Measuring Impact

Developing a Community Scorecard

By Katherine House

In April 2021, the Orlando Economic Partnership released its Orlando Prosperity Scorecard for the second time since 2019. Data for the Partnership’s first Scorecard, which featured 13 metrics, was compiled in-house, said Dale Brill, Ph.D., senior vice president of research at the Orlando Economic Partnership. This time, staff participated in the Brookings Metropolitan Program’s Inclusive Economic Indicators Learning Lab, along with two chambers of commerce. The Metropolitan Program’s goal to deliver “research and solutions that help metropolitan leaders build an advantageous economy that works for all” complements the Partnership’s goal, “Advancing Broad-based Prosperity.”

Lab participants discussed what an inclusive community looks like and which indicators to use for measuring broad-based prosperity. Brill was inspired by the theoretical work developed by a Nobel laureate in Economics to choose three broad lenses through which to measure broad-based prosperity. The Partnership chose Opportunities, Capabilities, and Access, subsequently choosing four or five key indicators to represent each lens. For example, indicators that define Opportunities include a number of middle-wage jobs and median wages. Access was measured by metrics such as the food insecurity rate and jobs within a 30-minute transit commute. To gauge the degree to which prosperity affects different sectors of the population, the Partnership collected data to illustrate the gap for each indicator by race, ethnicity, and gender. Where possible, data points were compared to those from 12 peer metros.

The Scorecard is more than a single sheet of paper; it is a 20-page report that includes key takeaways and sidebars that show how the Partnership is working to address some of the issues highlighted by the data. Collecting and publishing data is not enough, said Brill. “It’s driven by intent to get in the board rooms of stakeholders and investors,” he said. “We have to maximize utilization by stakeholders.”

For Brill and his team, that means making Zoom presentations to interested parties, highlighting specific data that might align with a stakeholder’s objectives. For example, the Scorecard showed that there is an internet access gap for people of color, something of interest to telecommunications providers. A utility company asked Brill to produce an economic impact statement based on community expenditures. When he does, he might suggest shifting investments to areas that are priorities based on the gaps uncovered by the data.

“The leaders in our community are very interested to get a more complete picture of what our region looks like through the lens of broad-based prosperity,” says Tim Giuliani, president and CEO of the Orlando Economic Partnership. “The first questions we’re getting are to understand how their corporate and philanthropic investments are targeting the needs in our community. I believe their eyes are opening up to a better way of looking at things.”

And it’s not simply stakeholders who are using the data to make plans. “Since we started down this path, we’ve launched a program focusing on upskilling talent, begun to create a pipeline of business leaders that are eager to improve historically disadvantaged neighborhoods and provided businesses with a toolkit to improve their diversity and inclusion efforts,” says Giuliani. “The more we learn about what drives broad-based prosperity, the more we can do about it.”

So, You Want to Develop a Community Scorecard?

Dale Brill, Ph.D., senior vice president of research and Foundation for Orlando’s Future at the Orlando Economic Partnership, has the following suggestions for creating a community scorecard:

Study existing ones. Consider what’s relevant (or not) for your community and your organization’s goals.
Ask peers who have produced scorecards for advice.
Find a partner. Even if you have the staff and resources to compile a scorecard in-house, seek input from others who can offer diverse perspectives and lend credibility to your work. Consider working with a local college, consulting firm or think tank. You may be able to obtain a grant to underwrite costs.
Understand the limitations of a scorecard. Your organization is a compiler and disseminator of data. Stakeholders and others, including your board of directors, will use the data to discuss what policy changes, actions, fundraising or advocacy are needed to effect change.
Benchmark against other places while understanding how idiosyncrasies of each location can skew data. For example, net income data from a state that does not collect income tax may be misleading if your organization is in a state that does.
Don’t overwhelm stakeholders. Although the Orlando Prosperity Scorecard features 43 data points, they are displayed on a single page.
Use simple graphic elements to enhance readability. For example, red numbers in the Prosperity Scorecard indicate that Orlando ranks in the bottom half of peer metros while green type indicates a ranking in the top half.
Promote the scorecard - and its good, bad, and ugly data - widely within your community.
Educate stakeholders about why certain metrics were/were not included.
Update your scorecard regularly, but feel free to tweak as the needs of your community or organization change.