Stats and Stories

In discussing Reach, Inc. with potential partners around DC, the way we will evaluate our success has been a recurring topic of conversation. I've found that program success is generally measured in stats and stories. While having legitimate measures of program outcomes is important (stats), many nonprofits focus on marketing anecdotal evidence of program success (stories). 

While I look forward to having stories to share about the students who benefit from our program, I am spending much of my time working to develop an effective evaluation tool for our pilot program. This issue will be explored in three distinct ways during the coming week:

• On Monday, I'll be having a discussion with Tim Payne, the Executive Director of For Love of Children. From what I've heard, FLOC did a fantastic job of developing a system for demonstrating the effectiveness of their educational programs long before it became such such a central focus in the nonprofit world. I look forward to learning the ways that FLOC demonstrates the impact of their work.
• Also, next week I will have the opportunity to have further conversations with our potential pilot site. During this conversation, it will be important that we discuss the level of access that we will have to the school's data. It is my hope that they will be willing to be open with their data around attendance, grades, and standardized test scores. While we will add our own evaluation tools, the data already collected by the school will be important in helping Reach, Inc. show potential partners the program's effectiveness.
• Finally, I should soon find out about an exciting potential partnership with Georgetown's Public Policy Institute. Reach, Inc. has been invited to submit a proposal to Joe Ferrara's graduate class in public management. One of the projects we proposed would involve a group of graduate students working closely with me to develop an evaluation tool to be used for our pilot program. This team of graduate students would provide Reach, Inc. with the capacity to research effective evaluation tools used by educational nonprofits around the country. With this additional information, we could create a tool tailored specifically to our needs so we can immediately demonstrate impact.

We are very confident in our ability to make a significant impact, so we have to ensure that we can demonstrate our effectiveness to potential educational and financial partners.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Mark

Founder and President - Reach, Inc.