Measuring Our Impact

We find it important that our supporters around the world understand both why and how we collect information on our communities to improve our programs in Ghana. Over the past few years we have used several different measures to gauge our impact including:

• Grameen’s Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI) to collect quantitative data on our clients. The PPI is a survey that gives us an idea of where a given person falls with regard to national poverty levels. By surveying all new Lumana loan applicants and studying this data, we are able to better ensure that we are creating programs that focus our efforts on the poorest inhabitants of our communities, and track their progress towards greater financial security.
• On the ground research that our 27 international fellows have compiled over the past 2 ½ years. Members of our volunteer program have produced some amazing materials on local industries, economic trends and specific clients we work with. We’ll continue these efforts in the future to further the partnership between our fellows and clients on the ground in Ghana. 

Moving forward, we have started using the following metrics which we will be ready to report on next year:

• Client goal setting workshops where our present clients document and track their progress toward reaching their goals. Clients set goals on their own terms and we track our success as an organization based on our clients ability to reach their personal and financial goals within a reasonable and agreed upon time frame.
• Enforcing the adoption of savings as an important indicator of a client’s financial security. We use savings balances, plans and achievable savings goals that clients make throughout their relationship with Lumana to gauge their success.