Shared measurement systems for collective impact: best practices and lessons learned
Channel: The DRIVE/conference
Date: 19/03/2014

Shared measurements systems are one of the keys to a collective impact effort. This session offers insight into how technology solutions can support a collective impact effort and offers best practices for implementing shared measurement systems.

This talk focuses on an affordable housing collective impact initiative involving over 50 nonprofits and cities. The project includes a program management tool that allows affordable housing organizations to manage day-to-day work efficiently, while providing the centralized data for quantitative reports requested by funders and to use for peer group evaluation. The data provides an organization with program performance metrics relative to its peers across the country, allowing best practices to become part of the dialogue among organizations. This talk will discuss the best practices and lessons learned that are applicable to other collective impact efforts.

Brad Struss believes in empowering organizations to break down data silos and to help them take control of their data. He is the founder of Bigger Boat Consulting, a firm focused on building database solutions for nonprofit organizations. He has more than two decades of technology leadership experience with companies such as Microsoft, Judy's Book, and NPower Northwest. Brad is also a Partner with Social Venture Partners Seattle and was a founding board member of Summer Search Seattle. Brad has been a speaker on effective nonprofit data management at the Social Venture Partners International conference and at the UW Fundraising Management Program. He holds a MS in Computer Science from the University of Washington.