Funders want to support organisations that:

• Have sustainable programs and resources
• Provide quality services and measurable outcomes
• Have appropriate and transparent financial arrangements.

They want to know:

• What existing or previous programs and services you have provided
• The need/s that they addressed
• Whether the programs and services were successful and made a difference.

Map Your Programs and Services

Funding bodies need to be told about the services and programs provided by your organisation so they may:

1. Ascertain whether such programs and services are driven by community need and demand
2. Determine how much experience you have in delivering programs and services of the type for which you are seeking funds.

The table below provides an overview of organisational and service features you may wish to record.

How Well Does Your Organisation Perform?

"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results". - Winston Churchill

When delivering programs or services, you should measure:

• What you are doing
• How well you are doing it
• The outcomes of your programs and services.

Implementing systems and processes to regularly collect and analyse this information is important to:

• Inform the design, delivery, and maintenance of quality services
• Provide information to consumers, the community, and funders about the benefits your organisation provides
• Increase transparency and accountability in your reporting requirements to funders.

Critical Success Factors (aka Key Result Areas)

Define your organisation's critical success factors before you measure what you do, how well you do it, and the outcomes of your services and programs. Your organisation's critical successes are the:

• "Aspects of organisational performance that determine ongoing health, vitality and well being" (Niedritis, A., Niedrite, L., & Kozmina, N., 2011)
• Essential areas of activity which must be performed well for your organsiation to achieve its mission, objectives and goals.

Your organisation's critical success factors should operate over the four domains contained in the table below.

Knowing your organisation's critical success factors will help you to identify:

• The performance measures needed to achieve your organisation's goals
• Which stakeholders should be approached for feedback on your organisation
• The tools and processes required to evaluate your organisation's activities, services, and programs.

To determine your critical success factors, consider your organisation's strategic goals (see Your Vision, Mission, and Strategy) and ask:

"What area of business or activity is essential to achieve this goal?"

Why is it important to identify your organisation's critical success factors?

Identifying your organisation's critical success factors is important to:

• Streamline your organisation's reporting requirements
• Help everyone involved in your organisation understand what is expected of them
• Link your daily activities to the organisation's strategy
• Highlight your organisation's unique abilities and distinctive qualities
• Conduct evaluations and identify areas of achievement and improvement.

Tell funders about your organisation's critical success factors and how you have achieved them. If you know what your goals are and have measured how well you have achieved them, then it should be easy to tell funders about the sustainable competitive advantage you offer compared to your competitors.

Measuring Your Critical Success Factors

To obtain funding, many funding bodies require organisations to:

• Undertake accreditation and continuous quality improvement processes (or be working towards these)
   
• Demonstrate their key results indicators (e.g., how many people use your service)
   
• Identify their key performance indicators.

Your approach and the way you document your key results will depend on the nature of the project and its objectives. Results can be recorded as either processes, outcomes or a combination of both.

Whichever way you record your results, you will need to describe how your evaluation information will be collected and how the data will be analysed.

Obtain information from a variety of sources when measuring your services and/or programs. Diverse information is required to inform different stakeholders. 

To inform the design and delivery of effective, appropriate, and efficient services, organisations need to measure:

• What they are delivering (process evaluation) and what they are achieving (outcome evaluation) to determine how they may improve 
• The views of consumers about the strengths and weaknesses of the services received to ensure they are delivering quality services.

The programs and services provided by your organisation should be routinely evaluated to record whether your organisation is achieving its objectives and how well it is achieving them.

Consumer Health Outcomes

Measuring consumer health outcomes in alcohol and other drug organisations is important to ensure the services and programs provided are relevant, accessible, effective and efficient. A consumer health outcome is:

• A change in a consumer's health status between two points in time
• Measured to assess change or improvement as a result of the services received. 

A range of relevant and reliable instruments are available. For further guidance, see:

• NSW Department of Families and Community Services. (2012). Measuring Outcomes in Community Care. Downloaded from http://www.adhc.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/file/0005/241664/51_Measuring_outcomes_in_community_care_report.pdf
• Teesson, M., Clement, N., Copeland, J., Conroy, A., & Reid, A. (2000). The measurement of outcome in alcohol and other drug treatment: A review of available instruments. National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC), University of New South Wales.

When completing your database of previous programs and services, record how the outcomes were measured. Consumer's health outcomes can inform which aspects of your programs or services are effective, efficient, or appropriate regardless of the episodic nature in which many people with alcohol and drug problems engage with services and/or the manner in which their wellbeing, functioning and quality of life may fluctuate over time.

Your Benefits and Impact

"It’s not what you’re selling that matters; it’s what I’m buying that counts." Simone P. Joyaux

Funding bodies need to be persuaded that your organisation should receive their money. They see their support as an investment and prefer to invest in organisations which can value-add to the funding they provide. Tell funders about the:

• Benefits of working with your organisation
• Long term impacts your organisation has had on the community.

The Benefits and Impact of Alcohol and Other Drug Non-Government Organisations

Alcohol and other drug agencies are human-change agents. They exist to either bring about some change in the way someone behaves or their circumstances, attitude, health, competence and capacity. Like all community organisations, alcohol and other drug agencies contribute to community wellbeing in four broad ways. Alcohol and other drug agencies:

1. Provide services to consumers
2. Influence and promote change on economic, social, cultural and environmental issues (e.g., providing education programs, contributing to research, and increasing understanding of effective approaches)
3. Connect individuals to community networks
4. Invest in skills, knowledge and physical, social, cultural and environmental assets for the benefit of future generations.

Benefits provided by non-profit organisations derive from the services and outcomes provided to:

1. Clients
2. Community
3. Staff
4. Funders and partners.

Explaining these benefits in a funding application requires:

• Knowledge about the field
• Insight into your identified consumer base
• Creativity and imagination
• Good writing skills.

Some may think that the benefits of their organisation are the same as the outcomes; however, there are distinct differences.

An outcome is a result which affects real world behaviour/circumstances and may lead to one or more benefits. Benefits are measurable improvements resulting from, and enabled by, the outcomes. An illustration of the difference between an outcome and benefit is shown below. For more information about how to promote the positive outcomes and benefits produced by your organisation, see the table below.

Explore Your Organisational Strengths

Organisations that strive to create an advantage continue to be competitive over time. The process of exploring the strengths within your organisation is similar to other organisational analyses. It requires working with internal and external stakeholders to identify what works well. By exploring what works well, the leadership and management teams can focus energy on catalysing those areas of success and applying “what works” to areas that need a boost.

• One-on-one interviews with members of the executive and management team
• Gathering feedback from individual employees through focus group discussions, interviews, and anonymous surveys
• Identifying employee talents
• Collecting information and feedback on organisational processes, communications, and collaborations
• Evaluating the organisation's website and promotional activities
• Obtaining feedback from consumers, the local community, funders, and other partners
• Measuring consumer engagement
• Analysing inputs and outputs.​

Promoting Your Organisational Benefits

Great ways to create and promote funding opportunities for your organisation include participating in community events, contacting local businesses and councils, and developing success stories for the local media as well as feature on your organisation's website, When promoting your organisation:

• Identify, profile and understand who will be receiving your message
• Practice your message and delivery and obtain feedback from someone representing the target audience before publicising.

Referees

A referee is someone who can vouch for your organisation and its capacity to successfully conduct the project. When choosing a referee, consider:

• Agencies your organisation regularly works or consults with
• The objectives of your proposal
• The target audience of your proposal.

TIPS: Your Organisation's Track Record

• Develop a list which highlights your organisation's critical success factors and ability to achieve them.
• Promote your organisation's success stories on your organisation's website, in the local media, in community presentations, and when networking with local businesses and/or other organisations.
• Keep it simple: Organisations should only have between 5 and 8 critical success factors. 

References & Resources

• Adaptive Path. (2013). Guide to Experience Mapping
• Australasian Evaluation Society Website
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2007).Impact and Value: Telling your Program’s Story. Atlanta, Georgia: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Oral Health
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2010). Community Health Assessment and Group Evaluation (CHANGE) Action Guide: Building a Foundation of Knowledge to Prioritize Community Needs. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. (2010).Guidelines for Managing Programmes.Understanding programmes and programme management. Downloaded from https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/31978/10-1256-guidelines-for-programme-management.pdf
• Department of Human Services, Victoria.Evaluation for community organisations web resource. Downloaded from http://www.dhs.vic.gov.au/for-business-and-community/not-for-profit-organisations/evaluation-for-community-organisations
• Drunker, P.F. (1990). From Managing the Nonprofit Organization: Principles and Practices. New York: HarperCollins
• Flinders University Planning and Evaluation Wizard (PEW) developed by the SA Community Health Research Unit (SACHRU) includes a number of evaluation tips and tools primarily for health promotion and primary health care activities
• Henderson, G. (2011). Developing a Quality Assurance Framework for Mental Health in Western Australia: Final Report. Downloaded from http://www.mentalhealth.wa.gov.au/Libraries/pdf_docs/WA_QA_Framework_Final_Report_11_October_2011_FINAL_2.sflb.ashx
• Kelly, J. Dwyer, J. Pekarsky, B., Mackean, T., Willis, E., Battersby, M., Glover, J. (2012).Managing Two Worlds Together: Stage 2 - Patient Journey Mapping Tools. The Lowitja Institute, Melbourne
• Newell, S., Graham, A. & Cashmore, J. (2008). Evaluating community-based programs: challenges and lessons from the front-line. Presentation at the AIFS Conference, Melbourne, July
• Niedritis, A., Niedrite, L., & Kozmina, N. (2011). Performance measurement framework with formal indicator definitions. In Perspectives in Business Informatics Research (pp. 44-58). Springer Berlin Heidelberg
• NSW Department of Families and Community Services. (2012). Measuring Outcomes in Community Care. Downloaded from http://www.adhc.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/file/0005/241664/51_Measuring_outcomes_in_community_care_report.pdf
• Our Community Website provides advice for non-government organisations to work with the media
• Parmenter, D. (2011). Finding Your Organization’s Critical Success Factors: The Missing Link in Performance Management outlines the 12 step process involved in finding your organisation's critical success factors
• Productivity Commission. (2010). Contribution of the Not-for-Profit Sector, Chapter 3.Australian Government Productivity Commission Website
• Simpson, M., Lawrinson, P., Copeland, J. & Gates, P. (2007). The Australian Alcohol Treatment Outcome Measure (AATOM-C): Psychometric properties. National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC), University of New South Wales
• Teesson, M., Clement, N., Copeland, J., Conroy, A., & Reid, A. (2000). The measurement of outcome in alcohol and other drug treatment: A review of available instruments. National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC), University of New South Wales
• The Culture of Accountability Website
• The MindTools Website
• The RapidBI Website
• The SANE Media Centre has developed a range of comprehensive factsheets which may assist your organisation when working with the media
• Victorian Government Health Information.Outcome Measurement in Mental Health. Downloaded from http://www.health.vic.gov.au/mentalhealth/outcomes/about.htm

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