Measuring What Matters: Simple Evaluation for Programs That Don't Have a Data Team
Tracking Outcomes and Telling Your Program's Real Story Without a Statistics Degree
Give frontline staff and program leads a plain-language way to track outcomes and tell their program's real story, without a statistics background or expensive software.
This complete, facilitator-ready training kit gives frontline staff and program leads a plain-language way to track outcomes and tell their program's real story, without needing a statistics background or expensive software. It draws a clear line between counting activity and measuring impact, and it treats data collection as a habit the team can actually sustain, not a burden bolted on to satisfy a funder. Built on established nonprofit evaluation and outcomes measurement guidance, and written in warm, plain language for adult learners, including peer specialists, program coordinators, and people in recovery or returning from incarceration who are now running or supporting programs.
- Who it is for
- Peer specialists, program coordinators, frontline staff, program leads at small community organizations, and people in recovery or returning from incarceration who are now running or supporting programs
- Group size
- 8 to 30 participants, breakout groups of 4 to 6
3 numbers
the working target of the session: a small set of measures with an owner, a form, and a standing day, because a plan the team keeps beats a plan that looks complete and is abandoned by March
Source: W.K. Kellogg Foundation Evaluation Handbook
Activity vs. impact
a full segment on the line between counting what you did and measuring what changed for the person, taught with plain examples from small programs rather than research language
Source: Urban Institute and Center for What Works outcome indicators
No software required
every tool in the kit works with paper forms and a free spreadsheet, so programs without a data team or an evaluation budget can start the same week
Source: PAVE ImpactTrack facilitator curriculum
What's in the kit
Every PAVE Pathways kit ships with the same ten components.
- 1.Training Blueprint and 2-Hour Flow Outline
- 2.10-Question Pre-Knowledge Survey
- 3.28-Slide Core Presentation Deck
- 4.Slide-by-Slide Presenter Notes with full scripts, metaphors, and analogies
- 5.Participant Notes Version (3 slides per page with lined note space, PDF)
- 6.Two Participant Handouts: the Your Three Numbers worksheet and a Before You Send the Report checklist
- 7.Group Breakout Session Kit (45 minutes, with group agreements, discussion prompts, and scribe and reporter templates)
- 8.10-Question Post-Knowledge Survey
- 9.Companion eBook (50 pages)
- 10.Optional Premium Prezi Storyboard, 28 frames (+20 percent)
Preview the materials
Five pieces of the kit to explore: the deck, presenter notes, handouts, the breakout kit, and the companion eBook. Open any one and page through real, watermarked samples.
Open preview, no signup required. Saving and printing are disabled to protect the material.
Open preview, no signup required. Saving, printing, and downloading are disabled to protect the material.
Frequently asked questions
Licensing options
Standard License
$397
Single-organization internal use. Delivered ready to facilitate.
Custom-Fit
$697
Your agency's name on the cover, your state's resources in the script, and a short call with our team before we build it, so the training already sounds like your community instead of being adapted after the fact.
White-Label / Agency License
$1,495
Full redistribution rights across every site in your network, source files your team can keep customizing, and a live orientation session so your trainers launch with confidence instead of a PDF and a login.
Because these are downloadable digital toolkits, all sales are final once a file is delivered. If a refund is approved by our team for an exceptional circumstance, a 25 percent processing fee applies to cover the cost of deactivating the license. Full terms are in our End-User License Agreement.