Patti Phillips speaks at Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Summit

Montgomery, Alabama (June 23, 2008) The State of Alabama Governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives hosted their 2008 Summit at the Renaissance Hotel in Montgomery, Alabama. Governor Bob Riley opened the summit followed by the Director of the Governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, Sydney Hoffman. Along with Dr. Patti Phillips, presenters included Dr. Stanley Carlson-Thies, Director of Social Policy Studies, Center for Public Justice and Dr. Wayne Flynt, Professor Emeritus, Auburn University.

An audience of approximately 400 included directors and volunteers from faith-based and community organizations from across the State of Alabama. Organizations and programs such as AmeriCorps, ThirdCross Ministries, Church of the Reconciler, Council on Substance Abuse, and Alabama Family Network of Family Resource Centers, among others were were represented.

Phillips’ topic, ROI for the Public Good, resonated with many audience members as resources are often constrained and the impact of their efforts often unknown. In her speech, Phillips told the audience “By linking improvement in the measures you are interested in to your programs, then converting the benefits to dollars, you can clearly see how the benefits compare to the investment. While a high or even positive ROI is not always the goal, it provides program owners and sponsors the ultimate measure of success. ROI places two important issues — costs and benefits — in the same terms. Even more important, the ROI Methodology provides faith-based and community organizations the same opportunity to improve their programs and initiatives as it does private sector organizations.”

Phillips emphasized in her presentation, that it would be easy for organizations to shy away from a program evaluation tool as comprehensive as the ROI Methodology. But she insisted that the ROI Methodology is more than an evaluation tool. It is a results-driven tool designed to make accountability work for the program, not the other way around. “Accountability, measurement and evaluation should be part of the program implementation, not an add-on activity. Faith-based and community initiatives don’t need any more tasks — they need tools that help drive results as well as show contribution.”

“The growing use of the ROI Methodology is astounding,” says Jack Phillips, developer of the ROI Methodology. “Patti’s efforts to expand the process to those programs intended to do good, emphasize the ROI Methodology’s flexibility and usefulness. Patti believes that in order to good, organizations and people must first do well. This methodology supports the concept of doing good by doing well through helping organizations drive intended results and accounting for the results achieved.”