How to Tell Your Story for More Funding

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How to Tell Your Story for More Funding

• Kate McCarthy
• Development Manager
• Harris County Community Economic Development
  Department

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Introduction

• HCCEDD
• About this presentation
• The cycle of funding
• The why of performance measurement
• Building a performance measurement system

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HCCEDD

• HUD Participating Jurisdiction
• Entitlement Grants
• principal cities of Metropolitan Statistical
  Areas (MSAs)
• other metropolitan cities with populations of at
  least 50,000 and
• qualified urban counties with populations of at
  least 200,000 (excluding the population of
  entitled cities).
• HUD determines the amount of each entitlement
  grant by a statutory dual formula which uses
  several objective measures of community needs,
  including the extent of poverty, population,
  housing overcrowding, age of housing and
  population growth lag in relationship to other
  metropolitan areas.

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About This Presentation

• Coalition / City of Houston / Harris County
  Collaborative
• The disconnect between local and national
  reporting
• HUDs New Performance Measurement System

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The Funding Cycle

• Where does it start?
• Who is a part?
• How are results reported?
• Why are Performance Measurements important?

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The Funding Cycle

• Congress allocates funding to HUD
• HUD allocates funding to PJs
• PJs allocate funding to subrecipients
• Subrecipients deliver services
• Subrecipients report results to PJs
• PJs report results to HUD
• HUD reports results to Congress
• . . . . . and the cycle repeats . . . . .

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Reporting Results

• Why are results important?
• In growing numbers, service providers,
  governments, other funders, and the public are
  calling for clearer evidence that the resources
  they expend actually produce benefits for
  people.
• Measuring Program Outcomes A Practical Approach
• United Way of America (1996)

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Reporting Results

• Performance Measurement is not a new concept,
  although it does have a relatively short history
• Budget Account Procedures Act of 1950
• Zero-based budgeting
• Management by objectives
• National Performance Review of 1993
• Program Assessment Rating Tool (2002)

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HUDs Recent Experience

• OMB Assessment using PART
• Effective 100 to 85 points
• Moderately Effective 84 to 70 points
• Adequate 69 to 50 points
• Ineffective 49 to 0 points
• The CDBG program received a 0.

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NAPA Report

• Although CPD gathers a lot of performance data
  from grantees, CDBG has not reported long-term
  outcome data nor adequate efficiency and
  productivity data.
• Developing Performance Measures for the Community
  Development Block Grant Program February 2005

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Reporting Results

• Homeownership 532 households
• Affordable housing units (single family) 12
• Home repair/rehabilitation 31
• Lead-based paint abatement 108 homes
• Affordable housing units (multi-family) 233
• Public facilities 9 / 14,038
• Street Improvements 6,500 feet / 4,000
• Water/Sewer Improvements 52,352 feet / 37,865

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Reporting Results

• Public facilities (improvements/ construction)
  20 / 15,254
• Parks 14 / 55,374
• Essential services to homeless persons 2,000
• Homeless prevention 132
• Shelter operations (emergency/transitional)
  5,605
• Public services 13,396

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Reporting Results

• Even in the least hospitable contexts highly
  concentrated neighborhood poverty, preexisting
  declines in home values, weak city job growth
  our estimates are consistent with the hypothesis
  that above-threshold CDBG spending produces
  significant neighborhood improvements.
• Urban Institute, Wayne State University

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Why?

• Confusion
• What is performance measurement?
• How should it be implemented?
• How are the results interpreted?

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What?

• Performance measurement is a system by which an
  agency determines the effectiveness of its
  programs.
• Goes beyond outputs to outcomes.
• Shows an impact on the community.
• Differs from agency to agency and community to
  community.

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Concepts

• Productivity Indicators
• Inputs
• Activities
• Outputs
• Effectiveness Indicators
• Outcomes
• Impacts

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Six steps

• Building Results III
• Know What Performance Measurement Is
• Useful, Feasible, Accurate and Respectful
• Begin with a Logic Model
• Know Your Capacity for Assessment
• Know Your Design
• Use What You Learn

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So that Chain

• Implementation of a conflict resolution program
  so that
• students and staff know all the steps in conflict
  resolution, so that
• they can demonstrate these steps in role-play
  situations, so that
• they can utilize these steps in conflicts that
  arise in school, so that

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So that Chain

• student conflicts that require teacher or other
  adult intervention decrease, so that
• referrals for student to student conflicts
  decrease, so that
• school becomes a more positive environment for
  all youth, so that
• educational success is enhanced.
• Building Results III

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More Logic Models

• United Way
• How was the issue discovered?
• What data or learning suggested there was a
  problem?
• What did agencies learn?
• What community resources were mobilized?
• What lasting changes in community conditions were
  created?
• How were lives improved?

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Turning Point

• Incorporate Stakeholder Input
• Promote Top Leadership Support
• Create a Mission, Long-Term Goals and Objectives
• Formulate Short-Term Goals
• Devise a Simple, Manageable Approach
• Provide Technical Assistance

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Basic Framework

• Step 1 Assess and Familiarize
• Step 2 Select Objectives
• Step 3 Create Programs
• Step 4 Formulate Goals and Establish Systems
• Step 5 Develop Outcome Statements
• Step 6 Assessment and Evaluation

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Step 1 Assess and Familiarize

• What are the needs of the agency?
• What is the agency trying to do?
• What resources are available?
• What training is needed?
• An agency cannot design a performance
  measurement system without having an accurate
  picture of what it wants to measure and the tools
  needed to make those measurements.

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Step 2 Select Objectives

• A good performance measurement system will be
• useful
• feasible
• accurate and
• respectful.
• A respectful measurement system is one that
  addresses worthwhile outcomes, and protects the
  rights and welfare of participants and involved
  staff, including respecting confidentiality,
  dignity, time, and other non-service needs.
  Building Results III

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Step 3 Creating Programs

• So that chain
• Logic models
• Research based

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Step 4 Formulate Goals

• Productivity Indicators
• Inputs
• Activities
• Outputs
• Formulate Systems for data capture
• Funders requirements
• Board / stakeholder requirements

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Measurement Capacity

• Three levels of capacity
• Level 1 Careful program records and simple
  assessments
• Level 2 Immediate program outcomes and
  longer-term data
• Level 3 Multiple assessments tracking multiple
  outcomes (pre/post design)

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Step 5 Develop Outcome Statements

• When, how and what information or data will be
  collected
• From whom information or data will be collected
• How information or data will be analyzed
• How participants will be treated and their rights
  protected

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Effectiveness Indicators

• Outcomes
• Referrals for student to student conflicts
  decreased.
• Impacts
• School became a more positive environment for all
  youth.
• Educational success was enhanced.

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Step 6 Assessment

• Assess
• What information was collected?
• What does it tell us?
• How did the system work?
• Does it need adjustment?

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Five Tiers of Evaluation
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Challenges

• Agreement upon definitions
• Agreement upon choice of outcomes
• System implementation
• Research-based outcomes
• Cause and effect
• Influence of other factors
• Reporting

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Seven reasons

• Set Goals, Develop Objectives
• Take Stock
• Collaborate
• Assign Accountability
• Improve Work Quality
• Track Progress
• Report Progress
• Turning Point Guidebook for Performance
  Measurement