Achieving the Mission: Best Practices in Performance Measurement

Save the Children USA is an international NGO dedicated to increasing the quality of life for children around the world. Save the Children USA requested a Capstone team to assist in developing performance measurement indicators, both programmatic and administrative, in an effort to improve the organization’s overall effectiveness. To inform this effort, the Capstone team conducted a survey of twelve peer organizations through staff interviews, such as the American Red Cross, World Vision, CARE, and Mercy Corps, to investigate how each manages monitoring performance against strategy and achieving their mission. Additionally, field research was undertaken in Save the Children USA’s Nicaragua office to gain an understanding of how agency strategy informs country strategy development and implementation, or, more specifically: how strategy is communicated between agency and country offices, how approaches and strategic performance metrics at agency and country levels compare, and how organizational cultures can be improved to foster and support multi-level strategies. The results and its appropriate recommendations from the Capstone project will subsequently be used by Save the Children USA when building their 2008-2012 strategic plan.