Mobility Outcome Measurement
Track whether social programs create durable gains beyond participation.
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 95%
Mobility Outcome Measurement starts by defining the life improvement a program should create, then follows participants beyond immediate service delivery. A job-training program therefore records more than attendance: it compares post-graduation salary with the participant’s baseline, checks whether employment persists after a year, and measures movement above poverty thresholds. Education programs similarly track graduation, further study, and employment. The framework also recognizes that outcomes depend on prerequisites. A person facing violence, hunger, housing instability, or untreated mental-health needs may require safety and support before training can work. Metrics guide funding and program design, while the holistic view prevents narrow scorecards from ignoring the conditions necessary for durable mobility.
Origin
Extracted from Masters in Business through Peter Borish’s description of Robin Hood Foundation’s data-intensive approach to measuring mobility from poverty.
Core principles
- 01Measure durable outcomes rather than activity.
- 02Compare results with participants’ starting position.
- 03Track whether gains persist over time.
- 04Support prerequisite needs that enable progress.
- 05Combine focused metrics with a holistic service model.
How to run it
- 1
Define the durable outcome
Specify the economic, educational, housing, health, or safety improvement the program intends to create. Distinguish that outcome from activities such as enrollment or meals served.
Pro tip Express success as a change in participant condition over a defined period.
Watch out Do not use easily counted activity as a substitute for impact.
- 2
Establish the baseline
Record the participant’s relevant starting condition, such as income, employment, education, housing stability, or food security. Use the baseline for later comparison.
Pro tip Collect only data needed for decisions and protect participant privacy.
Watch out Without a baseline, improvement may be impossible to distinguish from selection effects.
- 3
Measure immediate progress
Track completion, placement, graduation, or another near-term result. Check whether the service reached the intended population and delivered its core intervention.
Pro tip Separate program completion from the outcome expected after completion.
Watch out A high completion rate does not guarantee better lives.
- 4
Track persistence
Revisit participants after an appropriate interval to measure job retention, income growth, continued education, or other lasting gains. Compare these results with the baseline.
Pro tip Choose follow-up intervals that match how quickly the intended change should become durable.
Watch out One-time post-program success can disappear without follow-up.
- 5
Support prerequisites
Identify safety, food, shelter, childcare, mental-health, or other barriers that prevent participants from benefiting from the primary program. Fund or coordinate those supports where necessary.
Pro tip Map dependencies around the participant rather than evaluating each service in isolation.
Watch out A narrow intervention may fail because an unmet prerequisite overwhelms it.
- 6
Use evidence to allocate
Compare programs by durable outcomes, cost, and participant needs. Continue, redesign, or stop funding according to evidence while retaining room for services whose value is harder to quantify.
Pro tip Combine quantitative outcomes with informed qualitative review.
Watch out Do not force every humane service into a single simplistic metric.
In the wild
A program records each participant’s income before training, starting salary after graduation, employment status one year later, and income relative to the poverty level. Enrollment remains an operating metric but is not treated as the final result.
→ Funding decisions reflect durable economic mobility rather than the number of people processed by the program.
A parent escaping abuse cannot benefit from job training until the family has a safe place to stay and reliable food. The grantmaker funds shelter and food support first, then connects the parent with education and employment services.
→ The primary mobility intervention becomes viable because prerequisite needs are addressed.
Common mistakes
Counting participants as impact
The program reports how many people enrolled but never determines whether their income, education, or stability improved.
Ending measurement at graduation
Immediate completion is celebrated without checking whether employment or educational progress persists.
Searching for one magic bullet
A narrow service is expected to solve poverty while safety, food, housing, or other binding constraints remain unmet.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for grantmakers and nonprofits funding employment, education, and poverty-mobility programs.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal when reduced measurement burden is essential for emergency relief or when long-term participant tracking would create privacy or safety risks.
From the transcript
“So if it's a job training program, it's not just a number of people that are in there.”
“Do they still have that job a year later? Are they making more money? Are they at some percentage above the poverty level?”
“So it's all very data intensive and metric intensive.”
From the episode
Peter Borish on Lessons From the 1987 Market Crash
Peter Borish