Want to Measure Impact? Center the People You Serve

This blog was originally written for and published by Constellation, which aims to uplift nonprofit consultants of color and make it easy for nonprofits and other hirers to find them.

As an independent consultant and fractional program manager for nonprofit organizations (creating my own job is SO cool), I’m often involved in the ideation, design, creation, and management of nonprofit programs that serve historically marginalized communities.

This means that my work involves community engagement and trust building, but it also largely entails being able to operationalize a service and deliver on promises. And, unlike for-profit businesses, the success of nonprofit programs is measured by impact, not dollars.

I’ve long believed that one of the most important measures of impact is whether the people being served feel as though they were helped sufficiently. It’s a pretty easy thing to measure - you just ask! However, this is a surprisingly easy task to overlook, especially when funders, organizational leaders, and other stakeholders (who mean well but often don’t have their boots on the ground) have their own priorities.

We should listen to the people closest to the work - the people on ground interacting with those we serve -because they listen to and best understand their needs. They are the people best positioned to be their champions and advocates. As someone fortunate enough to be one of those people for a number of years now, here are a few things I’ve learned that help to center the needs of those you serve:

Seek out and listen to feedback from the community

Regularly ask the people you serve how your program is helping them, and then adjust based on their input. In programs in which you spend face-to-face time with participants, this is easy—simply ask them in conversation. In a program in which you’re a bit more removed or rely on data to do your reporting, you can create a simple survey to measure quantitative and qualitative impact. Just make sure the questions are simple and straightforward and there aren’t too many - a survey that can be completed in one 5-10 minute sitting is ideal.

Prioritize accessibility

 Remove barriers like travel or costs that don’t add value to participants, especially when working with historically marginalized groups. For example, when creating a program to impact disabled folks, my client and I made the program 100% virtual and removed even the implied expectation to travel to an event that wouldn’t provide value to the participants directly.

Focus on tangible benefits

Avoid offering opportunities that don’t directly benefit participants, like unpaid “exposure” at events. Ensure you, and they, clearly understand the value proposition of every activity. For example, when I managed a program to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses sustainably, we decided against offering a display opportunity at an event where business owners could only gain "exposure" without being allowed to make sales—since exposure alone doesn’t pay the bills, but sales do.

Offer flexible engagement options 

Provide different ways for people to participate, and allow them to choose based on their own needs and preferences. For example, when designing a program with rich educational and networking opportunities for a community that values in-person interaction to build trust, my client and I designed a mix of in-person and virtual options. Some options were highly structured, while others left room for more organic relationship-building. Each activity was optional, with clear explanations of the unique value each would bring, allowing participants to choose their own level of engagement within their already packed schedules. 

Advocate for participant-centered decisions

Push back when stakeholders suggest activities that may not align with the actual needs of the community being served. This may be the most challenging recommendation to implement, but I think it can have the biggest impact if done well because of its ability to reverberate, spreading throughout an organization and its community. To do this, you need to have influence, which I realize isn’t a privilege to everyone serving in a programmatic role. When you identify an idea that isn't participant-centered, use your voice to advocate for the community you serve and educate stakeholders about their needs, priorities, and preferences, as well as the reasons why it’s important to center them in your work.

At the heart of my work is the belief that people – those whom we serve and those doing the work – know what they need and deserve to have their needs centered. My goal is always to listen deeply, act thoughtfully, and prioritize the real, tangible outcomes that matter to the communities I serve—and to help my clients do the same. When we design programs that put people first, we create opportunities for lasting, meaningful impact. And that impact becomes the engine that drives our work forward and allows us to grow.

If you have an idea for a program you’d like to pilot, let’s chat.