Setting documentation systems in place makes the work so much easier. Many funding agencies now require regular reporting as a feature of their grant-making and over the years, those requirements have increased in their demands as well as scope. While we sometimes complain about it, it actually makes our work easier in the long run. In our direct services, we have developed a database of the children we have assessed which is invaluable both in terms of evaluating each individual child’s progress as well as the effectiveness of our programs as a whole.
With built-in data collection at our outreach programs and evaluation forms pre- and post workshops, we are better able to gauge our own strengths and weaknesses as trainers. And in our fundraising, sales and networking, a database is essential to avoid going crazy – as we used to when relying solely on memory and little notes jotted here and there. Keeping track of staff development, whose turn it is to go out on a workshop, who’s due for a pay rise, who’s birthday is coming up – it’s all there in the database. |
