Connecting the Dots, Creating Efficiency
New Moms takes a unique wrap-around approach to its work with young mothers, and has always been an organization that values performance management and makes data-driven decisions. New Moms leveraged the guidance and expertise of Exact Change Strategies (ECS) to upgrade and build a custom system that aligns with their performance indicators and goals. As a result, their client data is
integrated across programs, they have ready-made reports for funders at their fingertips, and overall staff efficiency has improved, allowing the team to focus on one of their community’s most vulnerable populations.
New Moms is based in Chicago, Illinois and serves young mothers ages 24 and under who live in extreme poverty. They are the leading
Chicagoland agency directly working to interrupt the cycle of poverty for two generations, transforming the story and trajectory so that those they serve have safe places to live, quality jobs, and brighter futures for their children.
Many of the women that New Moms serves are experiencing homelessness, 70% are victims of domestic or sexual abuse, and 80% have dropped out of high school. The New Moms model includes critical housing, job training, and family support services. As of January 2019, New Moms will be in 4 locations across the Chicago area.
They offer the following services to over 800 young mothers and children each year.
Housing: providing housing and supportive services for 73 homeless mothers and their 125 children at any given time
Job Training: a 16-week program that includes paid classroom based and on-the-job training at New Moms’ social enterprise
candle company, Bright Endeavors
Family Support: services to support young moms, including doulas, prenatal education, and the Parents As Teachers home visiting and parenting education model
A Deep Dive into Performance
New Moms has a longstanding history of valuing performance management and continuous quality improvement (CQI). They had been using a data-driven approach and an Efforts to Outcomes® (ETO) system for a number of years when they decided it was time for a system upgrade and overhaul. Specifically, they were looking for a way to become more efficient in data tracking, reporting, and use. Given their various government contracts and funding streams, they were accustomed to tracking and analyzing outcomes, but they needed a way to produce accurate reports more quickly and automate as much of the process as possible.
ECS offers a unique approach called the Performance Management Framework. This goes beyond a traditional logic model tool and takes a deep dive into how an organization defines success, progress, and stellar performance. The leadership at New Moms was intentionally thoughtful in choosing the right consultant to guide them through the process. From the outset, they saw the value in ECS’ Framework and were impressed by the expertise of the team, which includes consultants who formerly designed, built, and supported ETO and other
systems and have direct experience in a variety of nonprofit settings.
With the guidance of the ECS team, New Moms was able to analyze and identify how to align all of their goals, outcomes, and reporting requirements into one integrated system. The process included reflective conversations with key stakeholders on staff about how their programs operate on a daily basis as well as how the young mothers that they serve flow through services and experience touchpoints with staff. By building a Framework in collaboration with staff and, subsequently, a custom ETO implementation to match, ECS could be confident that New Moms had a system that supported and streamlined their work.
Making Connections, Overcoming Obstacles
From early on in the project, the New Moms team had planned to migrate their old data into the new system. Despite advocacy and support from ECS, they learned that this was not possible, and were faced with a decision: remain with their old system, or build an entirely new system from the ground up. Given their confidence in ECS’ Performance Management Framework approach and expertise to implement it, they decided on a new custom system.
The new ETO system that ECS and New Moms leaders designed has clear value added benefits over their old system. It removes silos and integrates all programs together to reflect how their clients actually access and use services. It also has custom reports for each funding source, data dashboards, and interacts with funders’ data systems directly. Beyond those practical gains, it also touts a more user-friendly experience for all staff users, one that supports and advances the organization’s CQI practices and focus on performance across the board.
As the New Moms team prepared to launch their new system, they again looked to ECS for support. ECS came in to offer training to ensure
that everyone on staff was clear on the operation and potential of their upgraded ETO system, as well as comfortable using it from the outset. This in-person training and guidance eased the transition between systems and minimized any disruption in services. ECS also provided practical tools, like a clickable system user manual based on typical workflows and strategic reporting dashboards.
Visible Impacts
After only a few months, New Moms has seen clear results from their new system.
These include:
– Efficiency across the board
– Access to real-time data
– Integrated data across programs
– Ease of reporting for various funders
New Moms has always had an eye on their performance and taken a data-driven approach; now they are even better equipped to be a learning organization and showcase their successes.
We really liked the ECS Performance Management Framework process.
We talked to at least 6 other possible consultants and this approach stood out. The tipping point for us is the diversity of experience on the ECS team. They have ETO experts who actually helped to build the software and team members who have experience as nonprofit leaders.