What kinds of metrics can you track to ensure that you are helping foster the change you hope to see in the world?

Here's how foundations can help nonprofit leadership be even more effective.

While it’s clear that Special Olympics Northern California & Nevada (SONC) is having a positive impact on the athletes they serve, it’s also obvious that they’re not interested in resting on their laurels. Already, they’re using data in order to better inform their decision making and more effectively tell their story of impact. But, as is the case for many nonprofit organizations, those steps involve navigating multiple systems and adding to workloads across the chapter.

Having data isn’t an end in itself—numbers don’t do anything for you unless you know how to use them to your advantage.

In our increasingly data-driven world, access to data is no longer a “nice to have.” It is essential for any organization across every sector. As such, data is transforming how the philanthropic sector understands and drives impact. But analyzing impact doesn’t have to be complex. Here are four steps to take to leverage data to start analyzing impact. 

Hint: Numbers matter.

“The MVP organization was started by Jay Glazer and Nate Boyer back in 2015,” explains Executive Director, Jacob Toups. “Jay Glazer has been in the sports industry for 25-plus years, so he’s been interviewing and tracking athletes for most of his career. Nate Boyer was a Green Beret, and was on the Seattle Seahawks—he landed in Los Angeles after his time in the NFL.

Soccer Without Borders, a youth soccer program built to serve refugee children in the United States and disadvantaged youth abroad, has long been a leader on the field. But their approach to data collection is putting them leaps and bounds ahead off the field as well.

UpMetrics and the GRAMMY Music Education Coalition have been working together since the Spring of 2018 to build a data-driven approach to music access and curriculum across multiple program sites. We recently connected with Strategic Programs Director, Ryan Zellner, from GMEC on why the coalition is committed to collecting and learning from program data.

As CEO of UpMetrics, I have the pleasure of working closely with a variety of social impact organizations and funding sources. There are millions of mission-driven organizations all over the world improving the lives of those they serve, whether it be in affordable housing, health and education, or women’s empowerment, to name a few. Here’s the problem: while nonprofits are working to solve new challenges every day, the sector lacks a sustainable model that will help them scale their impact.