Columbus Afterschool Initiative For Middle School
The City of Columbus, under Mayor Andrew J. Ginther's 2025 budget allocation of $26.8 million, supports middle school afterschool programs through The Learning Collaborative, which uses SureImpact’s platform to measure and report real-time outcomes, ensuring program effectiveness, accountability, and informed improvements to enhance youth engagement and secure ongoing funding.
Over the past several years, the City of Columbus has made significant investments in school and afterschool programming. In the proposed 2025 budget, Mayor Andrew J. Ginther allocated $26.8 million for summer, after-school, and job-readiness programming to keep Columbus youth safe, active, and engaged. This substantial investment underscores the city’s commitment to supporting the educational and developmental needs of its young residents.
One of the standout initiatives benefiting from this funding is The Learning Collaborative, a collective impact initiative comprising various afterschool programs working with middle school students. Funded by the City of Columbus, The Learning Collaborative is dedicated to providing enriching and supportive environments for students during critical afterschool hours.
To ensure the effectiveness and accountability of these programs, The Learning Collaborative has partnered with SureImpact. By leveraging SureImpact’s advanced platform, all funded programs within the collaborative have access to real-time information on their impact. This includes seamless roll-up of program outputs and outcomes, enabling comprehensive reporting on the effectiveness of these initiatives.
Mayor Ginther has highlighted the importance of in-depth outcome measurement for demonstrating the impact of afterschool programs and securing continued funding. He stated, “By measuring the outcomes of our afterschool programs, we can ensure that we are providing the best possible support for our youth. This data allows us to see what is working and where we need to make improvements, ensuring that every dollar spent is making a real difference in the lives of our children.”
The Learning Collaborative’s use of SureImpact exemplifies why it is imperative for nonprofits to invest in impact measurement now rather than waiting. By committing to tracking outcomes data, these programs can provide clear evidence of their success and areas for improvement. This data-driven approach not only enhances transparency and accountability but also strengthens the case for current and future funding.
In a landscape where funding decisions are increasingly influenced by measurable outcomes, The Learning Collaborative’s proactive stance on impact measurement sets a powerful example. It demonstrates that with the right tools and commitment, nonprofits can effectively showcase their impact, secure necessary resources, and continue making a positive difference in their communities.
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Funders
SureImpact offers funders a comprehensive grant reporting platform that standardizes data collection across grantees, provides real-time, centralized analytics to measure and compare network-wide impact, enhances transparency, and supports data-driven decisions to maximize social return on investment and improve organizational effectiveness throughout the social sector ecosystem.
SureImpact: Five Years of Impact
SureImpact was developed to fill a critical technology gap in the nonprofit sector by providing over 500 mission-driven organizations with automated tools to collect, analyze, and report outcome data, enabling them to demonstrate measurable impact, optimize programs, and meet funders' increasing demands for data-driven evidence of effectiveness over its first five years.
Collaboratives
SureImpact is a collaborative platform that enables real-time collection, standardized reporting, and analysis of outcomes and impact data across all members of a collaborative network—such as service providers, funders, and stakeholders—thereby fostering trust, improving data quality, empowering organizations to optimize services and fundraising, and facilitating greater collective impact through shared measurement and equitable insights.
Nonprofits
SureImpact is an all-in-one case management and outcomes reporting software designed for social-change organizations, offering person-centered care, real-time analytics, and customizable data tracking to help staff efficiently connect clients to resources, demonstrate impact to donors, improve program performance, and scale social impact through data-driven decision-making.
Transforming Trauma Into Triumph The Life Changing Work Of Columbus Recreation And Parks
The Columbus Recreation and Parks Department, recognized with a 2023 NRPA Innovation Award for its VOICE program supporting survivors of violent crime, transformed its trauma-informed youth and community services by adopting SureImpact’s user-friendly, customizable software, which enhanced data tracking, streamlined case management, and empowered staff to efficiently document interventions and focus on equitable community wellness and violence prevention.
Results
SureImpact champions organizations that use data-driven outcome measurement to create lasting social impact, highlighting examples like Project Rescue’s global network aiding survivors of sexual exploitation and Columbus Recreation and Parks’ equitable community development efforts.