Today we’d like to introduce you to Sheri Chaney Jones.
Hi Sheri, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Decades before I was an international speaker, author, and entrepreneur, I was envisioning a better future for myself and others and taking actions to make it happen. At the age of 10, I won a Delaware Gazette essay contest on what I wanted to be when I grew up. While other girls were playing Barbies, I was dreaming of becoming a world-renowned pathologist who finds the cure for AIDS. My early years were spent looking at blood cells under my microscope and competing in science fairs by studying “what is growing in your kitchen”.
My professional path was spurred on by a persistent curiosity about what made the world work; specifically, I wanted to understand what really predicted success and high-performance in people, groups, and organizations. Therefore, I pursed an B.S. in Psychology from The Ohio State University and an M.A. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Central Michigan University.
I fell in love with using data and applying business strategies to impact underserved populations during my first job after graduate school. I was thrilled at the opportunity to move back to Columbus to start a career as a full-time research associate with Decision Support Services, Inc. I was responsible for managing two statewide research projects funded by the Ohio Department of Mental Health. I helped developed an assessment tool used by case manages to help individuals with severe and persistent mental illness find jobs. Also, I was a pioneer researcher in the field of “implementation science”, the study of what makes evidence-based practices work in systems and organizations.
At the age of 26 I leveraged my positive track record of using data to improve public organizations and was hired as the Deputy Director of Performance Evaluation at the Franklin County Domestic and Juvenile Court. My responsibilities included establishing key performance measures and organizational systems that led to significant savings and increases in grant funding for court programs.
In 2007, I brought my knowledge and skills to the State of Ohio as the Ohio Department of Aging’s Performance Center Manager. My role was to bring strategic direction and data-driven insights that improved how the state achieved choice, independence and quality of life for all aging Ohioans. A highlight of my work with the State, was the development of the Long-Term Care Savings Calculator, which helped the state of Ohio save more than $250 million dollars in Medicaid spending and prevented more than 8,000 seniors from having to move into nursing homes.
In 2008, my entrepreneurial bug began to stir. I felt the called to help as many government and nonprofit leaders as possible achieve the kind of success she helped the Court and The Department of Aging experience. I launched Measurement Resources Company, an organizational development and research firm devoted specifically to the social sector’s needs. Specifically, Measurement Resources offers customized, cost effective, and efficient services delivered by highly qualified trained staff that understand the unique issues of government and nonprofit organizations.
Today, I’m realizing my vision of leading a national firm that is changing the way government and nonprofit organizations do business, and as a result bring in true social change. I have grown MRC from me as a solopreneur to now a team of nine full-time, professional-level consultants severing organizations all across the United States and Canada with full-scale research, capacity building, performance measurement development, strategic planning and needs assessments.
Over the past 14 years, I’ve taken my passion for high-performance measurement in government and nonprofit organizations all over North American and have trained thousands of professionals through keynotes, workshops, and webinars. Exclusively serving leaders who could afford Measurement Resources’ services was unacceptable. My desire is that all leaders devoted to changing the world would have access to the knowledge and skills needed. Therefore, I wrote Impact & Excellence: Data-driven strategies for aligning mission, culture, and performance in nonprofit and government organizations, which was published by Jossey-Bass in 2014. Impact & Excellence was awarded an Axiom Business Book Award Gold Medal in the Philanthropy and Nonprofit Category.
Listening to the needs of her customers, my husband, Matt Jones, and I launched a high-growth software company in 2018. SureImpact is an innovative cloud-based platform that allows government and nonprofit organizations better track, measure, and communicate their impact and value. In order to launch this business, I successful raised $1.6 million dollars in outside investment in pre-seed and seed funding rounds led by Rev1 Ventures.
In addition, to running my businesses, I’m a passionate advocate for women’s equity and the advancement of girls. I am the Columbus Chapter President of the National Association of Women Business Owners and a Commissioner for the Columbus Women’s Commission for the Mayor’s Office.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My special word is “persistence” as no life worth living is free of obstacles. As a child, I was diagnosed with a form of dyslexia, which spurred my curiosity for how we label children with learning differences. Although adults were making decisions for me based on my diagnosis and test scores, I knew that I could achieve anything I set my mind to and continued to work hard to prove those adults wrong. With hard work and persistence, I graduated 9th in my high school class and graduated from Ohio State Magna Cum Laude and with an Honors Diploma. As an entrepreneur, it seems that every day present a new challenge. Over the past 14 years, I’ve dealt with lack of brand awareness, lack of access to capital, cash flow challenges, turnover challenges, and the occasional client issues. Yet, I have use the skills I learned in my youth to take the next faithful step to pivot and overcome these issues.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
SureImpact is a software as a service (SaaS) company that equips the social-service ecosystem with a user-friendly case management and reporting platform that enables organizations to measure and communicate their unique social impact. Social sector organizations have moved from focusing on tracking the number of clients served (outputs) to seeking to track how they have improved the lives of individuals and communities (impact). In addition, the funders who invest in social-service organizations have begun requiring proof of social impact in order to provide funding. After 20 years of consulting and helping organizations measure and share their impact stories, SureImpact founders determined there was no available technology solution that connected the entire social-service ecosystem with the needed real-time data tracking and social impact reporting. SureImpact is specifically designed to provide the data collection and impact reporting infrastructure that connects all members of the social-service ecosystem, including service providers, government organizations, funders, and other collaborators. Members of the SureImpact community are able to use data they collect in order to measure and prove their social impact and return on investment for donors and investors. This secure data platform helps them understand what types of interventions are most beneficial to solve complex social problems. To meet the unique needs of members of the social-service ecosystem, there are multiple ways that data can be entered in SureImpact. Organizations can choose to use SureImpact as their case management software and directly enter data, or they can quickly upload data from another software system. This is important because many social-service organizations are required to use multiple software systems by their funders. SureImpact drives the alignment between actions and outcomes with real-time dashboards that are unique to each member of the ecosystem. Frontline staff have dashboards that show individual outcomes and help them manage their caseloads. Non-profit executives can see how their programs are working and better tell their story to attract more funding. Data are de-identified and then seamlessly shared with funders, allowing them to review the collective impact of their grantees and ensure they are investing in programs that work.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
In 2006, I took on my most important life’s work when I became a mother. Today, I’m the mom of four children ages 16, 14, 11, and 9. When not at work, you will find me and my husband Matt serving as cheerleaders at swim meets water polo, basketball, soccer, and baseball games.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sureimpact.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sureimpactinc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SureImpactInc
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherichaneyjones/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3rNbqQS1exeG82Dx24xxcQ
- Other: www.measurementresourcesco.com
