Counting What Counts

Photo by Food Photographer David Fedulov on Unsplash

I'd like to get back to measures for a bit. 

If you remember, we have talked a little bit about the reason you are doing your work (your vision and impact) and how you'll know what you are doing is working (your outcomes). I mentioned that counting clients is not a meaningful outcome, but I also said it is important. Let's talk about that. 

In a recent training, I used the example of McDonalds' "1 billion served". This is a very good example of a meaningful output, but not a very meaningful outcome. Just because they served a billion burgers, it doesn't mean the burgers met their brand promise of their customers being able to say "I'm lovin' it." 

Which isn't to say it doesn't say something. The number of patties and nuggets they serve is related to how much impact they have with their restaurants, even if it isn't a measure of the quality of their impact. If they were a nonprofit seeking funding, being able to say they served a billion burgers would speak directly to their capacity and the scale of their program.

Outputs--or the the number of people you serve, programs you deliver, and things you do--are important and you absolutely should be reporting on it. If nothing else, it gives funders an idea of what you actually did with their investment. It also helps you justify your budget and future investments. 

When you are working on your measurement section, your outputs should follow from your outcomes. If we remember our example of school lunches and the outcome that each lunch would be nutritious, kids could access nutritious meals, and kids would eat nutritious meals, your outputs could look like this: 
- 300 children who do not go hungry at lunch
- 13,500 opportunities for nutrition education school year
- five tons of fresh produce distributed through meals 
- 40 meals planned by students every school year
- 25 children every school year engaged in nutrition planning
- 50 student-driven lessons on nutrition

Think of your outputs like your activities. Be sure to use them to describe your work. Notice we didn't just say how many served or lessons delivered, we still kept our outputs focused on our overall goal of nutritious school lunches and kids not going hungry. We are also not measuring change, but rather scale. This is also where you input client demographics, which can indicate how well you are reaching your target audience. 

Your outputs will be how you determine what you need to carry out your program, or your inputs. Your inputs are essentially your budget - the staff, resources, connections, knowledge, and other things you need to deliver your outputs, which is how you achieve your outcomes, which is how you will measure your impact, which is how you reach your ultimate goal or vision.  

When you are writing your outcomes, think of it like this: 
"Our ultimate goal is [your vision]. This means [impacts]. We will know we are successful when [outcomes]. To achieve these outcomes we will [outputs]. To do this, we need [inputs]. "

If this sounds simple and logical, it's because it is. If you haven't realized already, this is how you write a logic model. And that is why I almost always insist on creating a logic model with my clients. I get you thinking about your program's direction and drivers, and it gives your applications a framework around which you can build your case for support. 

So, take some time today and think about what you are counting and why. Your grant writer will thank you. 

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