Developing Textile Exchange's MEL framework to embed strategy into action

Textile Exchange is a nonprofit working to transform how textile materials are produced, chosen, and reused to benefit people and places at the source. As part of a broader 5-year strategy update, Textile Exchange set out to develop a new Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) framework. Before progress could be measured, clarity was needed about what progress meant.

Workshop mapped the broader system Textile Exchange operates in, crystalized their theory of change, and built a MEL framework that links near-term indicators to long-term environmental outcomes. The result is a shared language for progress across leadership, the board, and teams — and operational systems that connect daily decisions to real impact.

• MEL indicator framework that spans  organizational performance, program effectiveness, and industry-level impact built directly from the Theory of Change
• Systems map clarifying Textile Exchange’s role across control, influence, and interest in industry transformation
• Annual planning process and board reporting approach that embed MEL into decision-making and accountability

A strong strategy only creates impact when the organization can track, adapt, and plan around it. After completing a comprehensive 5-year strategic plan, Textile Exchange faced the harder operational question: how do we know if it's working? Existing MEL systems weren't aligned to the new strategy, and the annual planning process needed to be rebuilt to reflect new priorities, cross-functional realities, and the board's need for clear, strategic reporting. Textile Exchange needed a partner to design an MEL infrastructure that would make their ambitions measurable and carry it forward into planning and accountability.

Theory of Change and Systems Mapping

• Mapped the materials production system: relationships, drivers, incentives, and barriers shaping industry transformation
• Defined Textile Exchange’s role across control, influence, and interest, and identified the highest-leverage interventions for TE to pursue
• Developed an updated Theory of Change that became the throughline for the 5-year strategy and the foundation for the MEL framework

MEL Framework Design

• Defined indicators across organizational performance, program effectiveness, and industry change, based on Textile Exchange’s Theory of Change
• Prioritized a phased build-out: core indicators in year one, deeper sense-making and feedback loops in year two

Annual Planning and Board Reporting Integration

• Integrated MEL indicators and reporting rhythms into a redesigned annual planning process
• Established a process for senior leadership to synthesize performance data before it reaches the board, so board conversations focus on strategic questions rather than raw metrics

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• Reframed how the organization understands and evaluates its own performance. Operating efficiently, delivering value, engaging membership, and industry-level leadership are now understood as one connected through-line advancing the 5-year strategy.
• Updated Theory of Change and systems map are shared reference points for what to measure and why it matters.
• MEL framework in place, with indicators aligned to the 5-year strategy and clear ownership across teams
• Board reporting approach defined and prototyped
• 2025 performance data informing 2026 planning priorities as the first test of the new approach
• Leadership and teams equipped with shared process and tools to track, and adapt together
• Strategy embedded into operations with a repeatable rhythm for accountability and reflection