Senior Director of Measurement & Impact (Volunteer)

Senior Director of Measurement & Impact (Volunteer)

PromiseMeasure | Measurement, Evaluation, Data & Organizational Impact

Organization: Mentor A Promise (MAP)

Division: PromiseMeasure

Location: Fully Remote — United States, with NYC-based collaboration as needed

Type: Volunteer Senior Leadership Role

Commitment: Approximately 5–10 hours per week

Minimum Commitment: 6 months

Reports To: Chief of Measurement, Evaluation & Impact

Directly Oversees: PromiseMeasure Department Directors, Managers, Leads, Analysts, Specialists, and designated measurement initiatives

Works Closely With: PromisePrograms, PromiseLearning, PromiseRise, PromiseResearch, PromiseOperations, PromiseFinance, PromiseGiving, PromiseBridge, PromisePublic, PromiseShield, PromiseStack, Executive Team, and other MAP divisions

About Mentor A Promise

Mentor A Promise (MAP) is a New York City–based nonprofit supporting children and youth ages 5–18 experiencing housing instability through mentorship, education, enrichment, creative expression, career development, advocacy, and community-centered opportunity.

MAP believes meaningful impact requires more than delivering programs.

We must understand who we are reaching, what participants experience, whether intended outcomes are occurring, where disparities or barriers exist, what is working, what is not working, and what we should do differently because of what we learn.

About PromiseMeasure

PromiseMeasure is MAP's measurement, evaluation, data, and organizational impact division.

The division strengthens how MAP defines success, establishes outcomes, collects and validates data, measures performance, evaluates programs, gathers feedback, develops dashboards, communicates verified results, and turns evidence into organizational learning.

Its central question is:

Are we achieving the outcomes we intended—and what should we learn from the answer?

PromiseMeasure exists not simply to prove that MAP's work matters.

It exists to help MAP understand whether, where, how, and for whom it matters.

Role Overview

The Senior Director of Measurement & Impact serves as the second-in-command of PromiseMeasure and the principal execution leader beneath the Chief of Measurement, Evaluation & Impact.

The distinction is intentional.

The Chief establishes MAP's enterprise measurement, evaluation, and impact strategy, standards, priorities, and long-term direction.

The Senior Director builds and leads the systems that put that strategy into practice.

The Senior Director coordinates PromiseMeasure departments, establishes measurement infrastructure, strengthens methodological quality, develops evaluation systems, oversees data-quality practices, supports analysts and measurement professionals, and ensures findings become useful organizational knowledge.

This role should help MAP answer increasingly sophisticated questions:

Who participated?

Who did not?

What happened?

What changed?

How much changed?

For whom did it change?

What evidence supports that conclusion?

What else might explain what we observed?

What are the limitations of our evidence?

What should MAP do differently because of what we learned?

Measurement & Impact Leadership

• Translate the Chief's measurement and impact strategy into implementation plans, priorities, milestones, and deliverables.
• Lead day-to-day execution across PromiseMeasure.
• Establish consistent organization-wide measurement practices.
• Develop practical frameworks for measuring outputs, outcomes, performance, quality, experience, and longer-term impact.
• Establish measurement expectations appropriate to different MAP programs and initiatives.
• Ensure measurement efforts remain proportional to the decisions they are intended to inform.
• Identify gaps in MAP's ability to understand organizational performance and impact.
• Recommend improvements to the Chief and appropriate organizational leaders.

Not everything that matters can be reduced to a number.

Not every number that can be collected is worth collecting.

PromiseMeasure should know the difference.

Theory of Change & Outcomes Frameworks

Help MAP establish clear connections among:

Need → Activities → Outputs → Short-Term Outcomes → Intermediate Outcomes → Long-Term Impact

Work with divisions to:

• Clarify intended outcomes.
• Develop theories of change and logic models where appropriate.
• Identify assumptions underlying programs.
• Define indicators.
• Establish baselines where feasible.
• Determine reasonable targets or benchmarks.
• Identify appropriate data sources.
• Establish measurement frequency.
• Clarify responsibility for collection and reporting.
• Determine how findings will inform decisions.

A measurement framework should begin with understanding what MAP is trying to accomplish—not with deciding what fields can fit into a spreadsheet.

Monitoring & Evaluation

Oversee monitoring and evaluation approaches across MAP programs and initiatives.

• Develop evaluation plans appropriate to program maturity and organizational capacity.
• Support formative, process, implementation, outcome, and other appropriate evaluation approaches.
• Establish evaluation questions.
• Develop indicators and measurement plans.
• Review data-collection methods.
• Assess implementation fidelity where appropriate.
• Analyze program performance and outcomes.
• Identify patterns and differences among participant experiences where the data responsibly permits.
• Communicate limitations and uncertainty.
• Translate findings into practical recommendations.

Evaluation should help MAP improve programs—not simply produce reports about them.

Data & Measurement Systems

Strengthen the infrastructure through which MAP collects, organizes, validates, analyzes, and uses measurement data.

Responsibilities may include:

• Data dictionaries
• Indicator definitions
• Data-collection protocols
• Measurement calendars
• Data-validation procedures
• Data-quality checks
• Documentation standards
• Dataset organization
• Reporting workflows
• Dashboard requirements
• Measurement repositories
• Version control
• Data lineage and source documentation where appropriate

Partner with PromiseStack on technical infrastructure and PromiseShield on privacy, data protection, access, and appropriate information-handling requirements.

The goal is to create data people can trust.

Data Quality & Integrity

Establish clear expectations for measurement quality.

Monitor dimensions such as:

• Completeness
• Accuracy
• Consistency
• Timeliness
• Validity
• Reliability
• Documentation
• Appropriate interpretation

Develop processes for identifying and resolving data-quality issues.

When data is incomplete, uncertain, or methodologically limited, say so.

MAP should never make a stronger claim than its evidence can responsibly support.

KPIs & Performance Measurement

Lead the development of meaningful organizational and program-level key performance indicators.

Help leaders distinguish among:

Activities → Outputs → Quality → Outcomes → Impact

For example, the number of workshops delivered may describe activity.

Attendance may describe reach.

Participant experience may describe quality.

Demonstrated development may indicate an outcome.

Those measures answer different questions and should not be treated as interchangeable.

Develop performance systems that help leadership understand what is on track, what requires attention, and what decisions may be necessary.

Surveys, Assessments & Feedback

Oversee the development and appropriate use of measurement instruments involving:

• Students
• Parents and caregivers
• Mentors
• Volunteers
• Educators
• Partners
• Program participants
• Staff and organizational stakeholders, where appropriate

Strengthen:

• Survey design
• Question construction
• Response scales
• Administration methods
• Accessibility
• Timing
• Response-rate strategies
• Analysis
• Documentation
• Interpretation

Avoid collecting information simply because it might be interesting someday.

Every meaningful question should have a reason for being asked.

Youth & Family-Centered Measurement

Ensure measurement involving young people and families reflects MAP's dignity-centered and safeguarding commitments.

• Use age-appropriate instruments.
• Minimize unnecessary data collection.
• Avoid intrusive questions without legitimate purpose.
• Consider accessibility and language needs.
• Protect confidentiality.
• Establish appropriate consent and permission processes where required.
• Avoid repeatedly asking participants to recount difficult experiences merely to demonstrate organizational impact.
• Explain how information will be used where appropriate.
• Create opportunities for participants to understand what MAP learned from their feedback.

People are not data points.

Measurement should help MAP understand experiences without reducing individuals to the information collected about them.

Impact Analytics & Reporting

Oversee the development of:

• Executive dashboards
• Program dashboards
• Impact reports
• Evaluation reports
• Measurement summaries
• Outcome reports
• Data visualizations
• Leadership briefings
• Board-ready measurement materials
• Grant and partnership impact information
• Organizational performance summaries

Translate technical findings into clear language without sacrificing accuracy.

Senior leaders should be able to understand:

What does the evidence show?

How confident are we?

What does it not show?

Why does it matter?

What should we consider doing next?

Evidence & Claims Review

Help protect MAP's credibility by establishing standards for organizational impact claims.

When MAP communicates results externally, PromiseMeasure should help verify that claims are supported by available evidence.

Partner with PromiseGiving, PromiseBridge, PromisePublic, PromiseVoice, and Executive Leadership when measurement information is used for grants, fundraising, partnerships, reports, advocacy, presentations, or public communications.

PromiseMeasure should never become the department asked to find a number that makes an already-written claim sound convincing.

Evidence should inform the story.

The story should not determine the evidence.

Continuous Improvement & Organizational Learning

Build feedback loops that connect measurement to action.

Use a cycle such as:

Measure → Understand → Discuss → Decide → Improve → Reassess

Facilitate conversations about:

• What is working
• What is not
• What surprised us
• What changed
• What remains unclear
• What participants are telling us
• What needs further investigation
• What should be improved
• What should continue
• What should stop

Measurement becomes valuable when learning changes behavior.

Cross-Divisional Measurement Partnership

PromiseMeasure should function as an internal measurement partner rather than a distant auditing function.

The Senior Director will help divisions define appropriate outcomes, indicators, data needs, and evaluation approaches while respecting functional ownership.

PromisePrograms owns program delivery.

PromiseLearning owns educational quality and learning design.

PromiseRise owns career-readiness and youth-pathway programming.

PromiseFinance owns financial accounting and financial reporting.

PromiseResearch develops original research and contributes new knowledge.

PromiseShield owns applicable privacy and data-protection requirements.

PromiseStack owns appropriate technology infrastructure.

PromiseMeasure owns MAP's organizational measurement, evaluation, outcome monitoring, impact analysis, and measurement standards.

Good measurement requires partnership without confusing ownership.

PromiseMeasure & PromiseResearch

The Senior Director must maintain a clear relationship between PromiseMeasure and PromiseResearch.

PromiseMeasure primarily asks:

How are MAP's programs and organization performing, and what outcomes are we observing?

PromiseResearch may ask:

What can systematic inquiry help us understand about a broader question, population, condition, intervention, or field?

The functions may collaborate on methodology, data, analysis, and learning, but they should not become interchangeable.

Where work crosses into formal human-subjects research or other specialized research activity, appropriate ethical, legal, privacy, safeguarding, and research requirements must be considered before proceeding.

Division Leadership

Lead PromiseMeasure as a coordinated organizational function.

• Coordinate department directors and functional leaders.
• Establish division priorities.
• Develop operating rhythms and workflows.
• Recruit qualified measurement professionals, analysts, specialists, volunteers, and interns.
• Establish clear responsibilities and deliverables.
• Review work for methodological and analytical quality.
• Mentor emerging professionals.
• Build technical and leadership capacity.
• Identify resource and capability gaps.
• Promote collaboration rather than methodological silos.
• Maintain accountability for agreed priorities.
• Provide the Chief with concise reporting on progress, findings, risks, and decisions required.

The Senior Director should build a measurement organization—not become MAP's only measurement expert.

Measurement Ethics

The Senior Director should help establish a culture where ethical measurement is inseparable from good measurement.

MAP should ask:

Do we actually need this information?

Do participants understand why we are collecting it?

Are we collecting more than necessary?

Could this information create risk?

Who can access it?

How long should it be retained?

Are we interpreting it fairly?

Could our methodology systematically exclude certain participants?

Are we making claims the evidence cannot support?

What responsibility do we have to communicate what we learned back to the people who contributed the information?

Impact should never be demonstrated at the expense of dignity.

Leadership Expectations

The Senior Director should be analytically rigorous without becoming inaccessible.

The strongest candidate can discuss methodology with an evaluator, data architecture with a technical team, program outcomes with a director, and organizational impact with an executive—and communicate appropriately to each audience.

This leader should be willing to challenge conclusions when the evidence does not support them.

The role requires:

• Intellectual honesty
• Analytical rigor
• Curiosity
• Systems thinking
• Sound judgment
• Strong communication
• Collaborative leadership
• Methodological discipline
• Comfort with uncertainty
• Respect for lived experience
• Ability to translate evidence into action

Qualifications

Strong candidates may have experience in:

• Monitoring and evaluation
• Measurement, evaluation, and learning
• Impact measurement
• Program evaluation
• Data analytics
• Performance management
• Applied social research
• Education evaluation
• Youth-development evaluation
• Nonprofit impact
• Learning and assessment
• Data strategy

Candidates should demonstrate:

• Experience developing measurement or evaluation frameworks.
• Experience defining outcomes and indicators.
• Experience with KPIs and performance measurement.
• Strong quantitative and/or qualitative analytical capabilities.
• Experience with surveys, assessments, or other data-collection tools.
• Ability to evaluate data quality and methodological limitations.
• Ability to translate complex findings into understandable insights.
• Strong project-management and organizational skills.
• Experience coordinating teams or complex measurement initiatives.
• Strong cross-functional collaboration.
• Commitment to ethical and responsible data practices.
• Alignment with MAP's mission and dignity-centered values.

Experience with nonprofit organizations, education, youth development, housing instability, social services, or community-based organizations is particularly valuable.

Advanced education in evaluation, statistics, data science, public policy, education, social sciences, public health, or a related discipline is welcomed but not required.

Demonstrated judgment and quality of work matter more than credentials alone.

What Success Looks Like

MAP has a credible, consistent, useful measurement ecosystem.

Programs have clearly defined intended outcomes.

Indicators measure things that matter.

Data definitions are consistent.

Data quality improves.

Leaders trust the information they receive.

Dashboards help people make decisions rather than merely display numbers.

Feedback reaches the people capable of acting on it.

Evaluation findings lead to program improvements.

External impact claims can be traced to defensible evidence.

Uncertainty is acknowledged rather than hidden.

PromiseMeasure develops capable leaders and analysts.

And MAP becomes increasingly able to answer not simply what it did, but what changed, what it learned, and what it should do next.

Why This Role Matters

Mission-driven organizations naturally want to believe their work is making a difference.

Belief is where the mission begins.

Evidence is how an organization learns whether its intentions are becoming reality.

MAP should be willing to measure the programs it loves, question the assumptions it holds, acknowledge results it did not expect, and change course when evidence tells us something could be better.

Measurement should not exist to prove that MAP is always right.

It should help MAP become better.

Leadership Structure

Chief of Measurement, Evaluation & Impact → Senior Director of Measurement & Impact → Department Directors → Managers / Leads → Analysts / Specialists / Coordinators → Volunteers / Interns

The Chief determines where PromiseMeasure is going.

The Senior Director makes sure PromiseMeasure gets there.

Commitment

• Approximately 5–10 hours per week
• Minimum 6-month commitment
• Fully remote, with NYC collaboration as needed
• Regular coordination with the Chief of Measurement, Evaluation & Impact
• Participation in applicable PromiseMeasure leadership meetings
• Availability for appropriate cross-divisional collaboration
• Ownership of agreed measurement priorities through completion
• Consistent communication through MAP's approved platforms
• Commitment to MAP's privacy, safeguarding, research, data, and organizational standards

What You'll Gain

• Senior leadership experience within a growing nonprofit organization.
• Opportunity to help build an enterprise measurement and impact function.
• Direct collaboration with executive and program leadership.
• Experience developing organization-wide measurement infrastructure.
• Opportunity to lead multidisciplinary measurement and analytics professionals.
• Experience connecting evaluation findings to organizational decisions.
• Cross-functional exposure across education, youth development, career readiness, research, fundraising, partnerships, technology, and organizational strategy.
• Professional references and recommendations based on demonstrated contribution.
• Meaningful opportunity to strengthen how MAP understands and improves its impact.

How to Apply

Interested candidates must apply directly through Idealist and submit:

• Resume or CV
• Cover letter

Applicants should highlight relevant experience in monitoring and evaluation, measurement and learning, impact measurement, program evaluation, analytics, assessment, performance management, data strategy, or related fields.

Applicants may include a relevant evaluation, dashboard, measurement framework, research, or impact-reporting work sample if available.

This is an unpaid volunteer senior leadership position.

At this time, MAP volunteer opportunities are limited to individuals based in the United States due to legal, safeguarding, data-privacy, compliance, and programmatic requirements.

Measure what matters. Question what the evidence cannot prove. Learn from what the data reveals. Turn insight into action—and help MAP understand not only how much we do, but how much difference we make.