Social Solutions Investigates How Ineffective Organizations May Cause More Harm Than Good

BALTIMORE, MD--(Marketwire - February 9, 2009) - Social Solutions, nationally recognized for empowering human service providers and the organizations that fund them to strategically tie their efforts to measurable outcomes, today announced an upcoming webinar that will address the rapidly growing performance management movement that is transforming the nonprofit industry. The webinar, titled "The Golden Rule of performance management: You'd better know whether you're helping or harming -- and always assume the latter if you can't measure the former!," will take place on February 19, 2009 at 3:00pm EST and will explore the concept that, without measurement, even the best intentioned organizations may actually be causing harm to their constituents.

Led by internationally renowned performance management expert and former foundation executive David Hunter, the webinar will examine the urgent need for human service organizations to implement the practice of performance management. A long-standing controversy in the nonprofit sector, performance management pushes organizations beyond idealistic mission statements and anecdotal evidence of success to concrete demonstrations, backed by data, of organizational effectiveness. Performance management allows organizations to see which programs are working, which ones are not and provides the data to make adjustments, allowing the organization to more effectively impact the community as well as make a more definitive case for funding.

"Managing performance -- measuring efforts and relating them to outcomes -- is essential for an organization to have maximum impact on the community it serves," said Steve Butz, President of Social Solutions. "An organization that fails to take this step will never measure up to its potential and may ultimately be doing more harm than good. David's webinar will help nonprofits understand that even in a tough economy, an investment -- both of time and resources -- in performance management tools will help to ensure that an organization is fulfilling its mission."

The webinar will discuss the importance for nonprofits to collect and analyze data in order to fully understand the impact of their programs and efforts. It will also examine the notion of harm, the idea that organizations who are not managing their performance through data collection and evaluation run the risk of potentially causing harm to those they serve. By managing their performance, social service providers are better able to determine the exact result of their intentions and are able to adjust programs to ensure positive outcomes. To help organizations potentially avoid causing harm through ill-determined and ineffective programming, Hunter will offer practical advice on data collection, measurement and evaluation that any human service organization, with the will to succeed, can implement to better serve their clients.

For more information, and to register for the event, visit www.socialsolutions.com/tabid/252/Default.aspx.

About Social Solutions and ETO Software®

Social Solutions challenges and equips human service providers and their funders to turn good intent into measurable change by relating efforts to outcomes. The company's ETO (Efforts to Outcomes) reporting software replaces one-size-fits-all data tracking with a reporting system tailored to the unique mission of each nonprofit organization. ETO Software® generates a clear and accurate measure of impact to improve service delivery, earn more funding, and reduce the time and resources dedicated to tracking performance.

Contact Information: Media Contact: Melissa Chotiner DBC PR+New Media (202) 292-4572 melissa@dbcpr.com