The Short Answer 1. Look at what others have done. There are many websites with report cards and data sources that others have used. (See tools.) 2. Get your partners to help access what now is produced. Sometimes the best data on child and family well-being comes from the public … Read More
2.9 What do we do if we don’t have any good data at all?
The Short Answer 1. Use the results and the experiential version of results to drive the process. Instead of asking “How are we doing on the baseline?” we ask “How are we doing producing the result we want?” How prevalent are the experiences which tell us about this result?” “Are … Read More
2.10 How do we create a report card and what do we do with it?
The Short Answer 1. Gain organizational and political sponsorship, necessary to produce the document and give it standing in the decision making process. 2. Identify results and indicators, using a broad process to involve partners, and grounded in a conceptually clear framework. See 2.5 and 2.6, and 2.7. 3. Gather the data, starting with … Read More
2.11 How do we create a baseline (trend line) for an indicator?
Check out the new illustrated version of this page here! The Short Answer 1. Baselines have two parts: an historical part which shows where we’ve been, and a forecast part that shows where we are headed if we stay on our current course. 2. The historical part should have as … Read More
2.12 How do we identify what works to improve conditions of well-being?
The Short Answer 1. Look at the research, but don’t be limited by research. Find out what has worked in other places to turn the curves you are working on. But research will never give us all or even most of the answers. Use your common sense and knowledge of … Read More
2.13 How do we create an action plan and budget?
The Short Answer 1. An action plan describes who will do what when and how. Action plans are developed after your strategy is developed. For each element of the strategy, identify tasks down the left column and across the top: who is responsible (primary and secondary), begin and end dates, … Read More
2.14 How do I finance a results-based plan?
The Short Answer 1. Make sure the action agenda drives financing and not the other way around. 2. Consider financing as a matter of packaging together many different resources. No single financing source will do the job. 3. Stretch your resources by using them to leverage other resources. Seek funding … Read More
2.15 OK, so what’s the link to the budget?
The Short Answer 1. Budgets are about choices. And results based budgeting (ends to means thinking, talk to action thinking) means we will have better choices. It does not mean that we will make better choices, but we will have better choices. 2. Budgets are about allocating scarce resources. Results … Read More
2.16 How do we create a Family and Children’s Budget
The Short Answer 1. Study what others have done. Don’t reinvent the wheel. 2. You will need political and organizational sponsorship, access to data and paid or volunteer staff with good financial analytical skills. 3. Design what you want the budget document and analyses to look like at the beginning … Read More
2.17 How do we create a Cost of Bad Results report and what do we do with it?
The Short Answer 1. Base your analysis on the answers these two questions: Question 1: What are the expenditures we want to go down in the long run because we need less of it? Questions 2: What expenditures are embedded in these that are today devoted to reducing the cost … Read More