In one of my earlier evaluation projects, I spoke with a program participant, who received a grant from my client organization to use towards a community-based event focused on community-level breastfeeding education.

She felt that their event had not been successful because, in her eyes, the event wasn’t well attended. I believe the attendee goal was around 75-100 attendees, but maybe less than half of that number showed up.

Putting on my social worker hat, we talked through their feelings on why a large turnout mattered.

“The more people that show up, the greater my impact is”, she said. “More people will know about breastfeeding, how to get support, and also where to go for formula in case breastfeeding isn’t working out.”

While she was frustrated that the intended number of attendees didn’t show, she also highlighted an unintended outcome: The attendees that did show actively participated and stayed the entire day. They filled out the post-event evaluation survey (which can often be a struggle to do after an event), and they’ve stayed in contact to learn more about how they can advocate for positive breast and chest feeding experiences in their community, and advocate for formula support.

A bonus: Her supervisor promoted her. Years later, she now runs her own nonprofit, focusing on breastfeeding and chest feeding awareness.

It may be tempting to think higher numbers mean more impact. This is likely due to organizations being motivated to be data driven as someone is requesting this. Most likely, a funder.

When we think about the people behind the numbers, it’s important to consider the WHY behind the numbers we’re focusing on.

From the number of social media followers you have, to the number of people that show up to your event, it’s easy to pay attention to the optics.

But sometimes what we’re measuring doesn’t always matter.

On the road to becoming more data driven, it’s tempting to highlight all these numbers to see which ones looks most impactful.

But not everything that truly matters can easily be measured, and what’s easily measured may not always matter.

It’s easy to highlight the number of social media followers, or the number of people that complete a survey, but to get truly meaningful data, you have to investigate the WHY.

If 80% of people feel strongly about something, all you have is a high number that shows that people strongly feel a way about something. An 80% strongly agree, optically, looks better, but that 80% could be 8000 people or it could be 80 people. That matters.

The next time you create a survey question, or develop questions for a focus group or interview, investigate WHY you’re asking this question. Why does it matter, and to whom?

The next time a funder requests that you measure something, investigate the WHY. (I totally understand how this can be intimidating, however.)

The more you investigate the WHY, the clearer the WHY becomes.

And the clearer the WHY becomes, the greater your chances to truly measure what matters.

Raise Your Voice: What strategies do you have for measuring what matters? Share below in the comments section.

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