The Big “So What”
July 19, 2010
Yesterday the Times published an article on the lack of jobs for graduates of training programs for the recently unemployed. What jumped out at me from this story was the gap between the program’s demonstrated success in training tens of thousands of people and the subsequent failure of these people to find jobs afterwards. It feels wrong and unfair.
Why did it jump out at me? Because it is exactly the same thing that happens when a nonprofit program is designed around outcomes that ignore the big “so what”.
Consider the situation: a grant opportunity comes along for exactly the type of program your organization is best at. Great! You tackle the writing process focusing on what you know– program activities and how you perform them. The application asks for outcomes and after scratching your head for a while you come up with some reasonable numbers: 500 clients served, or 2 new daycare centers, or 1500 hours of youth volunteer work. Measurable outcomes, no?
No.
When you plan outcomes for a program, it is very tempting to think about the success of the process. After all, as a staff member the first questions that come to your head are about logistics and how things will be accomplished. Therefore, when you are structuring outcomes, the outcomes mistakenly become about the process– about YOU.
Instead, to be truly outcome-based, a program needs to keep its eye on the client. What is the change you wish to make in their lives? The question you should be asking yourself is not “how many”. The question is… well, look at the title of this entry.
For employment training programs, the outcome is instinctive– people should be better able to get jobs after they are done. That is the whole point. Of course, in the case of the struggling national economy there are plenty of complexities contributing to job loss and lack of job creation which the article does a nice job of outlining. No program, however fantastic, is going to suddenly create jobs for successful participants.
Nonetheless, as your nonprofit designs new programs you should keep this in mind as a cautionary tale. Why does it feel so unfair for the program to claim success for simply delivering job trainings to a certain number of people? Why does it seem like an empty success? What’s the one question that keeps coming to the surface?
“So what?”
Don’t let it happen to you!
Online Resources on Outcome-based Planning The Innovation Network Logic Model Workbook: A very practical and thorough way of thinking about outcomes as you begin program design and grantwriting. Also, helpful worksheets at the back of the workbook! Shaping Outcomes: This is a full online course, it seems, to introduce outcome-based planning and evaluation to novices. It is targeted at libraries and museums, but the pieces I looked through were fairly applicable to any program planning. Excerpt from Complete Idiot’s Guide to Grantwriting: A nice summary of process versus outcomes, with a sample grant piece written from both perspectives. It is very clear which one is more compelling!
