“Give a man fish you feed him for the day.

Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

-Proverb

When one program does something well to make impact in the lives of their clients, the immediate reaction is to attempt to replicate what was done in other programs or other communities.  Looking for the magic silver bullet answer to solve problems plaquing children, families and communities is a natural reaction.  The challenge, however, is that public and non-profit sector programs are different in each community.  Just because a English As A Second Language program worked in Miami, that doesn’t mean it will work in yours.  You might need a completely different program like drug counseling or after school programs or something that hasn’t been thought of.

So instead of teaching community leaders how to replicate a program, they should be taught how to think.  The Results-Based Accountability™ (RBA), as defined by Mark Friedman in the book, Trying Hard is Not Good Enough, provides a simple but rigorous process that allows leaders to use their local population or program data to make better decisions.

Making RBA technical assistance scalable means increasing levels of coaching, consulting, training, facilitation with the expressed purpose of helping communities make measureable improvement available without significantly increasing the costs of on the ground facilitators and trainers.

However, if an organization is not prepared to handle the increased demand for expertise, knowledge and services the organization runs the risk of falling apart. Public sector and non-profit  agencies are especially vulnerable to this risk. Edna McConnell of the Clark Foundation and Bridgespan and contributor to Scaling What Works, Implications for Philanthropists, Policy Makers and Nonprofit Leaders makes a very poignant observation about taking programs to scale:

Scaling a nonprofit’s programs without investing in its capacity is a recipe for failure. Building organizational and human capacity –putting in place the strategy, systems and above all else, the right people in the right jobs to convert money into results –is as important a factor in bring a program successfully to scale as the money itself. Yet many funders view investments that would be virtually automatic for a growing for-profit company –such as hiring talented senior managers or acquiring an information system to capture performance data –as unnecessary overhead.

The same logic is applicable to programs within the public sector.  In the age of constant spending cuts, it becomes difficult to justify investing more and more money on capacity building, especially if the impression is that it takes away money for direct services.. This unique relationship coupled with the high demand for accountability found within the public sector creates a much higher stakes game. In other words, maintaining and replicating successful programs within the public sector is not small feat. McConnell goes on to say, “The effect of this bias is an organizational form of chronic fatigue syndrome that burns out nonprofit leaders and compromises their ability to address social problems. “ If the challenges highlighted are not addressed with scalable public sector technical assistance, multiple challenges will persist:

  • Mismanagement of finances
  • Poor allocation of resources
  • Inconsistent communication between various stake holders
  • Weak technical infrastructure to meet the large demand

By providing specialized, practical and accessible technical assistance, Clear Impact Scorecard 3.0 software can help organizations within the public sector turn the curve in ways that saves tax-payers millions of dollars, maintains sustainable growth, builds organizational capacity and encourages community involvement.

Understanding the need to scale technical assistance without breaking the bank, Clear Impact Scorecard 3.0 was developed to provide the training and  support needed for organizations and communities to use data to make decisions.

The virtual RBA facilitator, featuring a special Mark Friedman video series will guide new users through each step of the most important aspects of the RBA process, including:

  • Selecting Results & Indicators
  • Selecting program performance measures
  • Completing the ‘Turn the Curve’ exercise or template

Each of these three tutorials is intended to build capacity of users with minimal support from external consultants.  With a video clip of Mark Friedman giving advice, a text description of what to do, and a reference to the exact pages in the book, “Trying Hard is Not Good Enough,” any user with any level of RBA background can be guided to build their scorecards and get to the business of turning curves.

Clear Impact Scorecard 3.0 also has the 3 hour RBA DVD built into the system to allow leaders to watch it in its entirety or in pieces at their leisure.  The system also has links to www.raguide.org and www.resultsaccountability.com, both with information on how to implement various aspects of the RBA framework.

By placing the tools directly into the hands of all stakeholders making solutions scalable within communities across the globe, improving conditions of well-being for children and families no longer becomes a seemingly insurmountable task.  Clear Impact Scorecard 3.0 can provide the technical assistance needed to help your organization or community make measurable impact, one fish at a time.