CASE STUDY
Consulting – Strategy & Measurement
The Institute for Humane education wanted to define performance measures for staff and board to use to track progress and maximize impact.
Institute for Humane Education (IHE)
Surry, Maine
IHE educates people to create a world in which all humans, animals and nature can thrive.
Visionary
Mary Pat Champeau, Director of Graduate Programs
Challenge
Businesses have metrics such as sales, profit and customer satisfaction. Nonprofits, however, often find it difficult to choose key measures. Many groups start by looking at outputs, such as program participation, social media interaction and donations.
This is a good start. But it doesn’t go far enough to show how well the organization is achieving its mission.
Approach and Results
I guided staff in online meetings to create success maps for their programs. Each map showed how IHE would translate resources and actions into positive impact for people, animals and the environment
This was a consulting project supported by graphic facilitation. The online meetings included training and discussion to help staff being their logic models. They continued the work between sessions. I then reviewed each draft and provided extensive feedback on how to strengthen the map.
IHE identified not only identified ways to measure progress but also discovered opportunities to strengthen programs.
“Success maps” is an appealing alternative to “logical models,” the more commonly used name.
“The excellent facilitation, graphics, activities and advice helped us organize and streamline our thinking. We got so much done!
Mary Pat Champeau, Director of Graduate Programs, Institute for Humane Education