Robin Hood is results-focused. We hold the programs we support completely accountable for their performance. We work with them to set specific goals. They’re expected to meet these goals. And they’re measured against these goals, and other mutually agreed-upon benchmarks, every year by independent evaluators.

The evaluations are not only used by Robin Hood, but by the programs to figure out what’s working and what’s not so that they can improve their services. When a program falls below expectations, Robin Hood assists it in refocusing its efforts. If performance doesn’t improve, funding is reduced or eliminated. When we find something that works, we stick with it.

To spend donor money wisely, Robin Hood created metrics to compare the relative poverty-fighting success of similar programs—say, one job-training program to another. But, to spend money truly wisely, Robin Hood needs to compare the effectiveness of dissimilar programs. We need to know if we can cut poverty by shifting money from any one of our job-training programs to any one of our after-school programs—increasing success by a shift in resources without spending an extra dime. Robin Hood uses metrics that capture the poverty-fighting effectiveness of each grantee on a common scale, allowing comparisons of any one to another.

Metrics matter. If we allocate grant money unwisely—spending too much on one group or too little on another—we fail to do our best for New York’s 1.9 million disadvantaged children and adults. We do not use metrics as the sole basis of grant decisions, however, and rely heavily on the detailed expertise of our program officers and a wealth of qualitative data.

Find out how we evaluate programs with metrics.