Impact and accountability

This page is for funders, partners, and anyone who wants to know how we intend to measure whether this works. It is written for people doing due diligence.

Where we actually are. Asher Acres is a rebuilding project with a demonstration and education mission that begins when construction does. We have no program outcomes to report yet. Everything below describes what we will track and how — not results we have achieved. We would rather show you the measurement plan before the numbers exist than produce numbers that cannot be checked.

How we will measure

We use a three-level framework, which avoids the common failure of reporting attendance while implying long-term social or ecological change.

Three-level measurement framework
Level	The question	Examples
Outputs	What did we directly deliver?	Workshops held; people trained; site area restored; homes assessed; guides published.
Outcomes	What changed because people used it?	Participants adopted preparedness measures; landowners applied practices; households gained water continuity.
Contribution	What broader conditions did we help improve, alongside others?	Reduced disaster disruption; better water quality; less erosion; more equitable recovery.

On attribution. We report that our work contributes to these outcomes. We do not claim sole causation, and we will name the other organizations involved in any result we report. Where a figure is an estimate or self-reported, we will label it as such and state the method.

First-year indicators

Rather than an extensive dashboard we cannot maintain consistently, we will track a small set well. A few reliable measures beat many inconsistent ones.

Unduplicated people trained or engaged.
Share of participants from under-served rural populations.
Share of participants demonstrating a knowledge or skill gain.
Share completing at least one resilience action within six months.
Households completing a documented preparedness or water-security plan.
Local leaders trained and still active after six months.
Demonstration projects completed, and public visits or field-day participants.
Area under documented stewardship improvement — acres, stream length, or site area.
Active cross-sector partners and formal collaboration agreements.
Community plans, protocols, or project scopes completed.
External funds or in-kind resources leveraged for local resilience work.
Participant ratings of trust, usefulness, inclusion, and accessibility.

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Our strongest and most defensible alignment is with six goals. We list only these. An organization claiming all seventeen is claiming none of them.

Priority SDG alignment
Goal	How this project connects	Target connections
4 — Quality Education	Practical, lifelong education on resilience, ecology, preparedness, and civic participation, delivered where people live.	4.4; 4.7
6 — Clean Water and Sanitation	Water conservation, well stewardship, rainwater harvesting, water-quality protection, and watershed restoration along Sandy Creek.	6.1; 6.3; 6.4; 6.6; 6.b
11 — Sustainable Communities	Safer, more inclusive, more resilient rural community through risk reduction, local planning, and continuity capacity.	11.5; 11.b
13 — Climate Action	Adaptive capacity and local climate literacy for floods, drought, heat, and severe storms — built by a community that has lived one.	13.1; 13.2; 13.3
15 — Life on Land	Riparian and habitat restoration, soil and watershed protection, biodiversity and pollinator support on working land.	15.1; 15.3; 15.5
17 — Partnerships	Structured collaboration among residents, landowners, government, schools, nonprofits, researchers, and funders.	17.16; 17.17

Secondary connections exist to goals 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, and 16 — poverty, food, health, equity, energy, work, infrastructure, consumption, and institutions. We can provide the full mapping on request rather than crowd this page with claims we cannot yet evidence.

Data ethics

We collect the minimum personal information needed, with meaningful consent, and explain who sees it and how long we keep it.
We report in aggregate and do not publish precise locations of vulnerable households or sensitive ecological sites.
Data collection works offline and in low-bandwidth form. Nobody is excluded for lacking a smartphone or reliable internet.
We separate verified measures from estimates and self-reported outcomes, and label the difference.
For environmental claims that could affect health, permitting, or property decisions, we work with qualified technical staff or laboratories.
We report failures alongside successes. A demonstration site that only publishes what worked is not a demonstration.

Reporting cadence

Planned reporting cadence
Frequency	What gets reported
Per activity	Attendance, feedback, learning assessment, accessibility issues, costs.
Quarterly	Program delivery, partner activity, budget use, project progress, data-quality review.
Annually	Outcome dashboard, environmental monitoring summary, equity review, learning report, public impact summary.
Multi-year	Ecological condition, maintenance durability, disaster-recovery performance, replication.

Independent record

This project has been covered by local and national press since July 2025 — the flood, the year of recovery, the community organizing, and testimony before the Texas Legislature. That coverage is the independent verification of everything described on this site, and it is collected on our media page.

For funders

The Asher Acres rebuilding project is fiscally sponsored by Gifted Dreamers, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit — EIN 39-3863796, Austin, Texas. Gifted Dreamers receives and administers charitable contributions and grant funding on behalf of the project.

For itemized budgets, architectural and site plans, the full SDG mapping, or references, email grants@asheracres.org.