Two Sides of the Same Coin: Outcomes and Collaboration
Part 1: Outcomes Management
At Venture Philanthropy Partners (VPP), we talk a lot about one number: $31 million. Well, $31.4 million to be exact, the amount of money we raised for our first fund of nonprofits in the National Capital Region. We are proud of this number, but there is another number we do not talk about as much: $3 million, the total number of dollars invested from the first fund in outcomes and performance management systems. These investments included staff, consultant resources, and technology tools. Looking back, we can see that this number made a big difference in the success of our first investments.
“Outcomes” and “performance management” do not exactly jump out as the most important investment strategies for funders supporting nonprofits during these tough times when organizations are stressed by increased demand for services while also experiencing budget cuts across the board. But the popularity and response to Leap of Reason, our recent publication on the issue, shows that outcomes management is a hot topic despite cutbacks.
I can see the difference investments in performance management infrastructure have made for our investment partners, past and present. Each organization we support is high-performing but when we began our relationship, some lacked robust infrastructure for outcomes management. VPP understands that the absence of data does not equal an absence of results, but integrating data management into a nonprofit’s core operations can have significant positive influence on the lives of its clients. Our partners now have data that proves they not only can deliver for those individuals with inspiring stories, but deliver impressive results for all participants. Equally as important, with data in hand, our investment partners can make necessary programmatic changes that compelling information supports.
Leap of Reason, anchored by a monograph from VPP’s chairman and co-founder, Mario Morino, makes the point that without data to illustrate how your programs are working, you cannot make informed decisions about your work. Our investment partner, the Latin American Youth Center, consolidated some of its programs as it expanded into the D.C. suburbs (as chronicled in our case study on the investment), and those decisions were informed by the data management systems it had in place. Without these systems and the talent to support them, both of which were funded through the VPP investment, the organization could have taken some wrong turns during the expansion, ultimately doing a disservice to its clients.
After more than a decade of learning from our own results, VPP has decided to work more collaboratively to improve outcomes for children and youth of this region as we advance our work. This is the second side of what I call the “working smarter” coin, which I will elaborate on in my next post.
Carol Thompson Cole is president and CEO of Venture Philanthropy Partners. This post has been edited from her recent VPPNews column.
