Report Cards: A Tool for Programs, Their Clients, and Evaluation by Leah Goldstein Moses

Recently, we worked with Nonprofits Assistance Fund to increase the value of their Financial Needs Assessment by presenting results in a report for nonprofits. Before developing the report, the practice of Nonprofits Assistance Fund was to review the results of each assessment individually and prepare reports, presentations or summaries when asked by client organizations. We intended the report to be a more consistent tool, and to:

Be easy and fast for staff to create
Deliver individualized information to each nonprofit
Support an existing collaborative relationship between Nonprofits Assistance Fund and the nonprofit
Promote positive change by giving usable, clear information

The report format can also be used in different ways by Nonprofits Assistance Fund. For example, they could aggregate assessment results from a group of organizations – such as charter schools – and see how they perform as a group. They could prepare very similar information about all assessments they conducted over a period of time or in a region, to review trends and information. Finally, the report can be used for evaluation purposes as well. In planning for the report, we had the opportunity to discuss benchmarks and criteria of success. In future years, Nonprofits Assistance Fund can determine what proportion of their client organizations are performing at different levels, and use the information to generate ideas about new education, outreach, or coaching efforts. Other organizations have implemented similar report cards as an accountability tool. For example, Minnesota’s Department of Human Services has a dashboard that shows measure and targets in a few key areas. Considering the vast amounts of data gathered and generated by the Department, the dashboard is a remarkably concise overview of the Department’s performance. If you think your organization could benefit from a similar tool, here are some things to take into consideration:

How will you, your clients, and the broader public use the information? What questions do you want to be able to answer?
How much explanation does your information need? Can you tell most of the story in a nice visualization or graphic? Our partner, Visual Voice, has some ideas for making great visualization.
How easy is it to take your data and condense it down to the key points you need? While Nonprofits Assistance Fund data was relatively straightforward, the Department of Human Services likely had several discussions to decide what items were most important and simple, to share.