Outcome Tools in MicroEdge

MicroEdge ® (ME) and its outcome partner, The Rensselaerville Institute (TRI) are collaborating to help foundations connect grants-management software with outcomes. The goal is to enable foundations to better:

• Clarify the results they are “buying” with each grant and the likelihood they will happen.
• Verify success from each grant with increased rigor but without the high cost and time of formal evaluation.
  
• Enhance grant-making effectiveness by stronger ways to compare the front end (grant selection) and back end (grant performance) at individual and grant cluster levels.
• Increase the results that are achieved by grant recipients through a stronger conversation about results than about activities or process.

In our description of funders and investors, we speak to the difference of being in the business of making grants vs. creating the greatest possible human gain with the money available.  We focus on the shift from getting and grading proposals to asking three questions:

• What would be the result or human gain achieved from this grant?
• What are the chances that result will happen?
  
• Given other opportunities, is this the best possible use of our money?

During this workshop we will present the ways that best enable foundation to answer these investor-based questions in their interactions with new and existing applicants. The key is to answer those questions before your money goes out the door and then allow you to you revisit these same questions efficiently when the grant is consumed and you want to know of the results actually achieved.

In addition, we will review ways to embed this thinking into your GIFTS and online application software to streamline the entire grant cycle and put critical decision making information in your hands when it is most needed.

Registration