One of the greatest advantages of Salesforce’s Nonprofit Cloud compared to Nonprofit Success Pack is outcome management.
Like any organization, outcomes are essential for nonprofits. Your mission is to facilitate change, whether on your street, in your state, or globally. Measuring outcomes helps quantify that change, identify how effective you are at inducing change, and highlight areas that can be improved upon.
If you’re new to outcome management and tracking or to Nonprofit Cloud, this review will be helpful as you consider implementing it in your organization.
What is Outcome Management?
Outcome management for nonprofits focuses on measuring the effect of what they do with the goal of improving their services. This encompasses far more than just tracking inputs and outputs.
Outcome management requires:
- Clear, measurable definitions of changes the nonprofit wants to make with defined milestones.
- Defining what progress looks like.
- Collecting data that evaluates performance and impact.
- Analyzing data to understand what is working, what isn’t working, and the areas that need improvement.
- Using those insights in strategic decisions, budgets, and improvements.
Nonprofit Cloud Outcome Management Objects
Outcome Management in Nonprofit Cloud is the collection of objects and features that Salesforce offers to streamline reporting and recording outcomes for nonprofits.
Before Nonprofit Cloud, orgs that used NPSP and wanted to track outcomes generally needed custom configuration.
Depending on the measured outcomes and strategy, you could leverage aspects of NPSP’s case and program management to surface some metrics, but you would still need to define and measure outcomes. For example, Terry Cole with Street Youth Ministry reviews how he implemented outcome management in NPSP.
NPC's Outcome Management Data Model
Programs and Benefits
These are the same programs and benefits used in Nonprofit Cloud’s Program Management.
A program is a group of benefits, and benefits are the specific activities in a program that your organization does or offers.
Care Plans and Goal Definitions
Care plans are a comprehensive set of goals over time for a specific individual. Goal Definitions quantify those goals that make up the care plans.
A nonprofit that serves unhoused populations might have various care plans for people who want to find stable housing. A plan could involve goals like applying for short-term housing or identifying community resources.
Outcomes
Outcomes are the changes that your programs and benefits cause. For example, increasing knowledge in a specific area or decreasing the number of children who miss more than two meals per day.
Goals are slightly different than outcomes. Goals relate to achievements, and outcomes are the changes that those achievements create. If a goal for a care plan is to identify community resources, an outcome could be increased knowledge of those resources.
Outcome Activities
This object relates a specific outcome to a specific program, benefit, or goal definition.
Both child and adult wellness programs may have nutrition counseling as a benefit. One outcome of that benefit is increasing knowledge about healthy food.
Two outcome activities would be required, one for the child program (eg, increasing knowledge about healthy food in children) and the other for the adult (increasing knowledge about healthy food in adults).
Defining an outcome activity for nutrition counseling for each program is important to accurately represent all outcomes as they relate to each program or benefit.
Indicator Definitions
Indicator definitions are how you measure whether an outcome has been achieved, such as surveys, assessments, how many donations have been given, or other metrics.
You may have program participants attend a certain number of sessions.
Indicator Assignments
Indicator assignments allow the same definition to be used across outcomes and programs.
A housing-related nonprofit could have a job program and a housing program. Each program has a class, but all classes involve a pre-test and post-test to measure participants’ knowledge and the effect of the class. This indicator, the increase in knowledge, can be related to the respective outcomes for both the job and housing classes.
Indicator Performance Periods and Time Periods
This object defines the interval at which the indicator assignments (the specific measure for a specific outcome) are measured. Indicator performance periods are a specific measure of a specific outcome for a specific time.
You can also define a target and compare the target and result to a defined baseline for that time, like the values for the same month last year or a national or regional average.
If a class is part of a program, you could measure the average increase in scores for each month, quarter, or semester (or another interval that makes sense for the class structure).
Indicator performance periods can also be related to funding award requirements.
The same periods can be used across multiple indicator performance periods, so you get a comprehensive view of all the activities in that timeframe.
Indicator Results
Records either the interim or final results for an indicator performance period (a specific measure for a specific outcome for a specific time). If a flow automatically creates the record, it also records the flow and version that created it.
Benefits of Outcome Management
Tell the Story of Change
Outcome management tells the most important story of your organization: the change you want to make and why it matters. Quantifying and recording outcomes gives concrete evidence of the difference you’re making instead of what you’re offering.
This story is what you tell to other stakeholders, such as donors, granting organizations, and even staff.
Improve Programs
Change management focuses on the results of activities rather than on the activities alone. An effective outcome management strategy should show activities that are doing well and highlight those that need improvement. Data-driven decisions are an essential strategy of thoughtful leadership.
Secure Funding
Donors look for measurable results and organizations that want to improve and expand their services.
Outcome tracking makes it easier to quantify impact when applying for funding, and may even highlight areas that would make the organization eligible for future funding opportunities.
Planning and Accountability
Organizations should pursue accountability and transparency whenever possible, nonprofits included. We are stewards of what is given to us, and outcome tracking demonstrates how organizations steward the resources given to them and the resulting effectiveness.
Clarity and Effectiveness with Outcome Management
Outcome management in Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud represents a significant advancement for nonprofits seeking to measure and improve their impact.
By implementing a comprehensive outcome tracking system, organizations can tell compelling stories of change, make data-informed decisions, secure funding more effectively, and ultimately advance their missions with greater precision and purpose.
Whether you're new to outcome measurement or looking to leverage solutions that will grow with you, Nonprofit Cloud provides the tools needed to track, analyze, and leverage outcome data to grow your organization and drive towards what matters most–fulfilling your mission.
The clarity and effectiveness of outcome-focused management will benefit your organization and the communities you serve for years to come.