Secure Funding with Outcomes Reporting Mobile App

The Socialsuite App is set to help community service organisations track program performance and social outcomes in real-time, streamlining reporting to funders.

Social Outcomes Measurement is a growing global trend and with social issues becoming increasingly complex, addressing them is increasingly costly.

However, not much measurement on the effectiveness of social expenditure is being tracked, and in some cases it is unclear as to whether any Social Outcomes are being achieved at all.

Difficulties Reporting on Outcomes

As many of us may have experienced, measuring Social Outcomes comes with painful headaches like:

• Paper based data collection and surveys

• Understanding which data to collect and when

• Manual data entry into spread-sheets

• Wasting time manually compiling reports – weekly and monthly

• Tying up staff time that could be better spent on working towards the organisation’s mission.

A recent article “Companies Reveal CSR Impact Unknown – Research” summarises KPMG’s research report on the benefits of social impact assessment and why measuring Social Outcomes can be challenging.

The Socialsuite App can help

With the Socialsuite app, quantitative and qualitative data can be easily tracked from a variety of different sources, improving the business case for program funding while promoting transparency around the social value generated by funding – something that funders love.

The Socialsuite app drastically reduces the effort and resources required to implement Social Outcomes Measurement. The app has been successfully trialed by a number of Australian organisations over the past 12 months.

The Socialsuite app allows users to model a program's expected short, medium and long-term social outcomes. This helps community service organisations and funders visualise the 'bigger picture' of what they are working on.  

Short, medium and longer-term social outcomes are then measured and tracked using the app. When data is needed from individual program beneficiaries, users will be prompted and made aware that it is time to collect information. This is the same for any other program stakeholders.

Aiming to eliminate paper-based data collection and manual report compilation, users may collect data using the Socialsuite app through a digital device such as a smart phone or tablet. Electronic surveys may also be emailed out to program beneficiaries and stakeholders.

The Socialsuite app generates daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and even annual outcomes reports, complete with interactive charts – all with a click of a button. Once these reports are generated they can be automatically emailed straight on to stakeholders and funders.

All the main features of the Socialsuite app, including details on the Social Outcomes measurement theory underpinning the app, is outlined in Socialsuite’s Free eBook, which also includes case studies and step-by-step interactive exercises on structuring a Social Outcomes data collection plan.

What users of the Socialsuite App are saying

Paul Turner, Youth Services Innovation Manager at YMCA Victoria, and his team have “set better measurement of the social impact of YMCA Youth Services programs” as a key strategic goal. The team are trialling the Socialsuite app as an effective way of implementing this agenda.

Paul says: "Trialling Socialsuite to measure the social impact of some of our Youth Leadership programs has been a very positive experience.  The Socialsuite team has provided both expertise in the methodology of measuring social impact as well as innovative technology to simplify the process of collecting and presenting data.  The Socialsuite app does the task both well and in a time efficient manner, and we are now looking to use the technology in other programs."

Leanne Lewis, Women's Services Manager from Melbourne-based Sacred Heart Mission, and her team are using Socialsuite to help articulate and measure the outcomes of their case management services. Leanne says: "Sacred Heart Mission is excited to be trialling Socialsuite as an innovative method for measuring the impact of case management for those experiencing homelessness. The Socialsuite App is easy to use and highly engaging for clients. We look forward to using the findings to understand what it is that we do well and where we may need to focus our efforts to improve client outcomes."

Jackie Bickendorf, Manager of Youth Services for YMCA in regional Western Australia, and her team use the Socialsuite app to track its engagement with local Indigenous youth participating in its recreational programs.

Jackie says: "We were after a tool that would easily track our engagement and measure outcomes for the participants of our program. At this point we have an iPad that allows us to collect attendance data with participants, stakeholders and incidents that may occur. This is invaluable as it frees staff up from the onerous task of collecting data and then spending hours at reporting time collating and presenting data in a way our funders would like. Using the App to collect outcomes data will also save us much time and effort, as the system will flag participant surveys which will be accessible on the iPads to collect in a very user-friendly way."

Damian Hajda, Technology Director at Socialsuite, says that trialing the Socialsuite app with early adopters has allowed Socialsuite to gain valuable feedback on the app's current and future functionality.

"We are very excited to be launching this new release of Socialsuite, which has exciting new features and functionality driven heavily by years of sector feedback and our early adopter trials."

Damian also adds, "What sets the Socialsuite app apart is its ability to link desired social outcomes to program stakeholders and participants, and intelligently remind staff when it is time to collect data, all via email surveys, smartphones or tablets – many organisations are surprised at how easy it is to get started, and how little it costs."

How your organisation can get started using Socialsuite

If you are interested in easy-to-use technology to help you report on the Social Outcomes of your programs, please contact Damian on 0488 666 222 or email damian@socialsuite.com.au to discuss the Socialsuite app.