How Impact Genome helped Big Brothers Big Sisters of Toronto evolve its fundraising efforts

Who are they?

A Toronto-based nonprofit that’s been around for over 100 years, championing mental health and wellbeing of the local children and youth who face adversity.

What do they do?

They help mitigate the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) through mentorship-focused programming for children and youth building up their socio-emotional skills and resilience to overcome life’s challenges.

How did we help them?

We verified their program data based on our standard outcomes and measurement & evaluation best practice, then generated a one-page Impact Verified™️ Scorecard with key program metrics.

What impact did this create?

The Scorecard gave them third-party validation of their work which they leveraged for current and future fundraising efforts.

Potential. It exists in every kid. Yet many children and youth struggle with societal barriers and face adversities such as poverty, family instability, and identity-based discrimination. These adversities can negatively impact a young person’s future.

That’s where the work of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Toronto (BBBST) comes in. With their one-to-one community-based mentoring program, they match a ‘Little’ (youth aged 7-16) with a ‘Big’ (aged 18+) based on mutual experiences and shared interests. This helps them build a healthy and caring relationship with an aim to improve their social-emotional skills as a primary outcome so that they can successfully thrive.

Their work with us started when their funder asked them to join the Impact Genome Registry. This was followed by an onboarding webinar hosted by our team which covered the process of registering a social program.

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“We attended the onboarding webinar which was informative and really straightforward.”

- Cherie-Ann Pereira, Manager, Evidence, Learning and Impact

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After BBBST registered its one-on-one community-based mentoring program, they submitted it to get Impact Verified™️ - a process where our team of program evaluators go through the submitted program data and evidence, code their impact to our set of standardized outcomes, evaluate the overall effectiveness through a set of proprietary metrics and deliver crucial, reliable insights to nonprofits and their funders.

This information is delivered in an interactive, Impact Verified Scorecard that includes BBBST’s self-reported data along with crucial, proprietary metrics delivered by the program evaluators like:

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The guidance provided, not only on what do to with these insights but firstly how to read this data, is crucial for nonprofits.

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“After we received our Impact Verified Scorecard, I think what was really valuable for us was the “How to read the scorecard” document that explained each section in detail and helped us with the context we needed.”

- Cherie-Ann Pereira, Manager, Evidence, Learning and Impact

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Receiving this level of detail in their data acts as a source of truth and validates their work using tangible numbers. Also, seeing the impact created as tangible data is also a strong motivator for their whole team on the ground to keep doing the great work they do every day.

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"It has been very validating for us, to know that our programs are making an impact as we had been only collecting output-level data until some years ago, but have now shifted our focus to measuring impact as well. The scorecard was also shared with the case workers who work directly with our children and families; the scores were super satisfying and motivating for them."
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- Cherie-Ann Pereira, Manager, Evidence, Learning and Impact

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Pro Tip for nonprofits: A key aspect of the verification process is having a laser focus on what your primary and secondary outcomes are. This may require your entire team to collaborate and get a consensus. Get alignment from your larger team on this to save time while filling up your program details.

It does not end with just an Impact Verified™️ Scorecard, rather it extends to amore strategic partnership aimed at helping build capacity for nonprofits. Having your impact third-party verified gives nonprofits the credibility they need to report their impact accurately and with confidence. Through one-on-one support from our evaluators, it also helps them learn how to improve their output and evidence quality year over year.
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Most importantly, this strategic partnership with us helps nonprofits massively with funders – both current and new. Current funders appreciate the simplicity of our Impact Verified™️ Scorecards & the visibility they get into the impact created by their funding. It also helps nonprofits use their Scorecard data as a tool for fundraising by sharing their impact data with funders looking to fund new programs. Also, since this data is third-party verified, it adds credibility & boosts their chances of attracting new donations.

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The Impact Verified Scorecard has been a game-changer for us. Our CEO uses the metrics from our Scorecard all the time with other funders. It has landed very positively with those prospective funders.
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- Cherie-Ann Pereira, Manager, Evidence, Learning and Impact

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Working with us has helped many nonprofits like BBBST evolve their fundraising game – from filling lengthy post-funding reports to sharing a one-page, interactive Impact Verified™️ Scorecard that makes it easy for prospective funders to make a granting decision.

You can evolve your fundraising efforts too. Get started by creating your account here and registering your social program for free.

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