Consulting Services - Performance Measurement

Root Cause has written what may be the best available guide to building a performance measurement system.

- Jacob Harold, Program Officer, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

We help organizations to develop customized, internally driven performance measurement systems designed to meet stakeholder requirements, while also empowering leaders to track performance, learn from data, and use that learning to make management decisions focused on continuous improvement. Our methodology centers on a four-stage performance measurement cycle that enables organizations to be flexible and action-oriented.

Spotlight Organizations

• Children's Hospital, Boston: In working with Children’s Hospital, Boston we created a performance measurement system that assessed the social impact of the organization’s community benefits program administered by its Office of Child Advocacy. We created a series of tools and frameworks for measuring activities that provided a clear way of managing performance internally and reporting impact to hospital management and donors.

We believe that measurement is in its infancy due to the small number of nonprofits that have systems in place to use data to learn and improve, the limited use of evaluation and third-party studies, and the rarity of funders using performance as a key consideration as they make grants. Because of these obstacles, Root Cause believes that focusing on building a culture of learning from data within an organization is essential to making performance measurement work. We strive to do so in each of our engagements, exemplified through our work with clients who have improved their measurement capability and have gone on to do various types of evaluation with a third party.

Publications

• Building a Performance Measurement System: A How-to Guide - This practical guide provides an easy-to-follow, five-step process for developing a customized performance measurement system that will serve as an essential tool for any organization seeking to: measure progress in achieving its mission, goals, and visions develop dashboards and learn how to analyze performance data; create a culture of learning and continuous improvement among management, board, and staff; develop report cards to communicate performance; use data-based evidence to build funder confidence.

Blogs

• What to do with data once you collect it
• How to know what to measure
• Performance Measurement Buzz
• Nonprofits Discuss Performance Measurement at Massachusetts Nonprofit Network/Associated Grantmakers Conference