The 2006 Foundation and Nonprofit Performance Conference: Overview

by Melanie Gnass

This past September, the Council of Nonprofit Innovation presented the 2006 Foundation and Nonprofit Performance Conference Implementing Performance Measures, Evaluating Outcomes and Managing for Results in Nonprofits and Foundations in Arlington, VA.

The purpose of the conference was to address how nonprofits and foundations can better define their strategies and make programmatic improvements.  Organizations that attended the conference had an opportunity to gain a renewed focus on outputs and outcomes.   A clear theme running throughout the conference was the need for organizations to improve how they measure their performance and outcomes in order to analyze the success of programs and report these results to stakeholders.  By learning and understanding performance management strategies, nonprofits and foundations can improve how they provide feedback for their boards and staff, allocate resources, attract donors, set future goals for programs and increase funding. 

Topics covered throughout the three-day conference included: Measuring Outcomes: Performance Measurement Systems; Vision and Planning; Financial Performance: Budgeting and Forecasting; Program Evaluation: Understanding Strategies and Performance-Based Grants Management , just to name a few.

The conference was attended by approximately 100 nonprofit and philanthropic professionals who got the chance to share their strategies and best practices in the field of outcome measurement, evaluation, and capacity building in the workshops. 

Kicking off the second day of the conference, September 26, 2006, were our very own Dan Baum and Lily Zandniapour, who gave a brief overview of our organization and how Innovation Network approaches evaluation through a participatory framework.   The presentation also included an introduction to what we call the Continuous Learning Cycle, a process of ongoing learning that involves planning, systematic data collection, analysis, reporting, and reflection.

Our second presentation of the day was given by Senior Associates Veena Pankaj and Jennifer Bagnell Stuart on “Aligning Foundation Measures with Grantees.”    In their session, Veena and Jennifer described the common tensions that can occur between grantor and grantee when each have different expectations about the partnership.  There are four areas that should be aligned in this relationship: goals/objectives (why are we doing it?), approaches/models (what are we doing?), language and concepts (what are we talking about?), and tools (how do we do it?).  Alignment in these areas can lead to a clear understanding from both parties.  It is also important to recognize the potential for misalignment and look at the funding partnership from both points of view.

Below are some additional highlights from the conference:

• Elizabeth Holden, from the Council for Nonprofit Innovation, talked about using scorecards as a strategic map to help communicate strategies among stakeholders.  She recommends developing a strategic map to go with each strategic theme.  Under the strategic theme are the components of the evaluation process: “objectives,” “measures,” “targets,” and “initiatives.”  Under the theme are broad-themed goals such as fiduciary issues and client relationship.  Each strategic goal should establish direction and should fit with the mission of the organization.  This strategy map should balance short term cost with the long term objective of fulfilling your mission.  According to Ms. Holden, value is created through internal business processes and a balanced scorecard is a “living document” that helps an organization to improve communication.

• While Ms. Holden’s strategy of scorecards helps with the internal process of evaluation, how can we really measure performance in nonprofits and make data meaningful?  Dr. Kathryn Newcomer, of the School of Public Policy and Public Administration at the George Washington University, has an answer to that.  She emphasized the importance of telling a program’s story and seeing the broader view.  In a study she conducted, 57 percent of nonprofits surveyed believed that the primary benefit of evaluation is to communicate program results to stakeholders.  But 56 percent believed that evaluation data actually hurt with overloaded record keeping!  So how can we collect data in a systematic way to be useful to stakeholders without getting overloaded?  Dr. Newcomer made several suggestions to improve this process: understand your audience, address the questions most relevant to your stakeholders, convey the methodology used to obtain the data, address plausible alternative explanations for program outcomes (never use the word “cause”!), and tailor your reporting to different audiences to avoid information overload.  

• In terms of evaluating grantee performance, David Weisberger, of NeighborWorks America, emphasized that evaluation is the result of an intersection between capacity assessment (examining an organization’s internal resources), performance measurement (measuring outputs), and outcome evaluation (documenting changes).  All these together helps the organization and its stakeholders understand what programs are most successful and provides evidence of the difference the organization has made in its community.
  

• So how can you use the relationship between grantors and grantees to improve fundraising for your organization?  According to Audley Wolfe Jr. of Lawson Associates, you organize and build relationships with potential donors.  He suggested organizing by grouping them into family, friends, acquaintances, and strangers.  Your communication will vary based on which group they are in.  For instance, for the family group, you will have constant personal contact, where your relationship is highly visible.  With strangers, you have little to no contact, but the organizations in here have some type of connection to your cause.  Over time, by building, improving, and evaluating these relationships, strangers will become acquaintances and acquaintances will become friends.

For more information, please go to the conference’s website at http://www.nonprofitperformance.org/index.html.