View Research by Author - Debra Natenshon

Publications

Funders and nonprofit leaders are increasingly looking for information that demonstrates the achievements of community-based programs. In this results-oriented environment, the Urban Institute, The Center for What Works, and the D.C. Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation worked together to create a pilot program that developed and tested a series of outcome measures for out-of-school time (OST) programs. This brief describes the process followed and the results achieved. The pilot demonstrated that OST providers are eager to learn how to better manage their programs, keep young people engaged, and demonstrate their accomplishments. The challenge is to expand this work to all OST programs in the District and beyond.

The work described in this report first provides suggested core indicators for 14 categories of nonprofit organizations and then expands the notion of common core indicators to a much wider variety of programs by suggesting a common framework of outcome indicators for all nonprofit programs. This can provide guidance to nonprofits as they figure out what to measure and how to do it and will work to ease the looming reporting nightmare that will occur unless a common framework for outcome measurement emerges.

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