ITNAmerica

About ITNAmerica

ITNAmerica is the first and only national nonprofit transportation system for America’s aging population. The organization’s model marries the power of information technology and the strength of local, grassroots support. ITNAmerica’s goal is to create an efficient and financially sustainable solution to the transportation needs of seniors and their families throughout the world. It provides rides with door-through-door, arm-through-arm service to thousands of seniors nationwide.

ITNAmerica offers its 24-hour transportation service for seniors in 14 cities across the country, including Chicago, IL; Las Vegas, NV; Los Angeles, CA; Middletown, CT; Orlando, FL; and Portland, ME.

ITNAmerica’s Approach to Performance Measurement

ITNAmerica’s performance measurement system centers on its customized database, ITNRides™, which all of the organization’s affiliates use to dispatch cars to seniors who call requesting rides. The database collects and aggregates information for each affiliate on the total number of rides, the number of rides given by volunteers, and the relationship between occupied and unoccupied miles.

ITNAmerica has also created an annual survey that measures customer satisfaction for each individual affiliate, as well as the organization as a whole. The survey is conducted with ITNAmerica riders across the country and poses questions dealing with the quality of their service, such as how punctual the drivers are and whether or not riders are satisfied with the prices offered. The organization also recently carried out a four-year evaluation of their impact on the quality of life of riders. This process involved surveying the senior citizens who use ITNAmerica’s service as well as their adult children and ITNAmerica volunteers who serve as drivers for the organization.

To aid affiliates in making use of this data, ITNAmerica has developed two separate dashboards: an operations dashboard, used to track outcomes, and an executive dashboard that focuses on process measures. The operations dashboard connects directly to the ITNRides™ software and enables affiliates to track trends relating to the total number of rides provided, the number of rides given by volunteers as opposed to paid drivers, and the relationship between occupied and unoccupied miles for their cars. The executive dashboard is centered on evaluating community engagement by tracking donations, car trades, presentations given by the staff, recruitment of new volunteers, and other measures. Available on ITNAmerica’s portal, these dashboards are managed by staff at the affiliate level and then presented to their board of directors on a monthly basis.

ITNAmerica trains the affiliates to analyze the dashboard data and provides continuous support through both individual and group phone calls. Affiliates also have the opportunity to share ideas and insight at an annual retreat.

The Benefits

Collecting data on performance measures and training affiliates to analyze it has enabled ITNAmerica to inform significant decisions about their service. For example, the organization had considered displaying an ITNAmerica sign on the cars, but learned through its customer satisfaction surveys that their customers prefer riding in cars that blend in with other cars on the road.

The organization was also interested in learning if riders found their prices to be fair, since a frequently cited concern for those considering the ITNAmerica model was whether the senior community could afford it. The organization decided to ask riders how they felt about the prices being charged and found that for the most part, their beneficiaries were satisfied with ITNAmerica’s fares. Only three percent of the surveyed felt the service was too expensive.

ITNAmerica has also been able to identify patterns and compare affiliates through its data collection and analysis. For example, by measuring the performance of each of its affiliates, ITNAmerica realized that the level of fundraising that an affiliate could raise was correlated with the time executive directors spent driving; offices where the directors spent more time on the road tended to raise fewer funds. ITNAmerica was then able to present these findings to affiliates, giving them a better understanding of what they needed to do to meet their fundraising and other goals.

Keys to Success

• Successful performance measurement depends on providing your staff with the necessary tools and training to not only collect data, but also to analyze and learn from it. As ITNAmerica Founder and President Katherine Freund put it: “You don’t fatten the lambs by weighing them.” ITNAmerica provides three days of intensive training for new affiliates, continuous support, and a forum for interaction and sharing insight, so that their staff understands how to use the data they are collecting.
• Don’t run away from challenging information. ITNAmerica was initially concerned about including questions about pricing in their survey, but they realized that it was essential to understanding their financial sustainability and impact on the community they serve. “Ignorance is never bliss,” Freund explained. It turned out that riders were satisfied with the costs of ITNAmerica’s service, and this information was useful to affiliates that were trying to determine a pricing strategy to ensure sustainability.