Nonprofits today are drowning in data but starved of insight. Reporting dashboards can track hundreds of metrics, but collecting the numbers alone doesn’t answer the most important question: is our work changing lives?

Answering that question starts with sorting out what you’re measuring, why you’re measuring it, and how you use the data to drive decision-making.

The Measurement Ladder

Different roles need different data for different reasons. Program staff need to know the whats: what they do, what it produces, and what changes. Their job is to turn activity into outcomes. The marketing and communications team (marcom) needs to know the whos: who they reach, who engages, and who acts. Their job is to turn attention into action and tie it back to the mission work. Leadership and development need to understand both sets of data and the links between them. Their job is to see where the mission is gaining ground, decide where to invest next, and determine how to approach funding.

Think of it like a ladder: one side for programs and one side for marcom. Each side climbs rung by rung, connected by the frame, to converge at the top.

The Program Side

• Activity metrics count what you did, like the number of resume workshops held. They’re important to track, but they’re only the first step.
• Output metrics quantify what those activities produced, like how many people attended a resume workshop. They’re closer to impact, but they still describe what your organization did rather than what it changed.
• Outcome metrics show what shifted in the lives of the people you serve, like the change in employment status after a resume workshop. They’re the proof that the work is changing lives, not just adding up activity.

The Marcom Side

• Reach metrics like impressions, visitors, and page views tell you how many people had the chance to see your message. They don’t say much on their own, but they’re the base everything else builds on.
• Engagement metrics like opens, clicks, and shares tell you how — and how many — people interacted with your message. They show you how compelling your content is and where your most engaged audience is concentrated.
• Conversion metrics like workshop sign-ups, event registrations, and program applications tell you who acted. They prove if the messaging supports the mission work.

Putting the Ladder to Work

The payoff of climbing both sides is the view from the top, where leadership and development determine where the mission is gaining ground and decide where to invest next. Try it out for yourself with three moves:

1. Pick one outcome and trace it back. Choose an outcome that shows mission movement, like the employment status example. Then, map the activities and outputs that feed it.
2. For program activity and output, ask “then what?” You ran a resume workshop. Then what? One hundred people attended. Then what? Fifty people found work, which had a positive impact on the local economy.
3. Review marcom rung by rung. Your campaign reached 10,000 people, 1,000 people engaged, 100 converted. Each rung tells you something specific. If reach is low, the audience is too small. If reach is healthy but engagement lags, the message isn’t hitting its target. If people engage but don’t convert, the call-to-action isn’t pulling its weight.

Using Data to Make a Difference

Let’s say that next year’s goal is to help 100 people find work. Put the ladder back up. On the program side, you might consider increasing the number of workshop sessions offered. Could the quality of the information be more thorough? Would adding follow-up coaching sessions help more participants succeed?

Increasing participation could also create more opportunities for successful outcomes. Marcom may expand the audience on the highest-performing platforms, make content or design changes to boost interactions, and test multiple calls to action to determine the strongest.

Continue the Conversation

There’s a lot of nuance to using data to make strategic decisions. Learn more at our next Collective Session, Measuring What Matters, on July 23, 2026. The session is free and you can register online here.