Performance metrics form the backbone for outcome-focused organizations. Well-developed metrics help drive organizational alignment around everything from a nonprofit’s performance review system, to financial and program reports, to evaluation programs. And strong leadership and cultures help ensure that performance metrics are used to drive impact and not impede it. This session will explore how nonprofits can put together the right sets of metrics, at the right level, in order to track their progress and improve their impact. Case examples will be shared.

Alexa Cortes Culwell is the founder and managing director of Philanthropy Futures, a strategic advisory firm that works alongside leaders to chart the course for creating positive social change. The firm develops vision, strategic direction, and business models, energized by effective meeting design and facilitation, as well as leadership coaching to support implementation. Cortes Culwell also serves as a visiting practitioner at Stanford University’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. For nearly two decades, Cortes Culwell served as a foundation chief executive officer guiding philanthropic investments focused on building capacity and scale, first at the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation and then at the Stupski Foundation. She holds a bachelor’s degree from University of California, Berkeley and a master’s degree in nonprofit management from the University of San Francisco.  

 

Tiffany Cooper Gueye is the chief executive officer of BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life), a national nonprofit organization, working to improve performance in high-poverty schools through the provision of rigorous summer and after school learning experiences to at-risk students. Cooper Gueye started her career at BELL in 1998 and has served in a variety of roles, including program manager, director of evaluation, and chief operating officer. Since Cooper Gueye became CEO in 2008, BELL has grown to serve over 15,000 students in 19 communities and its evidence base has informed local and federal policy efforts aimed at increasing the role of expanded learning programs for at-risk students. She holds a bachelor's degree in psychology and a doctorate in educational research, evaluation, and measurement, both from Boston College.  

 

Melanie Moore is the managing partner at Family Independence Initiative, which leverages the power of information to support economic and social mobility in America in low-income families and communities. Bringing more than twenty years of experience as a professional evaluator and social sector researcher, she has advised a range of nonprofits, foundations, and government agencies on strategies to maximize their impact, particularly within the areas of individual development and community change. Prior to joining FII, Moore spent eight years running See Change, an impact assessment firm she founded. Moore holds a doctorate in human development from Stanford University's School of Education, and a bachelor's degree in psychology from Yale University.