Sourcewell
Sourcewell is a public service organization based in central Minnesota that supports government agencies, nonprofits, and communities through cooperative purchasing and community-focused programs. Through its Community Solutions division, Sourcewell works directly with regional partners to strengthen community development, improve service delivery, and enhance quality of life.
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While Community Solutions was very engaged in meaningful, relationship-driven work, its systems for tracking data, evaluating programs, and reporting outcomes were spread across teams, tools, and workflows. This made it difficult to fully capture its contributions or communicate a cohesive story of community impact. At the same time, much of its work is difficult to quantify through traditional metrics alone. Without a shared framework, important outcomes often went undocumented. Our role was to design an integrated framework that connected day-to-day activities to measurable outcomes and long-term community impact.
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Establish a cohesive system for tracking and measuring program and service impact.
Align activities, outcomes, and long-term community impact through a clear strategic framework.
Strengthen internal coordination and data-informed decision-making across teams.
Enhance Sourcewell’s ability to communicate its value and role within the regional ecosystem.
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The result was a shared strategic and operational framework that clarifies the complexity of the organization and connects its day-to-day work to measurable outcomes. We developed a theory of change, operational logic model, and integrated impact measurement and evaluation plan to establish a clear pathway from activities to outcomes and long-term impact. By identifying core activity areas and connecting them to targeted outcomes, the framework created a structured way to understand how individual efforts contribute to broader impact. Each activity connected to multiple outcomes, reinforcing the interconnected nature of Community Solutions’ work and highlighting opportunities for greater alignment across teams and programs.
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Aug 2023–Apr 2024
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Michael Brydge — Project supervisor, tool design, client communication, data collection and analysis, discovery, and report writing
Jordan Greene — Tool design, client communication, data collection and analysis, in-person strategic planning, and report writing
Julianna Smith — Graphic and layout design, creative direction, and data visualization
“Working with Sweet Grass was a huge win for our team. For years, we struggled to measure the impact of our work across the five-county region we serve. Choosing Sweet Grass was easy due to their impressive previous work and their engaging, understanding, and confident approach.” —Charitie Herbst, Sourcewell
