MICROTEST

About this grant

In 1997, MICROTEST was launched by and for practitioners interested in documenting and strengthening the level of performance in the micro-enterprise field. It has become the process through which practitioners collect key data on their performance and assess their effectiveness using trend analysis and peer group comparisons.Multiyear funding will support efforts to develop a business plan and sustainability model to guide the expansion of MICROTEST to a large number of additional agencies. Goals include a set of outcomes data from a group of at least 30 MICROTEST members; a refined and tested outcomes monitoring process integrated with MICROTEST’s core performance measurement system; a better understanding of the relationship between performance and outcomes; a plan for expanding MICROTEST to a large number of micro-enterprise programs; and a fundraising and cost recovery plan to sustain MICROTEST’s core operating costs.During the past five years, MICROTEST has expanded from an original group of 14 participating agencies to 70; produced a set of measures in six core performance categories; developed tools to aid data collection; and published the first comprehensive analysis of the participating agencies’ performance.