A Toolkit on Performance Measurement

July 14, 2008  |  Toolkits and Training Materials

This guidebook is intended to help you think of performance measurement as a program management tool you can use to document and quantify how your work makes a difference. It also allows you to communicate your program’s effectiveness to others. Without measuring performance, you don’t know whether you should continue with the same program approach or try new ways of helping people who are homeless.

TOOLKIT:

Your program serves hundreds of homeless families each year, and you think you are making a difference in people’s lives. But how can you find out for sure? Performance measurement helps you better understand and improve your program. Fundamentally, it is a process that systematically evaluates whether your program is making an impact on the clients you serve and helps to guide efforts to improve results. Too often program managers view performance measurement only as a reporting requirement for funders or a tactic to gather data for research interests — both are important, but performance measurement can be used to accomplish so much more.

Your program serves hundreds of homeless families each year, and you think you are making a difference in people’s lives. But how can you find out for sure? Performance measurement helps you better understand and improve your program. Fundamentally, it is a process that systematically evaluates whether your program is making an impact on the clients you serve and helps to guide efforts to improve results. Too often program managers view performance measurement only as a reporting requirement for funders or a tactic to gather data for research interests — both are important, but performance measurement can be used to accomplish so much more.