Ignorance of Outcomes Leads to Missed Opportunities

In a New York Times Sunday Magazine feature story, five experts on educational philanthropy were brought together to discuss the way education is funded in America today. At one point the dialog between a head of philanthropy and the administrator of charter schools addressed the subject of measuring outcomes.

“Historically, when philanthropists would give money to a nonprofit or a school system, they would say, ‘I want to fund this many kids.’ And the next year they could ask the organization they had funded, ‘Well, did you reach that number?’ And if you funded that many kids, the grant was considered a success.”

The charter school administrator said that “in fact, a lot of the money that goes into education still goes into inputs. I recently had a discussion with a major philanthropy that wanted to invest in some programs in the city, and I asked them, ‘What are the results you expect this to produce for your investment?’ And they had no clue. But increasingly, that’s a rarity. There’s been a shift. If you don't produce results, even though everybody loves you, your funders are not going to continue to fund you.”

I find that most non-profits don’t know how to measure outcomes. There is ignorance about evaluation tools, almost a fear of the challenge to collect and analyze data, and as a result, there are many funding opportunities that are lost.