Electronic Data Collection

Since 2009, Public/Private Ventures has funded capacity building as an integral part of the Amachi Mentoring coalition project (AMCP).  Dare Mighty Things provided ongoing training and technical assistance to WLF/OTW to improve service delivery and program capacity in the area of mentoring children impacted by incarceration.  WLF and its community partners report a wide range of data to AMCP making it a challenge to assess performance in a uniform way.  WLF needed a solution that would increase access to information and increase speed in collecting data and reporting outcomes to stakeholders.

In response to this need, Wilmington Leadership Foundation designed and implemented a custom electronic data collection system that gathers information on each program’s activities, outputs, and outcomes.  The information is stored in a database where the program staff can access it anytime to monitor and analyze results for individual organizations or across the entire program.

Key Issues

Partners report a wide range of data, making it a challenge to aggregate information across partners and create uniform methods for assessing performance

The program experienced significant lag time between the completion of activities and realization of outcomes and when the data is available to analyze and report to stakeholders.

The Solution

Partners provide data on activities, outputs, and outcomes in a web-based reporting system.

Partner program staff, in consultation with WLF, review individual reports for accuracy and completeness, and then using an automated tool, import the information into a database.

As successive reports are submitted, relevant data from previous reports is automatically pre-populated in the web-based reporting system.

Innovations

Consolidating data entry tasks reduce program administration to a minimum and result in making real time data analysis possible for all stakeholders.

Data entry efficiencies, such as automatic report population, reduce errors and improve accuracy.

Web-based reporting and automated data importing result in more timely analysis and performance assessment.

Changes in reported activities, outputs, and outcomes are automatically highlighted, providing greater transparency on progress toward targets and goals.

When fully implemented, WLF and its partners will have real time program performance data at their fingertips….