Beyond Surveys Consulting

Build measurement capacity your organization owns

Measure. Learn. Grow.

Impact measurement matters. But for small organizations, accessing quality support has historically meant expensive consultants or going it alone.

I work specifically with small social service organizations in Southern Ontario to build practical, affordable ways to measure their impact. My goal is to build your internal capacity for measurement so you can do this work for yourselves. In fact, you can start for free right now by checking out my free resources.

Consulting support for small social service organizations

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Let's build a measurement system you understand, you own, and you can grow independently!

See my pricing tiers  —  or   book a free consultation call to figure out where to start.

I help organizations:
  • Build a program-focused theory of change
  • Outline what their program is actually trying to do
  • Identify key questions they need to answer
  • Choose the right tools to answer those questions
  • Build dashboards to visualize their data
  • Link data back to their theory of change

Why Beyond Surveys?

Do you default to surveys when you think about impact measurement? Surveys have their place. But they also lead to:

  • Poor response rates
  • Online bots submitting fake data
  • Data that looks useful, but isn't.

The good news is that your organizations is probably already sitting on rich sources of impact data that you aren't fully using such as program records, attendance patterns, referral rates, case notes and service milestones. These can tell you a great deal about your operations and impact, often with less burden on the people you serve. Beyond Surveys is all about helping you turn this existing data into insights.

Measurement lifecycle: The usual story vs. A better way The usual story Funder asks for impact data Cobble a rushed survey Staff don't see the point Bots & silence. Chase responses. Data sits in a folder No learning. Repeat. every year, unchanged familiar, exhausting, useless A better way Build a clear TOC for your program What questions matter most? Find data you already collect Update your theory A little smarter next year deepens over time grounded, useful and yours
Common survey design mistakes → Other ways to measure your impact →
Greta James

Greta James is a researcher and monitoring and evaluation consultant based in Southern Ontario, with a PhD in cognitive psychology from the University of Waterloo.

Learn more about Greta →