An association representing nonprofit organizations announced a new measurement tool to help its members better determine their community impact and identify ways to support one another for even better results.

The Alliance for Strong Families and Communities wants to help its members better measure the impact they are having on the communities they serve.

Earlier this month, the Alliance, which represents organizations in the human-serving nonprofit sector, announced a new assessment tool it developed to help better inform the governance decisions of these organizations and help them support one another.

The tool “serves as [a series of] baselines for tracking their progress and how they’re moving forward,” said Laura Pinsoneault, director of evaluation and research services for the Alliance. “I think it also, in the long run, becomes a way for us to communicate with our partners and with members of the community about how we as organizations create impact.”

Developed in collaboration with the American Institutes of Research, the Commitments Assessment Tool is an online survey with about 150 questions. It measures organizations in 10 areas, or commitments, that the Alliance identified “to serve as a blueprint for impact,” according to its website.

“The questions are really designed to push the envelope a little bit and give organizations something to think about in terms of the cultural experience throughout the organization,” Pinsoneault said.

Alliance members get priority access to the tool, which takes about 30 minutes to complete, but it is also open to nonmembers. After completing the assessment, organizations receive a report based on their survey results in about four to six weeks.

“The Commitments Assessment really provides organizations, who may know where they need to go but don’t necessarily know how to get there, with some really concrete places to start and also help an organization communicate to partners and community members where they’re strong and some of the ways in which they are working to maximize outcomes,” Pinsoneault said.

The Alliance also hopes the data coming out of the assessment tool will generate some large research projects as well as draw attention back to its 10 commitments.

“As an association, the greatest strength of our network is our network,” Pinsoneault said. “So data coming out of the commitments allows us as an organization to connect them to each other so they can work together and coach each other along in places they’re experiencing challenges and share where they are strong.”

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