Outcome Measurement Resource Network Who is Involved in Outcome Measurement? The United Way System
Several significant trends have altered the human services landscape over the past decade and prompted United Ways and other funders to focus intently on program effectiveness. Among these trends, budget cuts at all levels of government and a growing array of social problems pose immense challenges to service providers and funders alike.
In response to these trends, a vast number of fund-raising organizations, charities, and causes have emerged, offering United Way donors a broad menu of choices for their charitable contributions. Faced with these complex decisions, donors have begun to demand information about the effectiveness of programs they support. They want assurance that United Way-funded programs make a difference in their communities. Responding to this call, United Way of America has affirmed its commitment to demonstrating the value that United Ways add to donor funds by channeling them to areas of greatest community need and ensuring that funded programs are effective.
Stages of Implementation . . .
A study of United Ways that had already implemented an outcome measurement system identified six major challenges in implementing a focus on program outcomes:
Learn more aboutuses of program outcome findings by United Ways.
Current progress . . .
Nearly 450 local United Ways are asking programs they fund to report on their outcomes -- the extent to which clients benefit from the program. Over 520 staff and volunteers from 247 local United Ways in 45 states and Canada have attended United Way of America's 4.5-day training program, "Implementing a Focus on Program Outcomes." The program helps United Ways think through outcome measurement implementation issues and develop an implementation plan for their organizations. The program includes a 2-day training segment that prepares participants to organize hands-on training for local agencies.
National Learning Project on Using Program Outcome Data to Create Measurable Change
During its first meeting in July of 1995, the United Way of America Task Force on Impact requested that, simultaneous to developing products to support agency and United Way capacity to measure program outcomes, United Way of America (UWA) study those United Ways that were trailblazers in this area - those that already were collecting program outcome data from funded agencies - to determine how they were using it to create measurable change. This was in response to the concern that if UWA were developing tools to support outcome measurement, it needed to be certain outcome measurement had positive, tangible results.
In June of 1996, seven United Ways were selected to participate in a national learning project on using outcome data. These United Ways are considered trailblazers in the area of focusing on program outcomes and were selected to be part of the National Learning Project because they:
- already had a substantial amount of outcome data from funded agencies;
- presented sound and realistic objectives for using such data to create measurable change in programs, their own United Way and/or communities; and
- had workplans and resources for achieving those objectives.
The United Ways selected for participation were:
United Way of Asheville & Buncombe County
Asheville, North Carolina
http://www.unitedwayabc.org
The United Way of the Greater Dayton Area
Dayton, Ohio
http://www.uwgda.org
United Way of Central Indiana
Indianapolis, Indiana
http://www.uwci.org
United Way of Greater Milwaukee
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
http://www.unitedwaymilwaukee.org
United Way of Minneapolis Area
Minneapolis, Minnesota
http://www.unitedwaytwincities.org
United Way for the Greater New Orleans Area
New Orleans, Louisiana
http://www.unitedwaynola.org
United Way of Greater Rochester, Inc.
Rochester, New York
http://www.uwrochester.org
A nationally managed objective evaluation provided ongoing documentation of the progress in each site and an opportunity to share learnings with other sites on a real-time basis. A final report on the project was issued early in 2001.
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