b'Outcomes data allows all who are participating in the journey to measure the difference theyre making. You know when youre winning and when youre losing; who is contributing and who is not. This helps create a winning organizational culture.and similar ministries. Dana Miller, the trusts senior program director for grants, points out that compelling outcomes usually include bothSteer the Shipquantitative and qualitative aspects. When we are working with nonprofits, we do look for quantitative outcomes that can be benchmarked,3 ways to use databut we also want to engage organizations around qualitative or anecdotal outcomes as well, she explained. For example, a new community cen- Strategic planningData you trust paints a revealing ter may serve a measurable number of children,picture of how people behave. Studying these patterns but the increased bonds of the community dontgives critical insight when planning for the future. necessarily show up on a scale.Understand potential partnersKnowing who your current Organizations such as those in our networkdonors and potential donors are provides key information are working toward, in a sense, quantifying quali- for gaining and retaining donors tative results. Its critical to define the win forand ministry partners.people who are served, but missions are alsoTarget problem areaslearning to assign values to progress towardPaying attention to that win, not just the ultimate goal. We need adata outliers will subjective component to this valuation becausehelp you identify kingdom work isnt easily quantifiable, but if weareas that need can agree on some broad signs of that progress,work or areas we have a benchmark to use to improvethat have programs and raise more money for ministry.dramatically Dana described Murdock Trusts view thisdifferent results.way: Albert Einstein famously said, Not every- Source: www.billhighway.co thing that can be measured matters and not everything that matters can be measured. We believe this is true in the nonprofit sector, and we seek to strike a balance in how we evaluate the work of our grantees. Continued on page 14\x02SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 WWW.CITYGATENETWORK.ORG 11'