Giving Compass' Take:

• SVP Seattle discusses the importance of tracking internal data in order to improve an organization's efficiency and efficacy, as was the case with Children’s Therapy Center.

• Do nonprofits have the tool to develop an advanced org dashboard as described in this piece? If not, what changes need to be made to catch up?

• Your board also needs to be tracking the right things, and here is why good metrics matter.

Developing an organizational dashboard may sound technical and dull to some, but not to those of us at SVP! Particularly when such a tool helps Children’s Therapy Center ensure more kids with special needs thrive in life.

CEO Jon Botten explains.

“They say, ‘if you can’t measure it, you can’t change it.’ We have always struggled with having a quick, easy, and consistent way to measure and report therapist billable time information. Lack of that information was preventing us from making the necessary improvements in filling therapist schedules and generating additional revenue through fees for services.”

Last year, CTC decided to tackle this issue with SVP’s help. They used funds provided by SVP to hire a consultant who developed an interactive dashboard that tracks their therapists’ billable time.

“I think the best way to talk about the impact of this project is through the example of an individual child,” says Jon. “‘Jacob’ is a 5 year old who has been diagnosed with autism.  His doctor referred him to CTC for speech and occupational therapy about 6 months ago. Jacob lives in Renton so his mom was willing to take him to either our Kent or Burien location.  Unfortunately, we’ve had waiting lists at both!”

“By doing a better job of filling therapist schedules, we can add a few kids a week to the schedule of every therapist on staff,” continues Jon.  “That means that our intake coordinator could call Jacob’s mom, and dozens of other parents like her, and tell them we can get them in for the services they have been waiting for.  Those are very fun calls to make!”

Read the full article about how better tracking can help kids thrive at SVP Seattle.