Results-Based Accountability (RBA)
RBA focuses on three simple questions: How much did we do? How well did we do it? Is anyone better off? It helps organizations connect activities to meaningful outcomes.
Resources
We believe the organizations we work with should have access to good thinking, not just our opinions. Below are the frameworks and tools we use most often in our own work, along with a few resources that come from our experience working on parks, housing, food access, and public space.
If you are trying to figure out whether your organization is ready for outside help, or just want to understand the language among grantmakers, policymakers, and public agencies, these are a good place to start.
Making Results Measurable
Success Measures
A practical evaluation approach designed for community development that helps organizations measure neighborhood-level change and resident outcomes.
Social Return on Investment (SROI)
SROI estimates the broader social value created by a program, making it easier to communicate impact to funders, boards, and partners.
Working Across Sectors
Collective Impact
Collective Impact is a framework for exactly that situation: shared measurement, mutually reinforcing activities, and the kind of ongoing communication that keeps a coalition from quietly falling apart.
Understanding the Bigger Picture
Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)
Health is shaped by more than healthcare. Housing, parks, transportation, food access, education, and economic opportunity all influence community well-being.
Placemaking
A collaborative approach to creating public spaces that strengthen community life, social connection, and local identity.
Place-Based Strategies
Place-based approaches coordinate investments around a specific neighborhood or community to improve long-term outcomes across multiple sectors.
Vibrant Communities
Healthy communities are supported by quality parks and open space, safe walking and bicycling, reliable transit, affordable housing, and access to healthy food.
A Note on How We Use These
We do not believe in forcing every client into the same framework. Some organizations need the rigor of RBA to get a funder-ready plan in place. Others need Success Measures because a grant requires it. Others just need help thinking through the essential questions these frameworks are built on: what are we trying to change, how will we know if it worked, and who is actually better off.
If you are not sure which of these applies to your organization, that is a good first conversation to have with us.
Have a resource you think belongs here? Get in touch.