Benchmarking

Capture year end data on activities that are associated with membership or enrollment growth and financial stability. The report allows your organization to compare results to other similar organizations or longitudinally to yourself. Tool captures data on admissions, revenues, expenses and bottom line profitability. A ‘Dashboard’ helps organizations view their performance at a glance while detailed reports facilitate financial analysis. The report enables organizations to decide which development activities are directly related to revenues and helps develop ROI measurements to donors.

• Compare your school's performance over time and against other schools and a selected peer group.
• Track admission activity and attrition.
• Professionalize board meetings using objective Benchmark Report data and not anecdotal evidence to make strategic financial decisions.
• Find out which board and development activities (e.g., giving, soliciting, training and self-assessment), correlate with your school's financial health.
• Use the Benchmark Report to fundraise from donors who ask for a clear plan and measurable ROI.

Strategic Financial Modeling Tools

The Strategic Financial Modeling Tool enables schools to get into a “flight simulator” to test the financial consequences of various inputs, strategies, and financial decisions played out over 5 years. Since finance drive changes in strategy, this tool enables schools to dynamically generate various scenarios of their future finances under various strategies. In the simulator, schools can perform if-then planning in real-time by simultaneously “pulling” on various levers and “pushing” various buttons. The tool allows school leaders to address trade offs such as tuitions fees, enrollment, financial aid awards, expenditures and fundraising. School leaders can position their schools for stability and growth over multiple years by aligning their vision and mission with a plan for the resources the school can raise and spend.

• In the current economic crisis, schools face critical decisions about tuition, financial aid, enrollment projections, expenditures, development, and savings.
• How your board and management team handle these decisions is the difference between sustainability and deep crisis.
• The Strategic Financial Sustainability tool enables simultaneous scenario planning based on changing enrollment, tuition, and financial aid.
• Make board meetings more efficient by eliminating the guess work and professionalize them with easy to use charts and tables.

Stakeholder Surveys (parents, students, alumni, teachers)

Measuring Success uses data-driven tools like customer surveys and financial models to frame clients’ decisions and enable a shift to fact based decision making. Many non profits, unfortunately tend to make decisions with very little data, using anecdotal observation, emotion, and influencers. This often leads to inconsistent and poor results. We generate observations and recommendations by directly soliciting stakeholder feedback to the status quo, determining causations and correlations, and teaching leadership to absorb the data and its strategic implications. Clients receive a customized report that details our analysis and findings with detailed, actionable recommendations for change.

• Understand the perceived value of your institution from you most important stakeholders
• A data driven approach to identifying strengths and weaknesses, setting goals and generating improvements
• Understand the true value you provide relative to your peer group, local competition, among demographic segments and longitudinally.

Tracking tools (CRM, Information Systems)

The CRM system is an online tool that helps organizations manage the new membership or enrollment process using a simple web interface. The tool enables timely progression of prospects through the admission process and the ability to create custom reports and historical comparisons. You can view, sort, print or edit your prospect list at any time. Measuring Success’ CRM tool allows your organization to immediately come up to speed on best practices relating to membership.

• Information stored online and accessible to multiple users eliminates version control and ensures access to the most current information.
• Easily access standard reports, graphs, and charts that present the data in a simple and easy-to-understand format for your Head of School, administrative team, or board.
• Revisions and improvements in functionality based on your feedback are reflected immediately.
• Import/export data for integration into other Peer Yardstick tools as well as administrative systems.

Custom work

• Measuring Success specializes in working with large fundraising organizations to develop measurement systems that enable non-profit managers and boards to make decisions by using data instead of pure anecdote and emotion.
• We design our projects to utilize data to explore new economic models and work with your organization to understand your individual situations and needs. By understanding your unique circumstances and combining that knowledge with field benchmarks and independent data, we can tailor our reports and recommendations to your exact specifications.