Whole of organisation M&E systems – Mission Australia
Channel: Australian Evaluation Society
Date: 2022-09-30

Presenters: Cherie Pereth (Impact Measurement and Evaluation Manager), Rachel Christie (National Manager, MA Centre for Evidence and Insights), Mission Australia

A whole of organisation M&E system cannot be achieved by evaluators alone.

Establishing a whole of organisation system committed to data learning and reflection to inform service improvement requires years of work across different departments. Foundational work in strategy development, client relationship management system design, data literacy, technology automation, data storage/warehousing, process re-engineering, building reporting and visualisation capacity, and fundamentally one of maturing organisation culture.

In this seminar, we will outline MA’s journey over 5-years to establish an integrated approach to evidence, insights and learning across our national organisation operating 465 services that serves over 150,000 people a year. We will outline the challenges we have faced to operate at scale, the resources and operating models we have used, and some of the change journey for our staff and leaders. Additionally, we will include an example of our monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) approach for one of our Homelessness Services models operating in 55 services in NSW, Qld, WA and NT and how it sits inside our org-wide MEL framework.
This seminar will not paint MA to have all the answers. We will share informally what has worked for us, what we would have approached differently in hindsight and what we are still grappling with.

About the presenters
Cherie Pereth (Impact Measurement and Evaluation Manager) is responsible for embedding MEL across Mission Australia. She has a wide range of experience establishing organisational M&E systems and delivering evaluations in the not-for-profit and university sectors. She has tertiary qualifications in Environmental Science and Community Development and a Masters in Evaluation.

This event was organised & hosted by the Victorian Regional Network of the AES.