Alliance National Benchmarking Initiative

Comparative benchmarks are often difficult for nonprofit human service organizations to come by.

To address this challenge, the Alliance for Children and Families partners with Behavioral Pathway Systems for the Alliance National Benchmarking initiative. Behavioral Pathway Systems is a national leader in human services benchmarking.

The initiative involves a community of organizations and compares data from each. This enables organizations to:

• Learn from one another
• Identify areas where their organization is strong
• Target areas for improvement

What Topics Are Benchmarked?

Targeted benchmarks are collected on nearly 40 performance issues and topics.

These topics were selected by the Alliance Benchmarking Advisory Committee, which is comprised of staff from Alliance member organizations. The committee’s decisions were guided by input from an online national interest survey.

Who Can Participate?

All nonprofit human service organizations are invited to participate in the Alliance National Benchmarking Initiative. However, only Alliance members receive a $400 discount as a benefit of membership:

• $1,000 for Alliance members
• $1,200 for members of the American Association of Children’s Residential Centers or United Neighborhood Centers of America
• 1,400 for nonmembers

To join the initiative, complete the participation form.

Benefits to Participants

Organizations that participate in the Alliance National Benchmarking initiative:

• Gain insight into their performance in the areas of service delivery, operations, and finances. This brings about measurable information that can enhance their effectiveness and efficiency.
   
• Can submit data anytime via a secure, encrypted online database.
   
• May generate unlimited easy-to-understand benchmarking reports that detail a variety of measures. Peer-comparison reports provide apples-to-apples analysis by profiling their organization against others with similar demographics.
   
• Receive free e-mail and telephone assistance with data preparation, submission, and interpretation.
   
• Participate in regular teleconferences about benchmarking and performance management.
   
• Benefit from “process benchmarking,” a key feature of the initiative, which uses data to identify potential best practices. This innovative approach enables organizations to adopt new strategies to enhance their performance.
   
• Are guaranteed that their data will be held in strictest confidence.

For more information, contact the Alliance Member Relations Department.