How D.C. Central Kitchen Improved its Evaluation Process

February 26, 2015 | Read Time: 6 minutes

A few data tables might meet the needs of a nonprofit startup, but its evaluation processes must grow as its programs expand.

More than two decades after its founding, D.C. Central Kitchen was outgrowing its data-collection system. The Washington hunger-relief and job-training nonprofit had long collected evaluation data in separate Excel spreadsheets that different program managers oversaw.

“We had one Excel sheet that tracked every single meal delivered to every partner agency over the course of a year — five tabs for 2-million meals a year,” says Alexander Moore, chief development officer at D.C. Central Kitchen. “I think it’s a very useful tool for what it is, but it’s really not a sustainable means for managing data for an organization that has gotten to the size we were at.”

Despite its name, D.C. Central Kitchen is rather decentralized, with offices spread across Washington. Some staff members work in a high school building, while others are based in a homeless shelter.

That geographic problem was coupled with idiosyncratic data-collection practices.

“Personnel turnover was brutal because everyone had their own quirks and ideas for measuring things,” Mr. Moore says.

To update its evaluation process, the nonprofit faced a two-pronged challenge: “We needed a system people could access from anywhere, and we needed to build a culture of updating and sharing information regularly,” Mr. Moore says.

Finding the Best Software Fit

To assess D.C. Central Kitchen’s needs and figure out which computer programs would be most appropriate, the nonprofit applied in 2012 for the services of an AmeriCorps Vista volunteer.

The volunteer researched the available systems and gave a presentation about the options. The selection process took about a year, Mr. Moore says, and included daylong demonstrations of the final candidates.

“We were able to identify some of our organizational blind spots and build a series of expectations among staff of what we were going to do with this program once we got it,” Mr. Moore says.

The nonprofit’s leaders and board of directors endorsed the purchase of a new software package, he says, and its donors supported the significant expense.

“Our CEO has been a champion of really moving past anecdotes and really looking at data,” Mr. Moore says. “We made the decision to invest in this before we had any specific grant. We cobbled funding from different grants.”

By the end of 2012, after assessing cost and “technical robustness,” the nonprofit selected a Community Techknowledge software package called Online Data Manager, which cost $26,000 up front, plus $10,000 in annual subscription fees.

It has since migrated to Apricot, another Community Techknowledge tool, which allows the group to build custom data-entry systems and design reports to track performance. The migration cost $5,000, and subscription fees are a little less than $12,000 a year.

Creating a Measurement Culture

To complement the new tools, the nonprofit’s measurement culture had to change.

“The system alone doesn’t solve your evaluation problem,” Mr. Moore says. “It’s people, people, people, and then database.”

Community Techknowledge trained one member of the D.C. Central Kitchen team, who then trained other employees. It took about a year to fully convert old data to the new system and teach staff new measurement procedures.

“People get into this business because they want to help people, and data can feel like a distraction from your mission if it isn’t contextualized in the right way,” Mr. Moore says. “I think it took a fair amount of trust-building for people to let go of their spreadsheets. Some of their files were four or five years old.”

Investing in New Staff Members

D.C. Central Kitchen sought to take advantage of its new software capabilities by making a “human-capital investment” and creating an evaluation unit with two full-time staff members at the start of 2014.

Adding the positions cost a combined $100,000.

The first, a director of monitoring and evaluation, sets and defines metrics for assessing the results of the nonprofit’s 10 programs.

For the second position, evaluation and retention coordinator, the nonprofit hired a graduate of its culinary job-training program to collect field data about how former participants are faring to help measure results and impact.

“It was a little bit outside of our wheelhouse to create an evaluation position for a graduate, but we’ve found it’s been really, really successful,” Mr. Moore says. “It’s important to think about how your database embeds in your program and the population it intends to serve. She’s calling and building relationships with graduates and figures out how to get information.”

Getting Participant Buy-In

Before hiring the evaluation and retention coordinator, D.C. Central Kitchen was able to collect follow-up information from only about 50 percent of graduates of its job-training program. It was program staff’s responsibility to make the check-in calls, and they often didn’t have enough time to devote to the duty.

Now the coordinator makes calls, sends email, and makes in-person visits to get information.

Her ability to empathize with other graduates helps convey the nonprofit’s motive for asking about wages and work hours, Mr. Moore says.

The process, which he calls “very labor-intensive,” has paid off: D.C. Central Kitchen now hears back from about 75 percent of former participants.

The nonprofit offers incentives for program graduates to report back, such as giving away $15 to $20 gift cards and distributing boxes of free groceries at its facility.

With D.C. Central Kitchen providing free job training at the cost of $10,000 per participant, Mr. Moore believes the $12,500 the nonprofit spends for these incentives each year is more than worth it.

“To not spend money to track that would be a waste of our investment,” he says.

Reaping the Rewards

With its new software, measurement culture, evaluation team, and increased response from program graduates, D.C. Central Kitchen can gain new insight from its data and use that to improve its programs.

In the past, the organization analyzed its program data once a year. Now program leaders and executive staff members meet monthly to examine the metrics the group has set for each program, which allows D.C. Central Kitchen to make necessary adjustments much more quickly. Soon front-line managers will have quarterly data meetings.

“It allows us to ask questions over time rather than ask a set of questions we care about and track those through the year,” Mr. Moore says. “You wouldn’t believe how many researchers, journalists, and graduate students want to know how we’re doing what we’re doing. It’s exciting, it’s certainly flattering.”