Congreso de Latinos Unidos is a nationally recognized multi-service organization based in Philadelphia with an expert focus on the Latino community. Annually, Congreso provides direct services to more than 15,000 individuals with comprehensive education, after school, workforce, family, housing and health care services, as well as the K-8 Pan American Charter School, a bilingual charter school in Eastern North Philadelphia. Congreso provides programming with the goal of strengthening Latino communities by increasing an individual’s economic status through the achievement of education credentials, employment, social and health barrier removal and cultural identity.

Strengthening Performance Management PracticesFor over 10 years, Congreso has been very progressive in its development of performance measurement practices and has sustained a commitment to being a continuously learning organization. In 2003, the agency became an early adopter of Efforts to Outcomes (ETO®) software and began tracking program data well before outcomes measurement was a widely-known concept in the nonprofit sector. While the agency was successfully tracking outcomes data for a diverse range of services, they needed central goals and strategy in order to effectively aggregate their program outcomes to assess their organization’s impact.

In 2007, the agency developed a Theory of Change and a standard agency service delivery model, Primary Client Model (PCM™), which helped Congreso align its programs and services toward their goal of lifting Latinos out of poverty, and continues to guide service delivery today. Congreso also developed standard outcomes by which to hold the agency accountable and to measure the collective impact of their services.

To support PCM™, Congreso invested in developing an infrastructure and staff resources to ensure that quality data would be collected and used to measure its impact and goal progress. Congreso reconfigured their ETO system to monitor fidelity to PCM™, track agency outcomes, and to foster discussion of service quality and improvement.

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Customer Case Study

Congreso de LatinosUnidos

Congreso at a Glance

• 18th largest Hispanic nonprofit in the nation (HispanicBusiness magazine)

• In Fiscal Year 2014, 39% of Congreso’s clients were ages 20 or younger; 19% were ages 21-30

• Congreso’s Annual Budget is $24 million

Today, ETO software serves as a case management system to support the day-to-day, on-the-ground work of its program staff, as well as a database to collect and measure aggregate progress toward agency goals. Over 140 Congreso staff use ETO software to report program activities and monitor program performance. Data is either entered directly by staff, data entry specialists or detailed information is entered into an external, funder-mandated database where it can later be migrated into ETO software using batch uploads.

Congreso remains committed to continuously learning and improving service delivery through data management and collection, and has set up internal processes to support performance management. Reports on ETO data relating to clients served, referrals made, and outcomes measured are regularly reviewed at various levels of the organization. These recurring meetings are designed to foster dialogue around the data, what it means and what should be done differently. With the flexibility of ETO software, Congreso can make needed changes immediately, allowing their programs to remain dynamic and responsive to changing conditions.

Additionally, Congreso developed and launched its Supervisor Performance Management system. The tool, developed within Congreso’s ETO system, allows supervisors to conduct a comprehensive review of services provided, which involves an on-line review of the Client Manager’s efforts and client outcomes, and a rating of the “strength” of the caseload based on compliance and client achievements. The tool ensures Congreso program staff receive adequate support from supervisors, and serves as a guide for an ongoing, data-informed dialogue between supervisors and staff regarding client progress and improvement of client outcomes.

Congreso’s ultimate goal is for all staff at all levels, from Board through direct service staff, to be using data to improve their work performance and re-shape strategy.

Evidence-Based PracticeIn addition to strengthening their performance management practices, Congreso has also worked to apply evidence-based models to their programming to improve impact for their clients. In 2008, Congreso contracted a small consultant group to map its programs against evidence-based models. This exercise revealed that many of Congreso’s programming incorporate elements of evidence-based programs, but are modified for their target population.

Congreso’s Exito™ program is one such evidence-informed program that has shown promising results. Congreso launched Exito™, a drop-out prevention program, in response to the Latino dropout crisis in their community and the research study Unfulfilled Promise: The Dimensions and Characteristics of Philadelphia’s Dropout Crisis. Five years of evaluation identified the Exito™ program as a promising practice. Refer to the evaluation findings in the side bar to the right.

Exito™ Program Evaluation Findings

• Exito™ participants had lower dropout rates than the comparison group during the years they were participating in the Exito™ program

• Overall, Exito™ alumni were found to be consistently less likely to drop out than a similar group of non-participants, after controlling for baseline differences

• The likelihood of dropping out decreased as Exito™ program attendance increased

“A private family foundation chose to fund us because it wasn’t just that we were doing great work, it was that we were doing great work and we could demonstrate that work against their own agenda.”

-Cynthia FigueroaPresident/CEO,

Congreso

425 Williams Court, Suite 100 | Baltimore, Maryland 21220moreinfo@socialsolutions.com | 866-732-3560

Fiscal Year 2012 Primary Client Management (PCM™) Outcomes

“Congreso has been using ETO for over 10 years, and it really has been central to how we use data. ETO is the first time that we collected all of our data centralized in one place...”

-Juan De AnguloDirector of Data and Evaluation,

Congreso

Key findings from the Exito™ program’s fourth year evaluation report showed that the more frequently students participate in Exito™, the more effective it is and reccomends more on-going support for 11th and 12th graders. Congreso’s PCM™ supported by ETO software was used to demonstrate measurable outcomes integral for supplying data on high school participants for the Exito™ program evaluation.