A connected future for the impact ecosystem.
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- Understand your data with flexible data import capabilities and custom dashboards in order to create strategies that drive impact
- Streamline data collection from grantees and partners through our survey tool
- Centralize quantitative and qualitative data from multiple sources in one place
- Track progress towards organization-wide goals with the ability to dynamically filter by specific portfolios and program strategies
- Turn impact reporting on its head in order to shift traditional funder-grantee power dynamics towards equity and learning
- Encourage collaboration and make data actionable for grantees by providing them with visualizations of the data they have shared
- Go beyond the annual report with insightful dashboards that update in real-time as you gather new data
How we partner with philanthropy:
Foundation team receives UpMetrics platform access, a dedicated project team, and tailored professional services for life of the partnership.
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Grantees receive UpMetrics platform access and participate in UpMetrics Academy cohort sessions.
Funder receives invitations to cohort sessions and biannual reports on cohort progress and learnings. Go to our Cohorts page to learn more. |
Check out our Direct Model solutions available to the foundation sector today:
Foundation Impact
Collect, manage, and visualize standardized portfolio metrics and unique metrics to track impact across program strategies and improve reporting.
- Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation: The Kauffman Foundation is partnering with UpMetrics to help make Kauffman’s overall outcomes and program KPIs data more actionable by visualizing and sharing impact data in the UpMetrics platform. This is helping the Kauffman Foundation explore the connections between their programs’ outcomes and the community-level impact that is their ultimate goal. The UpMetrics team is also onboarding Kauffman program teams onto the UpMetrics platform so they can access and customize their own dashboards to assist their work.
Grantmaking Analytics
Explore your grantmaking trends across themes, geographies, and grantee characteristics to align your grantmaking with your impact priorities.
- Pallottine Foundation of Huntington, WV: The Pallottine Foundation uses the UpMetrics platform to synthesize and analyze the impact of their grantmaking and report to its board. The foundation’s grantmaking data for its Healthy Communities Initiative and Core Grantees program can be viewed holistically and explored in detail separately. The data is exported from Foundation to the UpMetrics platform.
Special Initiative
Collect, analyze, and share quantitative and qualitative data on a special initiative such as DEI commitments or disaster response efforts.
- Schultz Family Foundation: In light of COVID-19, the Schultz Family Foundation decided to increase their responsive grantmaking in the area of food access and insecurity by launching the COVID Response Corps. SFF partnered with UpMetrics to help them collect and analyze data from grantee nonprofits who are hosting the AmericaCorps members of the COVID Response Corps. This data allowed the foundation to streamline reporting while gaining access to critical information to understand community needs and allocate resources most effectively. SFF also collected qualitative stories of success and challenges from the grantee nonprofits and directly from the Corps members.
Board Engagement
Build alignment and engage your board with qualitative and quantitative data to better communicate your impact.
- Walther Foundation: UpMetrics is partnering with the Walther Foundation to make their grantmaking data, community-level data, and qualitative data from conversations with their grant partners more actionable. The Walther team uses UpMetrics dashboard to report progress and spark conversation during their board meetings. The team has been able to explore their grantmaking shifts over time to increase their funding for wellness and mental health based on learning this is a priority for their grant partners and the young people they serve.
Stakeholder Feedback
Gather data from stakeholders to drive learnings and strengthen your impact. Provide deeper context via qualitative stories.
- Sierra Health Foundation: The Sierra Health Foundation has partnered with UpMetrics with a focus on its My Brother’s Keeper program. This has included building data infrastructure while the program is in launch mode and centering stakeholder feedback in the process by using the Data Collector for streamlined surveys.
Community Indexing
Leverage community-level education, economic, health, and demographic data for deeper insights into community assets and needs.
- Walton Family Foundation: UpMetrics is partnering with the Walton Family Foundation to help them track progress towards the nine program strategies in the foundation's Home Region portfolio focused on Northwest Arkansas. WFF envisions using each program strategy's dashboard as the "homepage" for that program strategy's team. Community-level data and qualitative research/trends are also important to the foundation. They are leveraging data provided by the UpMetrics Community Indexing dashboards and uploading CSV files of other community-level data they have researched.
Janell Elizabeth Ray
Chief Executive Officer, Pallottine Foundation of Huntington |
"We chose to partner with UpMetrics to take a data-driven approach to understand the collective community impact that is being accomplished by our grantees. When we described the approach, emphasizing that they would be part of the design of their own dashboards to tell stories, track progress towards goals, and design programs, our grantees were excited about the opportunity. We are glad to be collaborating with UpMetrics on this innovative approach towards capacity building and impact measurement. " |
What is Impact Measurement for Foundations?
Understanding organizational impact drives future projects. Which projects should be continued? Which projects are failing to meet their measurable outcomes?
Evaluating the results of your hard work ensures you can extract the maximum amount of value out of every dollar spent.
When determining grant outcomes, this process is critical for acquiring accurate, real-time information.
UpMetrics’ outcome software helps foundations analyze their outcomes and measure their overall impact on the communities and causes they champion.
What is an Outcome?
Outcomes are specific, measurable statements that enable stakeholders to know when they have achieved a specific goal.
Measuring outcomes and impact starts from the beginning before spending a single dollar.
Defined outcomes provide a clear red line between success and failure.
Outcomes differ depending on the organization and its mission statement. In all cases, though, outcomes are based entirely on measurable data, whether tangible or intangible.
Without defined outcomes, stakeholders have no way of understanding what constitutes a successful project.
Organizations that define their expected outcomes from the beginning enable stakeholders to answer critical questions, including:
Why Should I Measure Outcomes?
With an array of foundation management software, ETO software, and outcome software, it is easy for organizations to become overwhelmed with data from numerous, often times disparate sources.
The heart of any outcome measurement framework is outcomes. But why is measuring efforts to outcomes so important? By measuring outcomes, you can:
The challenge for foundations has always been measuring the intangible. Defined outcomes enable organizations to measure success and plan future projects based on the outcomes of previous campaigns.
Evaluating the results of your hard work ensures you can extract the maximum amount of value out of every dollar spent.
When determining grant outcomes, this process is critical for acquiring accurate, real-time information.
UpMetrics’ outcome software helps foundations analyze their outcomes and measure their overall impact on the communities and causes they champion.
What is an Outcome?
Outcomes are specific, measurable statements that enable stakeholders to know when they have achieved a specific goal.
Measuring outcomes and impact starts from the beginning before spending a single dollar.
Defined outcomes provide a clear red line between success and failure.
Outcomes differ depending on the organization and its mission statement. In all cases, though, outcomes are based entirely on measurable data, whether tangible or intangible.
Without defined outcomes, stakeholders have no way of understanding what constitutes a successful project.
Organizations that define their expected outcomes from the beginning enable stakeholders to answer critical questions, including:
- Has my investment made a significant impact?
- Was the project managed effectively?
- Were budgets allocated in an impactful yet cost-effective manner?
- Do we have sufficient scope to multiply our impact with future projects?
- Are our outcomes sufficiently aligned with our mission statement?
Why Should I Measure Outcomes?
With an array of foundation management software, ETO software, and outcome software, it is easy for organizations to become overwhelmed with data from numerous, often times disparate sources.
The heart of any outcome measurement framework is outcomes. But why is measuring efforts to outcomes so important? By measuring outcomes, you can:
- Improve project management.
- Enhance project effectiveness.
- Accurately define success.
- Execute projects with a greater likelihood of making a significant impact.
- Compare your success to that of your competitors.
The challenge for foundations has always been measuring the intangible. Defined outcomes enable organizations to measure success and plan future projects based on the outcomes of previous campaigns.
What Type of Data Should You Track?
Outcome software typically aggregates a vast range of data. The types of data an organization tracks depend on its industry, projects, and broader goals.
So, what type of data could an organization conceivably track?
Activities – Tracking the number of classes, the number of different programs available, and the number of marketing emails sent.
Participation – How many volunteers attend events? How many people sign up and attend scheduled programs? How many people interact with your marketing publications?
Satisfaction – How many responses are received from participants? How many individuals consistently interact and engage with available programs?
Impact – What are the visible, lasting benefits on the community served?
Certain types of data are easier to track than others. Impact, for example, is an intangible metric. Tracking impact requires more than mere numbers.
UpMetrics helps impact organizations to monitor and record the stories behind the numbers to measure overall impact accurately.
For organizations measuring outcomes for the first time, it’s best to start with easier measurable outcomes, such as numbers of participants, newsletter open rates, and publications bought.
Measuring high-level outcomes requires specialist software, such as a deep capacity grants management system.
So, what type of data could an organization conceivably track?
Activities – Tracking the number of classes, the number of different programs available, and the number of marketing emails sent.
Participation – How many volunteers attend events? How many people sign up and attend scheduled programs? How many people interact with your marketing publications?
Satisfaction – How many responses are received from participants? How many individuals consistently interact and engage with available programs?
Impact – What are the visible, lasting benefits on the community served?
Certain types of data are easier to track than others. Impact, for example, is an intangible metric. Tracking impact requires more than mere numbers.
UpMetrics helps impact organizations to monitor and record the stories behind the numbers to measure overall impact accurately.
For organizations measuring outcomes for the first time, it’s best to start with easier measurable outcomes, such as numbers of participants, newsletter open rates, and publications bought.
Measuring high-level outcomes requires specialist software, such as a deep capacity grants management system.
How Can Outcome and Impact Measurement Software Help Your Foundation and Grantees?
Investing in the UpMetrics impact analytics platform enhances your ability to use data from outcome and grant software. You can:
The key to the success of any impact organization is backing up words with actions.
Foundations can develop specific, defined outcomes to provide a launching point for stakeholders to understand whether the goals of the project were sufficiently met. They can go further by providing opportunity for their nonprofit partners to also enhance their data capacity and ability to develop impact frameworks.
UpMetrics’ impact analytics platform connects foundations to meaningful and measurable data that provides the clarity needed to understand progress toward desired outcomes.
- Collect essential data in real-time.
- Easily store core outcomes data.
- Identify critical trends.
- Analyze different data sets in seconds.
- Visually display important data for reporting back to stakeholders.
The key to the success of any impact organization is backing up words with actions.
Foundations can develop specific, defined outcomes to provide a launching point for stakeholders to understand whether the goals of the project were sufficiently met. They can go further by providing opportunity for their nonprofit partners to also enhance their data capacity and ability to develop impact frameworks.
UpMetrics’ impact analytics platform connects foundations to meaningful and measurable data that provides the clarity needed to understand progress toward desired outcomes.
Additional Resources
Learn more about how UpMetrics can help your foundation use data to drive impact.
7 Steps to Measure Collective Impact
Download our free guide, featuring a 7-step approach to create a data-driven cohort of grantees, with examples from Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, USA, Foglia Family Foundation, and Save The Music Foundation. |
4 Key Steps to Start Analyzing Your Foundation's Impact
What kinds of metrics can you track to ensure that you are helping foster the change you hope to see in the world? |
3 Steps Foundations Can Take to Build Capacity for Grantees
The key is to empower nonprofit leadership with tools that not only streamline data collection and analysis, but also build capacity in the long run by helping them to accomplish their own goals. |
