About Success Measures
Our Mission: Success Measures creates the opportunity for communities to define their vision of success. We support community-based and philanthropic organizations in building their capacity to use participatory evaluation and learning methods to understand change and tell their stories of impact.
About Us
Success Measures is a nonprofit evaluation and learning strategy consulting team. We operate as a social enterprise within NeighborWorks America, a national affordable housing and community development nonprofit intermediary that strives to make every community a place of opportunity.
For over twenty years, we’ve supported community-based organizations, funders, and national nonprofits in all fifty states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico to better understand their outcomes and impact. We’ve worked with over a thousand organizations focused on improving the places, systems and conditions needed to create healthier and more resilient communities.
We support improving lives and strengthening communities by enabling organizations to gain insight into their impact across a holistic community development focus that includes housing, neighborhood revitalization, community engagement, arts and culture, health outcomes, financial capability and resident leadership.
You can read more about Success Measures’ origins and evolution on our History page
How We Work: Our Core Values
Success Measures was founded on the principles of participatory evaluation. Our core values, initially shaped by those roots, continue to guide and be strengthened by our work with communities, organizations and each other.
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We believe in working with communities to identify measures that accurately reflect their experiences, enabling learning and action that improve their outcomes. Community and organizational transformation requires a deep understanding of – and ability to measure – change in complex environments. Every day we apply practices and tested tools for evaluation and learning for use in community development. |
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We believe in grounding our work in principles and practices that contribute to furthering community-level change. Every day we approach our work with a participant-first lens. We consider the full context for an evaluation, involve affected groups in all aspects of the work, and use data collection methodology that respects participants. Our process is driven by transparency, flexibility, and consideration of multiple perspectives. |
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We believe in using candid collaboration and listening to understand our partners’ unique goals and challenges. We bring our collective expertise, technical knowledge, and adaptive solutions to address the specific issues they identify. We establish trusting relationships as thought partners and advisors to support the evaluation, learning, and grantmaking strategies our clients need. |
What We Do: Evaluation and Learning Support
Success Measures helps the organizations we serve identify — at the outset — how they will use the evaluation and learning findings to address their goals and challenges. These organizations have used their findings to tell stories about impact, communicate learnings back to the community and inform high-level strategies. Our team of experienced staff and consultants brings professional evaluation and content expertise to every project. We listen and candidly collaborate to build trusting relationships as thought partners and advisors.
We help document results and strengthen internal evaluation and learning processes. We meet organizations where they are to address their evaluation and learning goals and the mission of the organization, supporting meaningful and enduring change.
We accomplish our work using a wide spectrum of expertise, technology and types of support:
- Full range of evaluation consulting and technical assistance services from planning through communicating findings and helping organizations use the results.
- Strategic learning processes that facilitate real-time reflection and application of learning to respond to and adapt strategies.
- Thought partnership and advisory services for evaluation, learning and grantmaking strategies.
- Tailored tool sets including surveys, observation checklists and interview guides.
- Technology support for community data collection through the Success Measures Data System.