitative or Qualitative?
Quantitative indicators can be counted or easily measured. For example, the kilograms of food distributed is a quantitative indicator.
Qualitative indicators are descriptive or subjective, and can provide a complete view of your organization’s progress toward its goals. For example, interviews with participants or open-ended survey responses are qualitative indicators.
Breadth or Depth?
A broad indicator tracks your organization’s reach, for example, the number of people served.
Deep indicators measure how much change you make for the people, organizations, or communities you serve. For example, the nutritional changes for a sample group of the people you serve is a deep indicator.
Standard or Custom?
Standard indicators are used widely across organizations with a common mission or those working on similar issues. Researchers, government agencies, affinity groups, or grantmakers working in the same field usually set these indicators as a benchmark. They apply to certain types of organizations focusing on the same issue. For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the United States has a standard definition and measurement for food security that applies across organizations working on hunger.
Custom indicators are specific to your organization and mission and tightly align to the work you do. For instance, a hunger organization may want to track the consumption of empty calories or low-nutrition foods.
Regardless of the indicators you select, you can use Outcome Management to track them in Salesforce. Use Outcome Management to create a library of indicator definitions, connect them to what you measure, and add time-bound baseline and target values to assess your results.
Collect Data
After you define your indicators, establish responsibility for each measure and how it’s collected and stored. Consider these questions.
Where Does Your Data Come From?
Does your data come from your organization’s own program records, or is it historical data from public databases? Do you use surveys, interviews, observations, and assessments of your target populations and participants?
Who Collects Indicator Data?
Which members of your team have access to the data you want to collect? For example, train case managers who regularly talk with participants to collect key data consistently, as part of their work. Namely, equip managers with a standard assessment tool. Fit data collection into your current workflows to improve the process—and your team’s work day. Treat your team like data-collection VIPs!
How Often Do You Collect Data?
The frequency of data collection during any time period depends on the indicator. For example, metrics tied to long-term performance require less-frequent collection because they focus on change over time. For programs that happen daily and can affect short-term decisions, data should be collected more frequently.
How Is Data Stored and Protected?
Don’t lose sight of storage and security. Much of the information you collect is sensitive, so plan for tools to manage, store, and secure it. Plan for your technology costs, and invest in your team to make sure they know how to use it.
If you need help with selecting indicators, check out the strategic evidence plan template in the Resources section as a starting point. And if you use Outcome Management in Salesforce, check out Track Progress with Indicator Results in Salesforce Help to learn more about how you can track your results in Salesforce.
Think of Your Participants
Let’s stop to consider how your data-collection processes appear to people outside of your organization. It’s especially important if you actively ask the people, organizations, and communities you serve to provide direct feedback through surveys or other tools. The data-collection process can do more damage than good if your stakeholders feel rushed, pressured, or unsure of your motivations.
First, make sure your questions are accessible and appropriate. The people and communities you serve should see themselves represented in your data-collection tools, and this includes translation when necessary.
Second, explain why you’re collecting data and how you’re going to use it. Do participants feel and understand that you’re safeguarding the information they share with you? Do they believe that you respect their time and experiences?
Finally, commit to putting your data to use—your stakeholders expect it. Donors want to see organizations provide impactful, streamlined services. The community is waiting for you to make a greater positive change. Plan to act on what you learn.
Now, let’s talk about your organization: Is it ready for impact management? In the next unit you learn some key skills to build as a team.