Right or wrong, these words ring true for many aspects of daily life, including program evaluation within Cooperative Extension. As employees of a publicly-supported government entity, answerable to a variety of funders and stakeholders, Extension faculty must demonstrate program effectiveness through performance resulting in positive outcomes. If a dollar figure can be placed on these outcomes, all the better.
Numbers make the presentation of impact data simple.
When aggregated across a region or state, even small numbers can look impressive. When program impact greatly exceeds total dollar inputs, funders are often impressed. Instead, university administrators, taxpayers, and legislators at all levels of government are demanding recent evidence of the economic impact of Extension programs on the lives of constituents. The key to success in this era of increased accountability is incorporating the collection of economic impact data into the program development process. The potential exists to document billions of dollars of impact resulting from Extension personal finance programs nationwide.