Many foundations and nonprofits struggle to connect their learning with action. Metrics and data are often too many steps removed from people’s lived experiences. Some data is privileged as the ‘best’ and ‘right’, while other sources—such as lived experience and traditional knowledge sources—are too often dismissed for lacking ‘rigidity’ and ‘verifiability’.
The McKnight Foundation wanted to transform how they assess and understand the impact of their Midwest Climate & Energy (MC&E) Program. They were grappling with how to integrate climate, economy, and justice indicators to provide a clearer and more humane picture of progress without devoting a whole team’s energy to endless data capture, organization, analysis, and interpretation.
They came to Seiche with two big questions: What does success look like? And how will we know if we are making progress?
What We Did
Our team understands that data is only one lens through which we view and understand our world. We partnered with McKnight to build a new Climate & Energy Data Index that is grounded in the foundation’s commitments to equity and justice, informed by field leadership, and oriented toward adaptive action.
Translating theory of change to meaningful indicators
We began by working with the program team to update its theory of change and identify near-, mid-, and long-term outcomes. We then reviewed available data (quantitative and qualitative) aligned with those outcomes, identifying what was possible and reasonable to track over time in ways that aligned with the foundation’s values.
- Our team reviewed more than 50 national, state and local data sources to identify quantitative measures relevant to the MC&E program strategies.
- We talked with academics, philanthropies and private companies about how they approach and manage data-driven decision-making in the climate field.
We worked with the program team, using facilitated group discussions and 1:1 conversations to identify signals of progress aligned with their program goal and the foundation’s vision. Of nearly 1,000 distinct data points the MC&E program could monitor, we narrowed in on a subset of 22 indicators that met the following criteria:
- Directly relevant to a program strategy or a priority within it.
- Relate to challenges that are profound and affect a broader array of people.
- Reveal the racial and cultural inequities that McKnight is focused on.
- Represent population-level conditions in which we desire to see material shifts.
- Recognized by experts in the field (conventional & community).
- Measured, updated, and made accessible by another organization.
- Easy to understand and explain.
- Meet the needs of the Board and Climate team.
Moving beyond the dashboard
Conventional dashboards are often used as an accountability tool, but they fall short when it comes to measuring strategy and impact, and separating mid-term progress from long-term impact.
- We built the new Midwest Climate & Energy Accountability Framework as a living document to help the Climate program identify the most impactful areas for investment as they evaluate progress.
- The index distinguishes between what is in the team’s tier of impact (the north star, 10-year goals) and its tier of influence (3-5 years), helping the team make strategic decisions about where to focus its investments and activities in any given year (its tier of control).
We produced communications materials to help executive leadership and program staff use the shared signals of progress and outcomes to learn and adapt strategy together. We also worked with executive leadership to develop narrative and communications materials to use in conversations with the board of directors, field partners and other philanthropies.
Translating Insights to Action
- McKnight had recently revisited its mission, vision, values, program strategies and deepened commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion.
- Signals of progress and benchmarks needed to align with these shifts, and were an opportunity to put those commitments into practice. We prioritized co-development and relationships, which has ensured buy-in and usage of the KPIs and benchmarks in ongoing adaptation and learning.
Our goal wasn’t just to define new metrics for the Climate program – it was to help the Foundation as a whole expand the way they understand and conceptualize their impact.
Today, we’re working with the foundation to regularly communicate successes and challenges with various stakeholders, supporting ongoing adaptive action and learning.
