AMEC 2016: AMEC research shows the measurement barriers non-profits face
During a session at the AMEC International Summit today, AMEC’s Non-profit Group launched research showing the barriers to measurement non-profit organisations and charities face and how AMEC hopes to help.
AMEC’s Non-profit Group, which consists of UNICEF, Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, Cleveland Clinic, Barncancer Fonden, Amnesty International, Cancer Council Australia, Owl RE and The Right Livelihood Award, looked to find the barriers that non-profits have in implementing measurement strategy in their campaign.
The study involved 339 respondents and showed that more than half (52%) believed they had a lack of staff to measure campaigns effectively. Some 47% said they had a lack of budget to do so. Furthermore, a quarter (25%) of those surveyed believed they had a lack of time to carry out measurement.
The importance of measurement
The research shows that there is a keen interest from non-profits to measure more effectively. Nearly all of the respondents (91%) recognised the importance of measurement in driving their organisations mission and 74% said they would be more likely to measure comms more if time and money were not an issue.
Non-profits also say that they are currently likely to include ‘some type’ of measurement and evaluation in their strategy. Of those surveyed, 77% say that they are measuring their outputs and 71% are measuring outcomes. Only 2% said that they don’t use any measurement at all.
Eileen Sheil, executive director, corporate communications at Cleveland Clinic (pictured), said that education is at the heart of the matter. She added that although professionals at non-profit organisations are using measurement, education is still needed across the entire organisation on why using data metrics is important, as senior leaders are still proving to be a barrier to implementing further measurement strategy.
The AMEC group has stated that they will look to take part in further activity to promote measurement in non-profits. Along with the AMEC board, it will look to:
- Educate more non-profit organisations about measurement
- Launch an international campaign with the AMEC board to raise awareness of The Barcelona Principles
- Employ guidance on implementation of communications measurement in small, or medium sized, organisations that have limited resources
- Encourage more non-profit organisations to join the AMEC non-profit group
- Launch a new valid metrics framework as a free resource
- The research was carried out in partnership with Braun Research and Ketchum Global Research & Analytics.
- It took place worldwide from 14 March to 18 April 2016 and received 339 respondents.
