In response to the coronavirus pandemic, MLE Lab 2020 has been postponed to a later date. We are still accepting early registration inquiries. Sign up to receive updates below or email us.
A six-month consulting engagement designed to amplify your organization's social impact.
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WHAT IS MLE LAB?
ORS Impact works with foundations, nonprofits, and governmental agencies to clarify and align their work to achieve social impact goals. We help organizations identify what data to measure and co-create the practices needed for continuous improvement.
Measurement, Learning, and Evaluation (MLE) Lab is a six-month consulting engagement designed so teams can break away from overwhelming processes and model new forms of MLE in a safe learning space, facilitated by field-leading experts in a peer-learning environment. The Lab experience is delivered in two segments:
1. Kickoff workshop with coaches and cohort teams
2. Direct coaching to design and implement an MLE practice
AN MLE PRACTICE IS…
> any work that supports the ongoing measurement of progress toward outcomes
> continuously learning from data to find value and leverage its story
> performing evaluation work that demonstrates impact to funders, leadership, and other audiences
BENEFITS
> In-person time and space to develop a shared language, increase team clarity and alignment, and experiment with techniques that make it easy to engage in MLE work
> 1-on-1 coaching to help your team apply what you’re learning in real-time and make concrete, realistic progress towards your organizational goals
> Facilitation tools and resources to engage others—staff, stakeholders, partners, etc.—in MLE practices and empower them to make the most informed decisions
By the end of six months, teams will have made concrete progress toward building or strengthening their measurement, learning, and evaluation practice, as well as how to create buy-in of MLE and embed it into a regular practice for the organization.
TEAM STRUCTURE
MLE Lab is designed for teams of at least two or three people from philanthropic, nonprofit, and public sector organizations of any size and level of experience. This is because we believe that meaningful MLE is not the work of one person. To be truly effective and transformative for organizations, it requires participation of at a minimum two or three people who, through this engagement, develop a shared language and understanding of an MLE practice that will work for their organization’s needs.
People with responsibilities outside of evaluation, strategy, learning, or impact are encouraged to attend with their team. Depending on the nature of the work, teams can be composed of a variety of titles, roles, and responsibilities across foundation, nonprofit, and governmental organizations:
> Foundation teams may represent programs or initiatives and include program and evaluation officers
> Nonprofit teams may include people with strategy, program, communication, and/or evaluation responsibilities, as well as those in leadership positions
> Government agency teams may be comprised of departmental or cross-departmental teams
Whatever the appropriate make-up, the purpose is the same: to align around and share the work, leverage team members’ expertise, and create lasting momentum toward building ownership and embedding MLE practices across the organization.
REGISTRATION CLOSED
Team registration to MLE Lab includes the 2.5-day workshop and six-month consulting engagement. In light of coronavirus challenges, MLE Lab is postponed and registration is closed, but inquiries are welcome. Please get in touch if you want to learn more.
Early bird pricing: 20% discount
2-4 team members: $15,000 $12,000 Includes 30 hours of organizational coaching + all materials
5-6 team members: $18,500 $14,800 Includes 40 hours of organizational coaching + all materials
7+ team members: contact us for pricing
Contact Us
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Send us your general inquiries or describe your MLE goals through a free consult. An MLE Lab Coach will contact you to answer questions and provide guidance.
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What Lab alumni are saying
Previous team cohorts have included:
We were a little lost coming into MLE Lab. We didn’t know where to begin in the data collection and review process, but the [Lab] really helped us think about outcomes and goals.
The ORS Impact staff create a real, safe learning environment which I think was key for me and my team.
We work in very complex systems [in a private foundation]. It's hard to measure things, but the coaches helped us think through this.
Our department sort of had a unified mission, but we’re all doing different kinds of work, and the theory of change really helped get us on the same page.
MLE LAB COACHES
Sarah Stachowiak, CEO
Sarah loves helping organizations think about how data, measurement and evaluation can help them learn and strengthen their work. She is a deep listener, and brings a mix of innovative thinking, deep experience from many fields, and a dose of pragmatism to everything she does.
Sara Afflerback, Director
Sara believes that there is no “one way” that MLE should look—it’s about arriving at a practice that is realistic to implement and that generates data and insights that will help organizations make decisions about strategy.
Joel Gutierrez, Director
An idealist at heart and a realist in action, Joel enjoys helping organizations think through and develop their MLE practices and systems. Working step by step, Joel believes any size organization can benefit from learning and using data to strengthen its work.
ABOUT ORS IMPACT
We specialize in the hard to measure.
Founded in 1989, ORS Impact is an internationally recognized evaluation consulting firm that works at the intersection of measurement, evaluation, and strategy. We work alongside clients—including prominent foundations, funding collaboratives, associations, and nonprofit organizations—to make the complicated accessible, bring new research and new approaches to meaningful work, and deliver the insights our clients need to move from ideas to impact.
Related Resources & Publications
Feature Report
Ongoing measurement, learning and evaluation efforts hold the promise of continuous improvement, better accountability and learning, and—ultimately—more successful work. This piece shares five insights we believe are key.
Download See all Publications
Learn more about our related projects
Feature resource
Theories of change support strategic planning, evaluation designs and Measurement, Learning and Evaluation (MLE) plans. Learn more about its definition, applications, benefits, formats and considerations with this useful handout.