For nonprofit organizations, the most important measure of success is not how much work gets done. It is whether that work is producing better outcomes for the people and communities they serve.

Understanding that requires good information. Organizations need strong data practices to know who they are reaching, understand what people experience, determine whether programs are producing the outcomes they intend, identify where results fall short, and decide what to do next.

This summer, 11 Galveston-area nonprofit organizations chose to invest in getting better at doing exactly that.

They applied for the inaugural Coffee & Quality: Galveston Fellows Program and were selected to participate. Twenty-one Fellows then spent an intensive summer examining their organizations’ data and evaluation practices and learning how to use information more effectively to improve programs, strengthen decision-making, and ultimately produce better outcomes for the people they serve.

On August 10, United Way of Galveston celebrated their progress at the inaugural Coffee & Quality: Galveston Fellows Showcase at Moody Gardens.

An investment in getting better

Earlier this summer, United Way of Galveston announced the 21 professionals from 11 organizations selected as the inaugural Coffee & Quality: Galveston Fellows.

Meet the inaugural Fellows and the organizations they represent.

Being selected was only the beginning.

Fellows made room in demanding schedules to examine their organizations’ real programs, practices, questions, and challenges. They looked closely at their data practices: what information they collect, how consistently they collect it, what they do with it, what may be missing, and whether their current systems give them what they need to understand the experiences and outcomes of the people they serve.

They brought curiosity and candor. They learned alongside peers, challenged assumptions, identified opportunities for improvement, and were willing to ask questions without assuming they already knew the answers.

The purpose of strengthening those data practices is practical. Organizations need reliable information to understand what is working, where people may be experiencing different outcomes than intended, and what they can change to improve.

When organizations can use data well, they are better equipped to adjust services, identify gaps, direct limited resources more intentionally, and make decisions that improve outcomes for the people they serve.

Coffee & Quality gives organizations a structured way to build those practices.

At the Showcase, Fellows shared their work through a gallery walk with nonprofit leaders, funders, partners, and community members. Three short films also gave guests an opportunity to hear directly from the people doing the work.

Why did you join Coffee & Quality?

The inaugural Fellows came to Coffee & Quality with different missions, organizational needs, and levels of experience with data and evaluation.

What they shared was a willingness to look closely at their work and an interest in getting better at understanding the difference their organizations are making.

What has your organization gotten out of the program so far?

Coffee & Quality is grounded in the real work happening inside nonprofit organizations.

Throughout the summer, Fellows worked with their own questions and practices. They examined strengths and gaps, learned new approaches, and began identifying changes that can help their organizations collect better information and use it more effectively.

The value of stronger data practices shows up in the decisions organizations make. It can mean recognizing that a service needs to change, identifying a group that is not being reached, incorporating participant feedback into a program decision, distinguishing between activity and impact, or directing limited resources toward approaches that are producing stronger results.

Those are organizational decisions, but their consequences reach far beyond the organization.

They affect the quality and effectiveness of the services people receive.

What do you hope to get out of the Fellows Program?

The August 10 Showcase celebrated significant progress, but it did not mark the end of the Fellows Program.

The inaugural cohort will continue learning together this fall, building on the work they began during the summer intensive and putting stronger practices into place within their organizations.

Participating organizations are also eligible for capacity-building stipends of up to $15,000 to support the systems and infrastructure needed to strengthen their data, evaluation, and continuous quality improvement practices.

That is an important part of the program design. Fellows are not simply learning what stronger practice looks like. Their organizations have resources to begin putting what they learn into practice.

Learning from people who know the work

At the center of the Fellows experience are Jessica Davison, Assistant Vice President, Strategy, Learning & Analytics at United Way of Greater Houston, and Allison Mattingly, Senior Quality Coach.

Jessica built and grew Coffee & Quality at United Way of Greater Houston. Allison works directly with organizations as they examine their practices and translate what they are learning into changes they can use.

Together, Jessica and Allison led the Galveston Fellows through an intensive summer grounded in the organizations’ actual work.

They created a learning environment where Fellows could bring real questions into the room, examine their practices honestly, learn from evidence and from one another, and work through how stronger data practices can lead to better decisions and better outcomes.

Their combination of expertise, practical experience, and ability to make complex work useful to organizations was fundamental to the success of the inaugural Fellows experience.

A larger investment in Galveston’s nonprofit community

The Fellows Program is one part of a larger Coffee & Quality: Galveston initiative that has been taking shape over the past year.

Coffee & Quality: Galveston builds on the Coffee & Quality model developed and grown by United Way of Greater Houston, including its connection with Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research.

United Way of Galveston brought the model to Galveston and built a local partnership around it, including UTMB. Dr. Kelly Grace and Dr. Cara Pennel helped create the connection that made the Galveston expansion possible, while UWG serves as the local host and backbone connecting organizations, partners, funding, and resources around the work.

Houston Endowment and the Harris and Eliza Kempner Fund have made significant investments in Coffee & Quality: Galveston, with important early support from the Permanent Endowment Fund of Moody Methodist Church.

Together, those relationships have made it possible for Galveston nonprofit organizations to access an established model, experienced practitioners, strong institutional partnerships, implementation resources, and sustained learning opportunities here in their own community.

Read how Coffee & Quality came to Galveston.

Follow the Coffee & Quality: Galveston story

Coffee & Quality: Galveston has been built deliberately, with each stage creating the foundation for the next.

Read about the investment that launched Coffee & Quality: Galveston.

See Coffee & Quality: Galveston in action at our April 9 Meet & Greet.

Meet the inaugural Fellows selected for the program.

Together, those milestones document a sustained investment in helping local nonprofit organizations become better at understanding their impact, learning from their work, and improving what they do for the people they serve.

What comes next

The inaugural Fellows have set a high standard.

Eleven organizations saw an opportunity to strengthen their work and chose to pursue it. They applied. They were selected. Their Fellows committed the time, curiosity, candor, and organizational attention required to examine their work seriously. Now they are carrying what they learned back into their organizations and continuing to build from it.

Coffee & Quality: Galveston is still in its first year, and only part of the program has been introduced.

The Fellows move into their next phase of learning this fall, and additional Coffee & Quality opportunities will give more nonprofit professionals opportunities to engage directly with the work.

For United Way of Galveston, the purpose is clear: connect local nonprofits with substantive opportunities, experienced practitioners, strong partners, and practical resources that help them become more effective at achieving the outcomes their missions promise.

When nonprofit organizations become better at understanding what is working, learning from what they find, and improving accordingly, the people they serve are the ones who stand to benefit most.

Stay tuned for more Coffee & Quality: Galveston news and upcoming opportunities.

Thank you to Greenwalt Productions for Photos from the Showcase