Planning / Measurement Tools

7. Choose Your Measurement Tools.

At this stage, you should think about how you are going to measure your project’s effectiveness. Measurement enables you to compare “before” and “after” scenarios and show how your project moved the needle.

For example, if your purpose is to increase awareness of child support enforcement services, you might conduct a survey before your project to see how many people have heard of your services—and another one after the project to see how many people learned of your agency during your campaign.

Measuring results can help you determine how well your project is achieving its goals and whether you should continue using the same approach or change it. Measurement will also help you demonstrate or justify to upper management the investment you made in the project. In addition, you can use the results in future grant applications.

Measurement tools may include the following:

• Reports: These are best for tracking bottom-line statistics:
  • Numbers of people who visit your agency.
  • Child support dollars collected.
  • Appointments made.
  • Hits to your Web site.
  • And so forth.
• Surveys: These can measure awareness (the number of people who now know of your agency, the number who believe your agency can help them, and so forth).
• Focus Groups and Interviews: These enable you to probe people’s perceptions (such as whether your ad makes your agency seem approachable, or if that brochure alleviates concerns about confidentiality).

Think of the measurements that match your purpose. Be creative. Then, get ready to carry out your plan.