The Influential Nonprofit Episode 68: Sarah Buek: How To Measure Outcomes You Don’t Think You Can Measure
Sarah founded The IllumiLab (as Insight Partners Consulting) in 2016 after having worked in the non-profit sector as a family therapist, program manager, quality improvement manager, grant-maker, and capacity-builder.
Throughout her career, Sarah’s been driven toward increasing effectiveness, efficiency, and impact because she hates waste and loves seeing results.
She believes that, as mission-minded professionals who are drawn into this work in order to make a difference in the lives of vulnerable people and struggling communities, we cannot afford to waste time, energy, information, opportunities, or resources.
As an “evaluative thinking evangelist,” Sarah is passionate about making the tools and processes of reflection and learning accessible, intuitive, and energizing!
The results you’re trying to achieve aren't always easy to measure or observe with the naked eye. Measuring what’s meaningful will require you to step back and ask what is the most meaningful for you and what story you want to tell.
Understand your own value and attract the right partners. Take your power back. Don’t let yourself be pulled into different directions. Figure out what’s truly meaningful, make it measurable, pursue that and pitch that to your funder.
People don’t really want to know what you do, but why you are important. What’s the outcome or impact that your organization is able to create?
See if your intentions align with your impact. You might have activities that aren't connected to the outcomes or outcomes that aren't supported by any of your current activities.
“If nonprofits could suspend reality, step back, set aside all of their funder promises and ask themselves, what they get out of bed to do in the morning, why they do this work, what would be most meaningful, and if they can craft a meaningful and measurable system around that to measure and improve their performance, then go sell that to your funder. ’”
“A Theory of Change is a tool that helps you articulate the pathways that you believe lead to your ultimate result. And there might be lots of other things that have to happen in that pathway. But it articulates - our piece of the puzzle. ”
“List all intended outcomes. List all current activities, and then we see how well they line up. Double check and make sure that the program is in fact aligned with their intentions. ”
Reach out to Sarah Buek at:
Website: https://www.insightsintoimpact.com
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