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Ravishankar Iyer

#SOTD 94: Using the right norms for key metrics (Milaan Foundation)

Published over 1 year ago • 1 min read

This week I'm sharing good storytelling examples from the social development sector in India.

On Monday I profiled Aavishkar, which started its deck with the story of an individual beneficiary; on Tuesday we looked at The Bodhi Tree's use of contrasting visuals and yesterday we explored Vidhya Vidhai Foundation's use of the big picture and a simple analogy.

Today we look Milaan Foundation, a Gurgaon-based non-profit which works on empowering adolescent girls.

But hang on, what does that mean?

Milaan Foundation is very clear what it means. For one, they have a specific 18-month flagship program called 'Girl Icon'

It's good to have a well-structured program. But a key question is how would you measure the impact of the such an initiative? Milaan has a clear slide that explains how they do that - and also their stated target against those measures:

Knowing the metrics that you want to optimise (also known as OKRs) is crucial to align your actions.

Finally, you need to measure your actual performance along the chosen metrics. And while doing that, don't forget a crucial storytelling step: showing the right norms alongside.

This is how Milaan shows its impact slide.

I loved the use of clear norms - for every metric, they have shown the number for Milaan as compared to the number for India as a whole (which is the norm).

The significant variance from the norm is what makes us appreciate Milaan's work.

In addition to choosing the right metrics and highlighting the norms, another smart aspect of Milaan's slides are the simple and consistent use of colours. Overall one of the best non-profit pitch decks I've come across.

#SOTD 94

Ravi

PS: Here is the context for #SOTD and the 'Ultimate Guide to Storytelling Techniques' framework I use - in case you joined this series late! Here is the archive of previous posts. Click here to subscribe.

Ravishankar Iyer

A Storytelling Coach More details here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravishankar-iyer/

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