DeCAL: Our Impact Measurement
and Management Methodology

Our proven impact measurement and management methodology, known as DeCAL, provides a strategic step-by-step process that empowers organizations to Define, Collect, Analyze, and Leverage impact data to drive greater social outcomes.

Impact measurement is not only about proof, but improvement.

UpMetrics' impact measurement and management methodology helps you identify the data you should collect to understand, evaluate and demonstrate your impact - also known as your Impact Framework.

This framework is then used to operationalize and evaluate the tangible changes that arise from your activities, making it a critical tool for informing, testing and implementing your strategy.

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Ensure alignment between your mission and the delivery model that will get you there.

Use data to validate your impact and simplify reporting.

Recruit top talent who want to leverage innovative technology.

Attract additional funding and investment.

Make data-driven decisions that maximize impact and accelerate outcomes.

Better define, assess, and improve your effectiveness.

How We Do It

DeCAL: Our Impact Measurement
& Management Methodology

Define

Design an Impact Framework by aligning your mission and objectives with learning questions and key metrics that allow you to measure progress towards goals over time.

Collect

Centralize data from existing sources and gather new data using customizable data capture tools, then format and clean your data to prepare for analysis.

Analyze

Visualize and explore your data in custom dashboards to measure outcomes against organization and industry baselines, and track progress towards goals.

Leverage

Use insights to drive effective decision-making, simplify reporting, demonstrate outcomes across key performance metrics, and tell your story of impact.

Define Stage

Building Out Your Impact Framework

Within the Define stage of our DeCAL Methodology, UpMetrics will guide you through the creation of a strategic and effective Impact Framework, which enables you to define and operationalize how you measure and communicate your social or environmental impact both internally and externally.

In alignment with your organization's Vision, Mission, and Values, we'll help you select the right Key Impact Indicators (KIIs) to track within a number of different dimensions that will enable you to measure progress towards your goals.

Dimensions of Impact

Who: Who are we serving - e.g Demographics / characteristics, # of recipients
What: What are we delivering and how much - e.g Product, services, capital
Quality: What is the quality of our delivery - e.g NPS, utilization, retention
Better Off: How are those who we are serving better off?
Community Contribution: With a lens of contribution (vs. attribution) you'll select community level measures that you want to track within your impact theme to support your strategy and execution

Managed Services

A whole team of experts at your fingertips

In addition to the UpMetrics platform, our social sector experts will become an extension of your team, providing strategic guidance and support throughout your engagement with us, as well as hands-on execution of some key deliverables, including:

Impact framework design and validation using industry-leading standards
Definition of a customized, dynamic menu of dashboards and visualizations by functional area
Collection, integration and transformation of program-specific data
Delivery of dashboards and analytics for your programs and departments

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But Don't Just Take Our Word For It

What Customers Say About UpMetrics

Partnering with UpMetrics has made our impact analysis work possible. This information is essential in our normal, daily operations but even more critical during this time of crisis. With impact data, we are able to quickly identify needs and respond to support the local community.

James Lopez III

Manager, Strategy and Impact, Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation

We wanted to be able to know that we were making an impact, and we wanted to be learning with grantees and the community.

Ultimately, our partnership with UpMetrics supports our grantees’ ongoing learning, which in turn enables them to share more meaningful information and insights with us in place of traditional reporting.

Jessica Mindnich

Senior Director, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

Working with UpMetrics has been such a smooth process. The sales and data team have been responsive to our unique needs, and have allowed multiple opportunities for feedback. This has resulted in a more individualized product and experience.

Susan Klemper

Executive Director, The ACE Project

UpMetrics provides a data-driven approach to understanding the collective community impact that is being accomplished by our grantees.

Janelle Ray - pallottine Foundation of Huntington

Janelle Elizabeth Ray

CEO, Pallottine Foundation of Huntington

The ability to send metrics dashboards to investors without having to recreate them from scratch each time has been a game-changer.

The UpMetrics team has been instrumental in helping us make surveys that are consistent so that we can use them year over year without recreating. The time saved has allowed us to concentrate more on our work with our Fellows and stakeholders.

Aaron Walker

CEO and Founder, Camelback Ventures

ICU baby is doing critical work for the community. I am going to be able to do so much more for our community with access to these numbers. The dashboards and ease of accessibility to the data is so impressive.

Beth Simon

CEO, ICU Baby