They are valuable to a human service agency because it shows them how much money it will take to provide services to their clients. It helps prepare their performance and program budgets, along with its direct and indirect costs. If the cost per output or cost per outcome is not determined, how is the money being accounted for? The public will stop donating funds to help the agency and the agency will be forced to shut down. If there is no output, there is no outcome. All budgets would be offset, along with the costs.
