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May 16 2012
NPO no longer stands for “Not Pursuing Outcomes”
Data doesn’t care whether you’re for profit or not-for-profit.
A recent talk at Cleveland’s City Club by Mario Morino was a positive sign that NPOs are starting to understand the importance and value of tracking and analyzing data.
Morino, a Cleveland-born philanthropist whose paperback “Leap of Reason” garnered ample buzz last year, is frustrated at how so many nonprofits don’t strive to fully grasp all the meanings within their results. He challenges organizations to begin using data, even reinventing themselves if appropriate.
Mario Morino speaking at The City Club of Cleveland
Morino’s message is for the funders as much as it is for the NPOs. “At a minimum funders should be supporting efforts to help nonprofits: a) track the outcomes of those served; (b) undertake at least basic analysis of this information; and (c) identify how they can use the information to learn and improve their programs over time”, he says.
To name just one example, after reading Morino’s book the Saint Luke’s Foundation, in an unprecedented move, decided that non-board members with expertise in key areas will be appointed to committees, presumably offering their objective, real-world observations and input.
In the case of ColemanWick LLC, which already provides a suite of services around these ideas, Morino is preaching to the choir. But overall, the size of the choir seems to be growing—good news for us, even better news for Cleveland organizations that are open to his message…they can establish best practices for attracting funding for, and implementing, market research for NPOs.
May 01 2012
Cleveland isn’t booming, but it’s a start
The Numbers Are In–And They’re Good
Ohio City’s The West Side Market
You’ve heard about brain drain – how for years graduates have been leaving NE Ohio in droves. Well, we need a new mantra, like The learned have returned. (Well, catchier than that.)
Businesses should be up on this trend, and others like it down the road, continually tracking changes in the demographics and tastes of their consumers.
In this way they can avoid joining the long list of companies who each year waste untold amounts of money, or even go belly up, from Out-of-the-loop-itis.