Measuring progress is rarely straightforward, especially for programs and initiatives aimed at changing outcomes for communities, systems and people. While today’s data and internet infrastructure has us oftentimes swimming in data, selecting metrics to focus on and track over time is the critical decision. The development of a meaningful measurement framework can catapult programs and initiatives to new levels of impact. CGR’s expertise in data and measurement helps programs, organizations, and community collaboratives get clear about the change they are working to make and how best to track their progress. We guide clients through a process that includes specifying data sources, collection strategies and timetables. This ranges from tracking implementation through measuring impact through formal evaluation and return on investment analyses.
Featured Work
United Way of Greater Rochester and Monroe County Systems Integration Measurement Strategy
CGR and our partner Analytica Now worked with the Systems Integration Project to refine a logic model and develop a measurement model that will allow SIP to track implementation as well as process and outcome improvements. SIP is a community initiative working to integrate data and services across the health, education and human services sector, including through an information-sharing platform for users and service providers called MyWayFinder. CGR and our partner worked with SIP staff and work groups to understand their goals for the initiative and specify how the integrated system will operate differently and drive improvements. We then developed a range of measures from implementation metrics to outcomes that will allow SIP to track progress up to and including estimating its return on investment.
ESL Community Impact Monitoring & Performance System (CIMPS)
ESL’s Community Impact Division engaged CGR to help design a community impact monitoring and performance system to measure progress against its programmatic goals, demonstrate its impact, and to continually inform its work. CGR conducted a literature scan of best practices and worked with Community Impact staff to: clarify their theories of change; create outcome maps that identify process-, systems & behavior-, and population- level indicators of change that ESL can use to track progress over time; identify potential measures and data sources for each indicator and the type of data collection method required; and create a plan for how and when data will reviewed and used internally.
Goodwill Strategic Plan
CGR worked with Goodwill of the Finger Lakes to develop a measurement framework for tracking progress in its new strategic plan as well as helping the agency to weave its diversity, equity and inclusion priorities into the plan. CGR staff interviewed senior leaders to understand the organization’s priorities and reviewed initial measures that they had developed. We created a structure for tracking activities, process improvements and impact, and developed measures for each priority in the plan, as well as adding language to the plan highlighting the DEI aspects.
