Awards nomination for SmartyGrants Outcomes Engine
Posted on 04 May 2023
By Matthew Schulz, journalist, SmartyGrants
The SmartyGrants Outcomes Engine has been shortlisted for a national social sector award, after being named as a finalist in the “technology for community impact” category of the Australian Not-for-Profit Technology Awards.
According to organisers, the awards “recognise the absolute best in technology innovation and excellence by organisations and individuals in the not-for-profit sector”.
SmartyGrants chief impact officer Jen Riley said she was thrilled that the social enterprise had been nominated and was gratified to see SmartyGrants’ role as a leader in impact measurement recognised.
She said the system had seen a rapid take-up, with nearly 50 funders adopting the system in just six months. The Outcomes Engine had already been used to track impact on nearly 4000 grant applications.
She said the strength of the system was its ability to help not-for-profits track and measure the impact of grant-funded programs with a consistent and streamlined approach, including the ability to easily employ widely used outcomes frameworks.
“The system has already proven its worth as a tool that helps refine what’s working and what isn’t, and helps users make better decisions,” Ms Riley said.
“It has put more power into the hands of grant managers to measure impact across their grant portfolios.”
Even though she has been working in the evaluation field for over 20 years, Ms Riley said demand for outcomes measurement was growing exponentially, and she had watched with fascination to see how organisations had adapted the system to their needs.
She expected many more users to follow the early SmartyGrants adopters, especially as funders were increasingly expected to turn data and metrics into compelling reports.
“We spend billions on grant programs, but this helps us know what impact we are making, what’s working, what isn’t, and why.”
She said the system also provided easy access to a huge library of capacity-building resources for funders and not-for-profits.
More information
Case studies: Camden Council | Wannon Water | City of Dandenong
More about the Outcomes Engine
Why we’re making the shift to outcomes-driven grantmaking
Our profile of the Social Impact Measurement Network Australia awards 2022