521. The Role of Metrics + Evaluation at the Intersection of Social Justice - Liza Mueller

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Overview

Meet Liza. She believes that transformational social change can happen only when deep trust, respect and community voice are centered across the board. She’s the Vice President of Knowledge and Thought Leadership at Echoing Green, an org that discovers emerging social entrepreneurs and invests deeply in the growth of their ideas and leadership. She’s walking us through groundbreaking research on measuring success in the social sector, especially for organizations led by people of color, exploring power dynamics in philanthropy for greater equity and progress. Tune in to rethink the role of data in driving social change 📊

💡Learn

The Power of Data-Driven Decisions
Research Findings from The Weight of Power: The Role of Metrics & Evaluation at the Intersection of Social Justice
How to activate today for more equitable funding practices

Today’s Guest

Liza Mueller, Vice President of Knowledge + Thought Leadership, Echoing Green

“Organizations have a responsibility for their own data and measurement, but that should not be at the expense of the communities you’re serving and the communities you’re partnering with.”

— Liza Mueller, Vice President of Knowledge & Thought Leadership, Echoing Green

Episode Transcript

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Episode Highlights

Liza’s story and journey to where she is today (4:30)
Data's transformative power for organizations (8:00)
Echoing Green and MPHI’s Center for Culturally Responsive Engagement’s Report: The Weight of Power: The Role of Metrics & Evaluation at the Intersection of Social Justice (13:00)
Create greater equity and progress in social impact (21:00)
Response from the funding community (25:00)
The Trust Based Philanthropy Project (30:00)
A powerful moment of philanthropy in Liza’s life (30:30)
Liza’s One Good Thing: “Data is protest, data is accountability, data is action.” -Yeshi Milner (33:00)

Impactful Quotes

“The throughline of my whole career is that I help leaders, artists and visionaries take what can be an overwhelming and massive amount of information and turn it into impactful stories that can make others think differently about the world.” -Liza

“Earlier in my career, I thought data was everything. I wanted to prove everything, and I wanted all of the receipts.” -Liza

“There’s a lot of intentionality around “doing the work different”, which means that you should be measuring it differently and defining success differently.” -Liza

“Yes data can be, but shouldn’t be everything.” -Liza

“Organizations have a responsibility for their own data and measurement, but that should not be at the expense of the communities you’re serving and the communities you’re partnering with. Honor the way that they want to see change work in their communities.” -Liza

“One of the most powerful voices in this conversation is the nonprofit leaders in mass. If funders hear the same thing over and over again from grant partners, that is an incredibly powerful voice.” -Liza

"Funders have significant power to determine which metrics grant partners use to measure success. And as a result, grant partners collect metrics in service to funders needs, which are not always the same as the needs of communities." -Liza

"80% of the grant partners who are part of the communities they support report using metrics for accountability to funders." -Liza