Can you believe it’s August already with Darkness to Light already logging the first month of our FY25 in the books?
It feels like we only just finished up our FY24 at the end of June with all the usual end-of-year reporting, account reconciliations, audits, state filings, and the like, to now focus on extending our impact into the new fiscal year. I want to thank all of you who have walked beside us this past year and who are continuing the journey with us as we work together to #endchildsexualabuse.
When looking forward it is also good to look back, so let’s do that.
STAFF AND TRAINING
Last fiscal year we went lean to keep our mission alive, pulling back to our core of preventing child sexual abuse through awareness, stigma reduction, and adult-focused education. Since then, though, we added an incredible new Instructional Designer, Ramon Negrón, who is instrumental in designing and developing culturally relevant training for the Hispanic community. There will be invitations extended to facilitators to pilot the new Guardianes de Los Niños this Fall. Stay tuned in September for our Why Guardianes de Los Niños series and incredible behind-the-scenes content. Also mapped out in the new fiscal year is an even more robust curriculum suite, with a planned interactive Safety in Seconds series.
CONNECTIONS
We know that this work takes a community effort. This past year we strengthened pivotal relationships with advocates at various child advocacy centers and school districts, with our Exchange Club partners both at the national and local levels, the Missouri Network Against Child Abuse, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Prevent Together, The Moore Center – just to name a few. We also made new friends in this space with the American Kennel Club, California Training Institute, End OSEAC Coalition, and Prevent Child Abuse Florida, among others. In this new fiscal year, we will continue strengthening our connections and doing our part as providers of world-class training and programming and as thought leaders in this space to create strong, resilient, prevention-oriented communities. To that end also, I am personally proud of our launch of the Advocacy Collaborative award and am excited to see how that can grow, opening more avenues of access to communities who need these resources. Be sure to share this application with all who may benefit!
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPIs)
I confess, I did a Google search to determine if organizations ever shared their KPIs externally and the results I got back were a mixed bag. Ultimately, I decided that for you to understand where we’re headed it makes sense to share our 9 organizational KPIs that we tracked against this past year, and that will continue to be tracked for this new fiscal year. The specific metrics that are linked to these KPIs would probably be pushing the envelope though, so I kept the information very high level for each. (You’re welcome! )
- Brand Awareness – We will continue establishing our brand authority in child sexual abuse prevention education utilizing our marketing and communications roadmap as our anchor.
- Inquiries Received – We aim to improve Darkness to Light’s partner services while reducing the number of service inquiries by at least 25%, so that we better serve you.
- Engagement Rate – We will work to increase engagement rates through various channels like social media, a new website expected to be launched in September, diverse partnerships, etc. while elevating the work done by others to further prevention efforts.
- Learner Satisfaction – Our feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and we’re looking to keep that momentum going and maintain at least a 4-star rating across all our programming. A learner who leaves our training satisfied, is one more person empowered to make a difference in a child’s life.
- Net Burn – We will continue being good stewards of the dollars entrusted to us and reduce expenses that do not further our operations and by extension, our mission.
- Net Promoter Score – We obtained our baseline NPS last fiscal year (71) which is good for a non-profit our size, so we’re looking to maintain or raise that score this new year.
- Project Burndown – This is essentially what will keep us on track based on our production calendars to ensure that you’re receiving what you need in a timely fashion.
- Release Tracker – This ensures that we’re releasing new, relevant content as we move forward, so that you have the appropriate tools to continue making this world safer for children.
- Revenue – We will use this to keep us on track with our budget compared to our actuals.
What all of the above is saying is that we will continue to hold ourselves accountable, accomplishing exactly what we set out to do: lend our voice and wield our influence to advance prevention education work. We will achieve this in partnership with the amazing individuals and organizations dedicated to this fight too.
Let’s protect a child’s right to a healthy childhood. Together.
Yours in prevention,
Rhonda
