Through needs assessment, you become more involved as you provide information about the concerns that impact the program, clients, and outcomes. Needs assessments also form the basis for outcome and impact evaluations.

Strategic planning is the process by which a group defines its own "VMOSA." That is, its Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategies, and Action Plans. VMOSA is a practical planning process that can be used by any community organization or initiative. This comprehensive planning tool can help your organization by providing a blueprint for moving from dreams to actions to positive outcomes for your community. Our experienced staff will work directly with you and your identified stakeholders to analyze the information gathered from the needs assessment, and facilitate the process of developing your own VMOSA, including clear timelines, goals, objectives, and tasks to make your program and evaluation successful.

Development of the logic model helps to clarify the goals, objectives, and outcomes of your program. A logic model presents a picture of how your program or initiative is supposed to work. Effective logic models make an explicit, visual, statement of the activities that will bring about change and the results you expect to see. Program logic models can be used to communicate to funders, referral agencies, and employees your expectations about the clients, services, context, theories, and outcomes of individual projects or programs.

A survey is a way of collecting information that ideally represents the views of the whole community or group of interest. Surveys are usually written, and collect information in as uniform a manner as possible. The staff at Outcomes Inc. can assist you in identifying appropriate surveys that may already be in use in your organization, or have already been developed to measure the information in which you are interested. There are concerns in developing surveys “from scratch,” that include threats to the validity of the information as well as the consistency in which the survey measures. If a newly-created survey is what is needed, the expertise of our staff will assure that these concerns are addressed.

Evaluation is the systematic investigation of the significance of a program, project, or effort. The term program is used to describe an entire organization or comprehensive community initiative. A project evaluation is often a subset of a larger program and is a way to evaluate the specific projects and activities organizations may take part in. It may apply to any action with the goal of improving outcomes for whole communities, for more specific sectors, or for sub-groups.

Information on the process and outcomes of your program is best captured from multiple sources. Qualitative research paints the picture of the real-life impact of your work, and includes focus groups, observations, and interviews with staff, program participants, and other important stakeholders. The staff at Outcomes Inc. is experienced in working with diverse groups in a variety of programs and brings expertise, sensitivity, and persistence to the demands of qualitative inquiry.

Quantitative research often produces the results on which critical decisions by funders and leadership make decisions. Typically, such research involves data collection from existing sources such as records from schools, or rigorous testing that can be implemented by your staff or ours. Bridging the gap between research that is feasible in your setting and making it meaningful to the program is an area of expertise for our staff.

Database design, data entry, and database cleaning conducted regularly by experienced and trained staff ensures that information recorded on your program recipients is done in an efficient, confidential, and accurate manner. Statistical analysis and interpretation provided by our staff and associates are presented sensitively and professionally, with the interests and needs of your stakeholders, staff, and constituents in mind.

Our philosophy is one of “giving away” the knowledge and empowering our clients to be as successful as they can be. Training and ongoing technical assistance in basic data collection and evaluation is part of the services we offer, and special trainings at higher levels are available upon request.

Our professional staff is available to present interim findings and results to the audiences of your choice, including boards of directors, parents, youth, staff, and program planning staff. This can be facilitated directly on site, or through a variety of internet-based delivery systems.

Policy analysis can be defined as "determining which of various alternative policies will most achieve a given set of goals in light of the relations between the policies and the goals." The staff at Outcomes Inc is skilled and experienced in researching current social policies in education, health, and human services. Gathering the qualitative and quantitative information necessary to determine the costs, benefits, and impact of potential and existing policies can be informative to program design, evaluation needs, and strategic planning.

Like any other type of plan, a plan for financial sustainability includes objectives, strategies, and action steps to get and keep these resources. Outcomes can help to identify the components of your funding plan, as well as develop proposals and submit them to current funders. Proposals written for Federal, State and Local grant applications are systematically designed and delivered on time for each grant application based on your program, the outcomes you hope to achieve, and the level of rigor required by the funding entity.

Capacity building and support are critical issues for most non-profits, although most capacity is built by the organizations themselves. Capacity building often refers to assistance which is provided to entities which have a need to develop a certain skill or competence, or for general upgrading of performance ability. Through research, planning, and facilitation, we can help you to build the capacity you need in your organization to truly realize your goals.