Earlier this quarter, we rolled out one of the final stages in our impact measurement cycle: a follow-up survey that helps us understand the change created by The Shoe That Grows months after a school receives a distribution.

As of just a couple of years ago, we had no process for gathering data. We had some assumptions about how kids and teachers felt about our shoes based on our participation in shoe distributions and hearing some feedback, but we wanted to level up as an organization and actually figure out a reliable process to measure the work we were doing in Kenya.

Fast forward to the end of this year, and we now have a robust process in place! We are a work in progress and will continue to refine our surveys, but I thought I’d take a moment to outline how we get involved with the organizations we partner with in Kenya.

STEP ONE: The requests come in

Someone finds us on LinkedIn, another person hears about The Shoe That Grows from a school in Kenya, someone else emails looking for shoes to fulfill a need. Dozens of requests come in, and we begin the conversation to see if the organization is a potential partner.

STEP TWO: Vision alignment determined

To continue the conversation, we make a discovery call. We ask questions of our new contact—who they serve, what their mission is, and if there’s room for collaboration. During this call, we share about our own mission, some history about us as an organization, and how we operate in Kenya. If we determine there is good alignment, we ask for the organization to submit some documents needed for us to proceed. We collect their registration as an organization, an organizational profile, the number of schools they work with, and an estimated total number of students.

STEP THREE: MOU signed

Once we have collected the requested documents, we formalize the partnership and ask the organization to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Along the way, we’ve learned to formalize the process so everyone knows what to expect! This has been revised as we’ve worked with more and more partners, and I have no doubt we will continue to make changes as we continue to learn. Next year is an election year in Kenya, so we’ve recently added a clause that requires political neutrality, ensuring that a distribution does not happen alongside a campaign that may have ulterior motives beyond simply providing kids a pair of shoes.

STEP FOUR: Training and onboarding conducted

After signing the MOU, we take our new partner organization through a training and onboarding session. Each partner receives a sizing guide, a short video on how The Shoe expands, a media consent form and photo guidelines, a school code and information on how to use the code to collect necessary data for us.  

STEP FIVE: Sizing + pre-distribution surveys completed

When our partner organizations are ready, they head to the schools equipped with their sizing sheet codes. Every student is sized in order for them to receive the correct size of The Shoe that will grow with them for several years. Students and teachers from each school are surveyed using our data collection system (more on this system another time; it is an incredible tool that is user-friendly and effective). I’ve written about these particular surveys in the past, but simply put, they are surveys that help us to understand the actual need for shoes in each particular school.

STEP SIX: Need assessment report created

Back in the U.S., we create a report that highlights our new partner organization and communicates the need for shoes in the schools they serve through stories, quotes and statistics that demonstrate the actual need. As all of the shoes Because distributes are donor-funded, this need assessment helps connect our donors and supporters with the kids across the world who need shoes and are now filled with excitement and hope of receiving them soon.

STEP SEVEN: Shoes are dispatched

Once funding has been secured, we pack up the boxes of shoes and dispatch them from our Nairobi office to the partner organization. They arrange for the distribution to take place on days that work best with the schools they serve.

STEP EIGHT: Distribution day!

Finally, the day has come, and kids gather excitedly to receive their new pairs of The Shoe That Grows. The organization works closely with the schools to make the day as memorable and efficient as possible. During the distribution, our partner organization uses the same data collection system used for the pre-distribution surveys to collect quotes, stories and photos of the shoes actually being distributed. After the distribution, they send a report to us about how the day went.

STEP NINE: Giving in action reports created

Once again back in the U.S., we create a report that we send to donors and supporters to show that we did what we said we’d do with their funds, and to demonstrate that the kids have received the shoes. Again, this helps connect those supporters who helped fund the distribution with the partners who facilitated it and the kids who benefited on the other side of the world—showing that, together, we are actively meeting the need identified in the initial surveys.

STEP TEN: Follow up

While we do our best to ensure a smooth and seamless process, sometimes things happen! If there is a delay in distributing shoes, which can happen due to extreme weather, testing schedules in school or other activities, the situation can change. Sometimes new students have enrolled in the school. Sometimes kids’ feet have already grown a size or two since the initial measurement, and we would like to get them a different size to maximize the value of The Shoe. As we follow up with the organization, we sometimes have to make some shoe exchanges or send them a few additional pairs.

STEP ELEVEN: 4-6 month check-in

This is the latest step we’ve rolled out in the last couple of months! Rather than ending our process with the distribution, we actually want to know how the shoes are being used, how they’re holding up and more information about the outcomes and impact. We go back to the organization within about 4-6 months of the schools receiving the shoes and do some quality control checks: establishing the use, evaluating the buckles, looking at the wear and tear, and making notes on any patterns that we need to relay to the factory for improvements. Additionally, we ask similar questions to the ones we asked before they received the shoes.

This part of the process is truly our first step toward measuring the change that occurs when someone receives a pair of The Shoe That Grows.

So that’s the process, all eleven steps of it. A couple of years ago we were guessing. Now we have a baseline before the shoes arrive and a check-in after, and for the first time we can compare the two.

But a check-in at four to six months is really just a next step in the process, not the end. What we really want to know is what happens over years. Are kids still wearing the shoes? How does it affect their ability to participate in school? Is the barrier we set out to remove actually staying removed? That kind of answer only comes from going back again and again, with the same schools and the same questions, even as new partners keep finding us and requesting shoes to meet the needs of the kids they serve.

So we’ll keep refining. For now, it’s good to stop and say it out loud: we have a process, and it’s working.