How do you report your community outreach impact to funders?

Invite them to attend and visit a session. Let them "experience" the realities of delivering a community session. Stats, data, attendance figures are all important but in my experience a funder will learn more by visiting a session and interacting with participant. DON'T sugercoat it and stress about it being the perfect session...Keep it real and interactive!

Outline your future plans and how continued funding will help expand or enhance your outreach activities. Demonstrating a clear vision for the future reassures funders of your commitment and strategic planning. Regularly updating funders with interim reports and success stories can also help maintain their interest and support over the long term.

Additionally, you may also want to consider any new initiatives may be pursuing to determine if there is any alignment that can be captured in your report. If there are sample reports that have been shared by the group, it may make sense to review them and have them as your baseline. Moreover, the more that you understand your funder and their focus the greater likelihood that you report will resonate positively with the group.

It is crucial to provide a clear explanation for the reasons why specific key performance indicators (KPIs) have not been achieved. Identifying and communicating unexpected challenges that have hindered our progress in meeting these targets is essential. Funders, being human themselves, tend to empathize when we present our case with honesty and transparency.

I meet monthly with my partners. We discuss any changes that need to be made to programming, issues with funding, and/or concerns regarding practices and procedures. Then, we also have one on one conversations related to student and family services. Our clinicians join our partners so that the village is aware of student and family issues. Finally, at the end of each year, we recap the needs assessment, "glows and grows", and the projected upcoming budget. We also utilize that time to pre-plan the first 2-3 months of the new school year's programming.

It is important to remember that achieving generational or systemic change through philanthropic gifts may take time due to the gradual nature of system transformation, delayed ripple effects, the need for new metrics, cultural shifts, and the time it takes for policy changes to materialize. However, this delay in apparent impact should not diminish the significance of the contributions. Instead, it underscores the importance of long-term commitment, patience, and a broader perspective that recognizes the profound, lasting impact these efforts can have on society, even if it takes time for the outcomes to emerge and benefit future generations fully.

Successful outcomes start with having a shared vision about goals and intentions from the start, with regular feedback loops and adjustments to ensure that we're being realistic. Many nonprofits want to change the world, and we need to be honest with ourselves about what we have the power to do, and what resources we need to do it. If we start effectively, I hope the report about accomplishments is relatively easy.

In proving impact, go beyond numbers of people reached - have you joined any coalitions and what did the coalition achieve? has your community outreach received any recognitions? how did you get creative with strategies that resonated with those important to your mission? how did attendance at your events, online followers, requests for services, press mentions, new collaborations formed, new funding, policy changes, etc. result from your outreach?

Everything shared is spot on. I know numbers are important to report but it’s equally important to craft stories of how outreach impacted individuals, families and community. I would even take it a step further and showcase the allies and partnerships built as a result of collaboration as each offered their expertise in their respective areas of work benefitting mutual clients.

In my experience, pictures are worth a thousand words, as they tend to personalize the work and help to answer the question of why the initiative is important to support. Additionally, it is important to recap what you anticipated achieving along with what you actually achieved. If your performance did not meet the mark, then it will be important to communicate the challenges faced and how you overcame them.

I always choose a theme, such as "inspiration" and then continue that through the report. For example, inspiration through partnerships, inspiration from students, etc. Each of these has visuals and stories to accompany them.

Efforts that seemingly "failed" teach lessons for future efforts. Describe not only what you did that did not reach goals, but what you learned in the process - about yourself/your organization, and about the people you are trying to reach.

In my experience, honest is the best way. Note the funders understand that there will be challenges that may occur outside of your control; however, the important thing is how you were able to pivot and still make progress toward the overall goal(s).

I always like to go beyond what I proposed initially in the grant proposal. What strategies I applied to pivot after learning that the strategy proposed did not work and why. Thinking out of the box is crucial to grant implementation as well as commitment to address the goal of the program facing challenges and opportunities.

Outside of the obvious important task of doing the work that is being funded, it's also important to help the funder see the possibilities of what more could be achieved if additional funding was provided. In essence, one angle might be to highlight the current impact and then outline a plan of how the project could be scaled even more with additional support.

By collecting real life case studies. Often in stats and spreadsheets, some forget behind each number is a person. Case studies help to move away from the numbers game. Eg. Number of people attending an event, but what was put in place to ensure 'every contact counted'? It is important to see the social impact work being done. It is not right hearing talk on R.O.I, when you are humbled hearing some of the hidden barriers people face and over come each day.

One thing to consider is to remind funders of your organization’s commitment to the community that it serves. The funders may see your work as a temporary philanthropic opportunity, however your organization has a more long term vision of your community. It is critical to inform funders about how systemic change takes time and how your organization is looking for partners who have an extended view of contributing to your community work. There is a difference between community outreach and community engagement. Please articulate the difference to the funders, in order to have everyone on the same page.