NORC collaborates with federal agencies and nonprofit organizations to develop performance metrics and measurement collection systems to monitor funded program activities. Many of these systems involve the on-going collection and analysis of program- and project-level data. Information gathered from these monitoring activities provide high quality, unbiased information from which to determine the extent to which program activities are contributing to the overall goals and objectives of the grant program.
NORC’s process for building these monitoring systems includes the identification and development of key program performance measures; user-friendly instruments and web-based applications for collecting program data; and detailed procedures for periodically tabulating, analyzing, and reporting those data. NORC program monitoring activities also provide funders with continual feedback on the program’s effectiveness and impact. This information can be leveraged to inform evidence-based funding decisions, and serve as an early warning system that alerts program managers to operational weaknesses that require corrective action, as well as success stories of high-performing projects and programs that should be considered for replication.