Author Archives: Sara Anderson

Do you ever find yourself on a path with no direction? A strategic plan may be what you need to put you on the path to success. A strategic plan is essentially a road map for an organization’s program and goals. Transform Consulting Group helps programs develop their strategic plans with our 4 step process, which you can read more about in a previous blog. This blog focuses on step one in the process: Collaborate.

Collaborate Highlighted

We pride ourselves on step one, collaboration, to work with our clients and not for them. During the strategic planning process we work with you to identify the appropriate key stakeholders to inform the planning process. By engaging diverse stakeholders in organization’s planning process we not only help to increase buy in and ownership from those key stakeholders but also solicit rich feedback to inform the final plan.

The key stakeholders will vary depending on your organization, but typically they consist of external and internal stakeholders: involve some of the following individuals or groups:

Internal Stakeholders	External Stakeholders
Staff at different position levels in the organization	Current and past funders and donors
Board of Directors	Key community partners
Volunteers	Public
Clients

Once the key stakeholders are identified, how do we gather feedback from them to inform the planning process? We like to use a variety of methods to solicit stakeholder feedback. We ultimately select the tool based on appropriateness for the audience (for example a focus group may not be a better method for students and parents depending on literacy levels), timeline and budget. Our go to four tools for collecting stakeholder feedback are the following:

1. Surveys

This is a common method to use but to get really great feedback from surveys you need to hone your approach of how you administer it and the types of questions asked.

When creating a survey, consider the audience. For example, if you plan to survey youth, assess the reading level of the questions to make sure it is developmentally appropriate.
While you are considering the audience, think about the best method to share the survey. Is there a time when the audience regularly meets when a survey could be shared and collected in person at a meeting? Is the audience a broad community group making it difficult to reach the audience in one place?
You may need to connect with community resources to distribute the survey. We have partnered with the local economic development group to share online surveys to get local employer feedback.
Once you have determined the audience and the best way to distribute the survey, decide the most effective platform to create the survey. Platforms include printed copies or electronic. Electronically, we use SurveyMonkey, but there are several free, online tools available.

2. Focus Groups

If you want to get more in depth feedback beyond basic survey questions, a focus group or listening session may be the appropriate tool.

Create guided open-ended questions that prompt conversation during the focus group.
Again, identify if the stakeholder group has a regular meeting time when you could be added to the agenda to ask some questions and gather their feedback. We have done these at conferences, community meetings, and parent councils just to name a few.
Focus groups can be done in combination with surveys. We’ve done focus groups first to ask broad questions to a small group that will then inform a survey that goes out to the large group. We’ve also done focus groups after a survey to go deeper on the some of the questions asked in a survey.

3. Interviews

There is often a community member or business leader with expertise around the area of a strategic plan.

If they are not already a part of the planning process, invite them for an interview to gather feedback and information related to the strategic plan topic.
The stakeholders for individual interviews are typically people who have deep history, knowledge, experience or stake with the organization.
Similar to the focus group, outline open-ended questions, but leave room for unguided conversation as well depending on what they want to share.

4. Invitation to Planning Meetings

Some stakeholders are key decision makers and influencers in the community.

Bringing them to the table throughout the process will help keep them informed to know how to better share the message and goals of the strategic plan.
They will also be able to bring a different perspective from those within the organization, which helps avoid groupthink.
You could invite these stakeholders to one of your planning retreats to unpack all of the data and feedback collected and assist with identifying the key goals and strategies.

By5 Big Picture To get more ideas about how to collaborate on a strategic plan, look at other successful organizations.

By5 is a leading organization for early childhood awareness in Muncie and Delaware County, Indiana. They have created a strategic plan through the collaboration of task force and volunteer efforts to improve the developmental opportunities for children ages 0-5.

When we were working with the Community Foundation of Wabash County to create a strategic plan for their coalition focused on early education we benchmarked other communities for lessons learned and strategies.

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Once the key stakeholders are identified and tools have been distributed for feedback, move onto step two, Assess. Follow our blog posts to find out effective methods for assessing your organization and community to inform your strategic plan. Contact us today to learn more about our strategic planning process and how we can work together to identify the appropriate key stakeholders and tools to inform the planning process.

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3 Steps to Consider Before Relocating or Launching in a New Community

February 23, 2018

Sara Anderson

Fundraising Strategies Research & Analysis

You may not consider this, but the non-profit public sector is competitive. With over 1.5 million registered tax exempt organizations in the United States there are several organizations in place committed to doing good. If your non-profit organization is considering a move to a new community either through expansion or relocation, please consider these 3 steps first to ensure continued success of expanding your impact.

1. Study your community – you want to determine if the new community is the right fit for your services. Is there sufficient demand for the services you are offering? Does the community have the population you are targeting?

Tips:

The Census Bureau provides quality data about the people and the economy. It features a few data resource tools, including Quick Facts, the American FactFinder, and the American Community Survey. Information is available at a variety of geographic levels, including national, state, county, city and town, township, region, census tract and more. For more data source ideas around a variety of topics, read a previous blog about our go-to sources for data.
If data around a specific area is not readily available, develop a tool to collect your own data. One common tool example is a survey, which allows you to customize questions to help you gather the feedback you need.
Once you have finished collecting data, you can begin to analyze the information. We recommend using a software tool, such as Tableau, to help visualize the data. When visualizing the data, we recommend focusing on 4 key areas (1) determine the audience, (2) decide what the dashboard is tracking, (3) Determine the visuals that will be most effective in communicating the message, and (4) Determine the delivery of the dashboard. Read more in our blog, here: https://transformconsultinggroup.com/2017/03/31/4-steps-create-dashboard/.

2. Know your competition – are there similar organizations like yours serving the targeted community? Do they have waitlists or empty spots? Are your services complementary to what is currently being offered or the same?

Tips:

Talk with the local United Way organization, Community Foundation, Chamber of Commerce, Hospital or other relevant sources based on your industry. They often have a good idea of who is currently offering services, the need for more services and what kind. They may even have a resource book or some other list that could be helpful.
Depending on your industry, there are some great online resources. For example, if you are an early learning program you can search other child care programs on the Child Care Finder site. If you provide before and after school care, you can search here: https://www.indianaafterschool.org/state/mapping-database/

3. Assess impact on your funding – you may see a positive or negative impact on your funding from foundations and individual donors. Some funders have very specific geographic preference, so moving to a new community may open up funding opportunities or close them. You will want to study this before you make the change. Depending on your target population in the new community, you may also see new funding opportunities.

Tips:

Review your current funders and see if any of them have geographic restrictions. This is especially important if you are moving to a new county or city.
If you have money in the budget, invest in a membership to funding information websites, such as the Foundations Directory Online or GrantWatch. These sites provide information on grant opportunities, the history of grants awarded or information on upcoming grant opportunities.
Whether you are needing funding at the moment or not, don’t be afraid to personally reach out to funders in the community to begin to build relationships. Have a short call or coffee date to find out what type of programs they prefer to fund or ways you can get involved. This is a great opportunity to share why you’ve decided to move to the community and how you could possibly partner together!

The extra time spent researching before making a move can make all the difference in success or failure, and we only want to see you succeed. If you need assistance understanding your community and completing a market analysis or needs assessment, contact us today to learn more.

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Summarizing the 2018 ELAC Interactive Annual Report

January 19, 2018

Sara Anderson

Education Evaluation Project Management Research & Analysis

Indiana’s Early Learning Advisory Committee (ELAC) recently released its new 2018 Annual Report that was discussed in this blog post.

interactive-report This year, a new feature was developed along with the Annual Report – an Interactive Annual Report dashboard using Tableau. This dashboard allows the audience to take a deeper dive into the early childhood education data included in the Annual Report.

While the visualization of a data dashboard can be exciting, it can also be overwhelming. The interactive dashboards were inspired by the Indiana Commission of Higher Education’s use of dashboards. ELAC saw the opportunity to share the data that has been collected in a user-friendly format for community stakeholders. When you are browsing the new interactive dashboard, make sure to check out these eight key features!

8 Key Features of the ELAC Interactive Dashboard:

There are five main sections of the dashboard: (1) Young Children and Families (2) Accessibility (3) High-Quality (4) Affordability and (5) Kindergarten Readiness. Simply, select the rectangle tab for the section you want to see.
Data is compiled from multiple sources: The data that ELAC reports comes from multiple sources. A dashboard is a good format to pull together multiple data points and present it in a user-friendly format.
Each chart is included to answer a key research question: Check out the gray boxes to identify the questions that the data is answering. This can guide the information that you are seeking to find.
Different charts are utilized to visualize the data: Each tab includes a variety of charts to answer the key research questions. For example, maps are included in each section to display how the data varies across the state.
Data can be filtered by different categories: Charts have the option of being filtered by location, age or program type. There are filtering options throughout the dashboard, at the top of pages or along individual charts.
Definitions and data sources are included: The Accessibility, High-Quality and Affordability tabs feature a “Hover for Help” option at the top of the page that features definitions related to content on the page. Throughout any page of the dashboard, hover over charts for more data and definitions.
Data includes a ranking of counties: Each tab features a county ranking chart to help counties easily identify how they compare to the rest of Indiana’s 92 counties.
Data can be shared or downloaded: The Tableau Toolbar is located on the bottom right of the dashboard. You can click on it Undo/ Redo/ Reset filters applied. You can share the dashboard with the url link and also via social channels, and you can also download it as a PDF.

If you have questions or comments about the ELAC Interactive Annual Report dashboard, email elacindiana@gmail.com or contact Transform Consulting Group.

Like what you see? Transform Consulting Group can help your organization develop a data dashboard customized to your needs. Contact us today for a consultation!

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How to Engage Diverse Stakeholders in your Planning

September 15, 2017

Sara Anderson

Project Management Strategic Planning

How to Engage Diverse Stakeholders Blog When creating a strategic plan or going through any organizational planning process, who do you engage in that process for feedback? In May, we discussed the 4 Steps of Strategic Planning. Step one is collaboration – Collaborate with key stakeholders to inform the strategic planning process and create buy-in and ownership in the plan.

Who to Engage

There are several different types of stakeholders to consider gathering feedback from during the strategic planning process. While it will vary depending on your organization and industry, there are some common stakeholders that we recommend including. They include the following key stakeholders:

Funders – current and past funders who know your organization as well as the industry to provide insight on what’s working well, what’s not working and possible changes to consider based on industry trends.
Staff – reach out to your staff at different levels of the organization and in different roles to gather their diverse feedback and perspective.
Board Members – some Board members will be engaged in the entire strategic process, while other Boards may only have a select committee or members engaged. Whatever the process, you will want to include all Board members in sharing the feedback in the strategic planning process.
Clients – past, current or potential clients who receive your services have a perspective that could be meaningful and inform in the strategic planning process.
Community Partners – reach out to other community agencies in your community who intersect with your work. Their perspective adds another layer of insight that could really help inform your planning process as you think about the future.

In the past 4 client strategic planning processes we implemented, we engaged the following different types of key stakeholders:

Client A – Government Agency: Direct Service Program Staff, Direct Service Program Managers, Local Community Partners, and Leadership and Advisory Committee.
Client B – Statewide Non-Profit: Staff, Funders, Key Community Partners.
Client C – Multi-Sector Community Group: Parents, Employers, and Key Community Partners.
Client D – Local Non-Profit: Public, Past and Current Client, School District and City, Staff, and Board Members.

Once the key stakeholders are identified, how do you gather their feedback? There are different tools and resources available to make the process efficient and effective. Of course, the use of the tools is dependent upon your budget, time and capacity. We offer a summary of our go-to stakeholder feedback tools and the advantages/ disadvantages of each one.

Stakeholder Feedback Tools

Focus Groups – Brings together a targeted group of people to gain insight on specific topics.

Pro: You can get more insightful information than from a survey, such as being able to ask follow-up questions.

Con: It can be more time consuming to hold focus groups from scheduling them, training the team to complete it, documenting the information during the focus group and transcribing/ synthesizing the information shared.

Tip: Find a targeted group that already meets to hold your focus group. For example, while creating a plan for the Wabash County Early Childhood Education Committee, we were seeking feedback from different parent groups. We were put on the agenda during a regular parent meeting at an early childhood education program, which allowed us to gather feedback to help inform the planning process. Similarly, we held focus groups of Healthy Families Indiana staff at the Institute for Strengthening Families where many were in attendance.

Surveys – Helps reach a wide audience using questions related to a specific topic to help gather feedback.

Pro: Surveys can be completed on the participant’s schedule, compared to a focus group or interview when everyone’s schedules need to align in order to get feedback.

Con: If the survey is anonymous, you cannot ask follow-up questions about a participant’s answer. It can also be a challenge to get people to participate in a survey. Offering an incentive will often help with this problem.

Tip: Find an organization who regularly seeks feedback from a target group. Ask to add your questions onto a survey they already send. When we were seeking feedback for the Wabash County Early Childhood Education Committee, we reached out to the local economic development group and chamber of commerce to assist us with getting employer feedback. We worked together to create an appropriate survey, and they sent it to their employer contact list. Also, take advantage of local social media and news outlets. It might be difficult to get personal contact information for some target stakeholders. Posting on social media with the survey criteria could help you reach a larger audience for feedback on your strategic plan.

Key Informant Interviews – Have a one-on-one interview with a specific person related to the planning process.

Pro: Allows you to have an in-depth conversation about a specific topic. It also engages someone who might not be apart of the regular planning process.

Con: It can be time consuming to schedule and hold these interviews, especially if you need to have more than one.

Tip: When you are deciding which key informants would be best to reach out to, consider people who have lived and learned from a similar cause to your own. You will be able to learn from their success and/or mistakes. It’s also helpful to reach out to key partners and decision makers who are not yet engaged. This will help you gain feedback while also informing them of the planning process.

Stakeholder feedback is useful when completing any planning process. By engaging your key stakeholders at the beginning of the planning process, you will not only have a more comprehensive plan in the end but will also create buy-in from the stakeholders when the new plan is unveiled. If you need assistance with your planning process, we would be happy to help! Contact Transform Consulting Group today!

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How to Find an Evidence-Based Program

August 25, 2017

Sara Anderson

Evaluation

What Works Image (1) Often in writing grants and implementing programs, funders want to invest in “what works” and has been proven effective. Implementing an evidence-based program is a way to demonstrate proven results. If your organization wants to prevent child abuse, you might consider implementing an evidence-based home visiting program like Nurse Family Partnership or Healthy Families of America that has shown to prevent child abuse and promote parent-child engagement.

Across the country more funders, including the federal government have been focused on investing in evidence-based programs as well as expanding the number of evidence-based programs across different sectors. The reasons might vary, but funders want are committed to improving the different social issues affecting individuals and communities across the country.

How do you know what programs are evidence-based or are available to replicate in your community? There are some national clearinghouses that have been created to identify different evidence-based programs models depending on your industry. Below is a list of sources to find evidence-based practices for several focus areas.

List of Evidence-Based Program Registries:

What Works Clearinghouse focuses on providing educators and community partners with the tools and information about what they need to make evidence-based decisions by researching high-quality education programs, interventions, products, practices and policies.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP) is a searchable online clearinghouse of evidence-based substance use and mental health interventions.
The Youth.gov Program Directory features evidence-based programs whose purpose is to prevent and/or reduce delinquency or other problem behaviors in young people.
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Model Programs Guide (MPG) contains information about evidence-based juvenile justice and youth prevention, intervention, and reentry programs. It is a resource for practitioners and communities about what works, what is promising, and what does not work in juvenile justice, delinquency prevention, and child protection and safety.
Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development provides a registry of evidence-based positive youth development programs designed to promote the health and well-being of children and teens. Blueprints identifies programs that are family, school, and community-based and target all levels of need — from broad prevention programs to highly-targeted programs for at-risk children.

Perhaps you have a program that you think could be evidence-based and replicated in other communities. Most of the resources listed above are seeking applicants from promising practices to submit their program for inclusion in the respective registry. They outline specific criteria to meet their standards for inclusion.

Are you interested in getting help evaluating your current program to demonstrate that it is evidence-based? We can help you with our evaluation services.

Maybe you are interested in implementing an evidence-based program or seeing if one of them is right for you. There is no need to reinvent the wheel when there is an abundance of evidence-based programs to support focus areas like education, youth development and overall health and well-being. It’s all about finding a program that aligns with your organization’s mission and expertise. At Transform Consulting Group, we can assist organizations to find evidence-based practices that align with their goals. Contact us today for a consultation!

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4 Tips to Use Your National Student Clearinghouse Data

July 21, 2017

Sara Anderson

Evaluation

NSC Data Blog Is your organization working to get more students to and through college? How are you tracking your results and their progress? For many schools and organizations, this can be difficult because you are not in direct communication with the students anymore.

National Student Clearinghouse

One solution to track post-secondary attainment rates is the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC). NSC has information covering about 96% of all U.S. enrollment in public and private collegiate institutions. The NSC data includes information on college enrollment, degree types, institution type and dropout and graduation rates.

NSC data will answer several of your key questions, including:

How many students are enrolling in post-secondary education and when (1st year after high school or 3 years later)?
What colleges or institutions are students selecting?
How long are students enrolling (it tracks by semester)?
What majors and minors are students selecting?
How many are withdrawing or dropping out?
How many are graduating?

Here at Transform Consulting Group, we have analyzed NSC for several organizations working to get more students to and through college, such as TeenWorks and the Center for Leadership and Development. We have identified 4 tips to help your school or organization collect, understand, and analyze NSC data.

1. PREPARE YOUR DATA

Before you can get an update on the status of your students/ alumni’s post-secondary information, you must first submit a data request to NSC. NSC is very specific about how they want to receive your student file. Review NSC’s specific format for submitting your data request.

2. REVIEW AND CLEAN DATA
Now that you have correctly submitted your data request to NSC, they will return an aggregate data sheet and a student data sheet.

The aggregate data sheet gives a summary of the entire data set, including the top institutions attended, 4-year versus 2-year enrollment, number and percent awarded degrees, public versus private attendance, and in-state versus out-of-state attendance.

NSC Aggregate Headings

When you see the returned student data sheet, it may seem overwhelming! The sheet breaks down 33 data points organized by column for each student found in the database. This data sheet will help you answer the above key questions.

To help avoid that overwhelming feeling, NSC created a “StudentTracker Detail Report Excel Guide for Colleges and Universities”, breaking down the detailed steps to help understand and use the information. Essentially, you will spend a significant amount of time cleaning and formatting the data. Then you can analyze the data in Excel (using pivot tables) or a data analysis software. We like to use Tableau to analyze our clients data, which you can read about here.

3. ALIGN DATA
Hopefully, now that overwhelmed feeling is gone! In order to take your NSC data to the next level and really understand what is working and not working at your school or organization related to postsecondary attainment, you need to combine your NSC data with some of your internal data. Take your returned student sheet data file and match it with some of your internal data. Then you could answer some additional key questions:

What impact did ______ program have on our students’ postsecondary rate?
Did students who were involved in more programs or multiple years at our organization have higher postsecondary rates?
Did different groups of students (low-income, first generation college grads, gender, race, geographic neighborhoods, etc.) have higher or lower postsecondary rates?

This further alignment and assessment of comprehensive data helps you identify which programs and services lead to the best or worst outcomes for students.

4. SHARE THE INFORMATION
Now what? You have your postsecondary outcomes with the context of additional program information, but how are you interpreting the data and sharing it internally and externally with key stakeholders? We recommend creating visuals to highlight the key data points. Studies show that a majority of people are visual learners. We suggest checking out a series of blogs Transform Consulting Group has written about creating infographics and other visuals to help tell the data story. Lastly, and most importantly, you can now make data informed decisions to improve your postsecondary outcomes!

Conclusion

Data not your thing? Still feeling overwhelmed by the NSC process and information? Transform Consulting Group is here to help. Learn more here. We have worked with several schools and organizations to help make sense of their postsecondary outcomes and National Student Clearinghouse data. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help!

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Our Go To Sources for Data

June 9, 2017

Sara Anderson

Evaluation

Whether you are working on a needs assessment, evaluating a program or starting a new project, reliable data is important to help make smart choices. Our Go to Sources for Data- Blog image2

Due to the internet, data is available at our fingertips, but the endless options can become overwhelming. Have you ever spent hours sorting through links and data sources to find one specific indicator such as the number of individuals in your community with post-secondary education or the poverty rate for a certain age group?

At Transform Consulting Group, we are data nerds and can help point you in the right direction to find the data you need to move your organization forward. We have a cheat sheet of the key organizations and resources that we utilize to help us find the right data for our clients.

There are a few resources that provide comprehensive data and the majority of information that you need. However, there may be times where you want to go deeper with the data in your understanding. Therefore, you may need to use some additional resources to find the information you are seeking.

Comprehensive Child Data

Child Trends — Child Trends is a national nonprofit research organization focused on improving the lives of children, youth, and their families. Their databank features data by topic, including child maltreatment/welfare, early childhood, families, health, and social and emotional learning.

Kids Count Data Center — Kids Count is a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation and has comprehensive data on child and family well-being. Each state has a designated entity to manage and compile the state Kids Count data, which is the Indiana Youth Institute for Indiana. Individual county profiles are available and updated annually.

Education Data

Office of Head Start — In every state and nearly every county, there is a Head Start and/or Early Head Start program promoting school readiness of young children. Data about the populations served and the program itself can be found through the Program Information Reports (PIR) updated annually. We used the PIR data to complete the Indiana Head Start Needs Assessment Report and Indiana Early Learning Advisory Committee (ELAC) Annual Report and the early childhood county profiles.

State Departments of Social Services — Many state departments of social services or human services oversee child care for young children and school-age children. In Indiana, the Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning (OECOSL) collect data on early childhood education and out-of-school time programs and would be the resource to identify the number of programs serving young children and/or provide before and after school care for school-age children as well as the cost of care and other important factors.

State Departments of Education — Each state department of education has information about individual schools, corporations and their students. In Indiana, the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) shared this data online via “Compass”, which is a searchable database to access educational attainment, testing scores, and free/reduced lunch rates. Additional information can also be requested.

State Departments of Higher Education — Each state department of higher education has information about post-secondary educational attainment for that state. In Indiana, this is the Commission for Higher Education (CHE). They have information on college readiness and completion data and some is even available at the county level via a searchable database.

Lumina Foundation — Lumina is committed to increasing the post-secondary attainment of Americans to 60%. They have national, state and metro level data available. Check out the recently released 2017 Stronger Nation Report! We use the Lumina data when working with our college and career readiness and Center for Working Families clients.

Population Data

U.S. Census Bureau — The Census Bureau provides quality data about the people and the economy. It features a few data resource tools, including Quick Facts, the American FactFinder, and the American Community Survey. Information is available at a variety of geographic levels, including national, state, county, city and town, township, region, census tract and more.

State Population Resources — Some states have created online resources that summarize the Census data for their state. In Indiana, STATS Indiana is a great resource to find quick profiles and maps on population, housing, education, income and poverty, health and employment. In Central Indiana, SAVI is another great resource with detailed information and profiles. SAVI features tools to analyze and visualize Central Indiana Community Data. These websites tend to be more user-friendly than the Census.

Health

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJ) — RWJ provides annual county health rankings for communities via the County Health Rankings and Roadmap website.

State Departments of Health — Each state department of health has access to health specific information. In Indiana, this is the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH). ISDH recently launched a new website, Stats Explorer, to make it easier to access health data at the state and county level. Here you can find information about the prevalence of drug overdoses, sexually transmitted diseases, births and deaths, cancer, infectious diseases and many other health issues, all in one convenient location. Previously, the data was available through multiple pages on the ISDH website.

Economic

State Departments of Workforce Development — Each state has an agency or office focused on workforce development and will have a variety of information available for the public. In Indiana, the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) features workforce and economic data on a separate website, Hoosiers by the Numbers. Here people can find data by state or county on economics, education, employment/ unemployment, wages, and labor force.

There are many more data sources available online as well as via special request. Once you collect the data, don’t forget to make it visually appealing for your audience! Check out our blogs to find some additional tips on using your data. If it is still too overwhelming, give us a call to see how we can help gather the data you need to inform your work.

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Using Behavioral Economics to Increase Enrollment in Your Program

April 28, 2017

Sara Anderson

Communities Nonprofit Program Development

Nonprofit organizations offer wonderful programs and services to help individuals with a variety of needs often at no or low cost. It might be surprising to learn that some nonprofits struggle filling the spots for these services. For example, a scholarship program is unable to distribute all of their funding due to a lack of applicants; a library summer reading program has free books to give away but not enough people show up; a community launches a “promise” program to promote college savings accounts with financial matches but parents don’t enroll.

An emerging concept in the social science arena is growing that combines the research of economics and behavior science called “behavioral economics”. Through a meeting at the Wabash County YMCA with Duke University’s Common Cents Lab, some of the Transform Consulting Group team learned more about behavioral economics to improve program outcomes.

Now we realize that most nonprofits don’t have an economist on staff that could review their programs and services to implement behavioral science principles. Fear not. There are some simple solutions that all nonprofits could implement on their own – without an economist on staff – to increase their uptake or enrollment in programming utilizing these simple behavioral economic principles below.

5 Behavioral Economic Principles

Action-Goals – People have good intentions, but they do not do what they intend to do. For example, families want their children to go to college and intend to put some money away in a college savings account but they never get around to it. Individuals get stuck on a now versus later mindset, and it is difficult for people to imagine long term savings when the current costs are adding up. In order to avoid the action-goals gap, avoid providing more information and help individuals take specific actions towards the program goals. If a family wants to save for college, help them set up a specific savings plan. Connect them with a bank to open a savings account and offer a small deposit to get them started.
Decision Paralysis – When given too many options, people tend to make the easiest decision, which is often no decision at all. Some programs offer great benefits, but the application process is cumbersome and overwhelming. When was the last time that your nonprofit reviewed all of the steps you are asking clients to complete to receive your program and service? Perhaps there are some items or steps that you can remove or condense to make it less difficult to enroll.
Personalization – People are more likely to respond to messages or services that are tailored to them. A one size fits all motto does not tailor to everyone. Individuals have different lifestyles and needs. So a program might benefit a variety of people, but what will attract them to the program to begin with and what will help each person along the process? Personal interactions with each client will help create a clear focus of the program and how it relates to and will benefit the client.
Herding – Behavior is impacted by what others are doing. We are social people and whether or not we realize it, we are socialized based on our environments. If we learn about a neighbor enrolling their child in a camp, then we might do it as well. We watch and listento what others do and often follow. There is a convenience factor here where people are comfortable with what they know. Is your program leveraging the “social” aspect of your programs and services with your current clients and connections? If you have a college savings account program, are the parents who are contributing sharing that message so that the parents in their network realize that others are contributing and it’s a “normal” behavior to do so?
Reciprocity – People have the inherent desire to help those who have helped them in some way. We like to “pay it back”. If your nonprofit can help an individual or a group, there is a greater chance they will return the favor. They might participate in your fundraisers, join another program within your nonprofit, volunteer, or donate money.

There are many more behavioral economics principles to consider when developing, assessing or improving a program at your nonprofit. If you want to learn about more behavioral economics, visit the Common Cents Lab resources page. Want more help in reviewing your programming and thinking about how to enhance it, we can help! Contact Transform Consulting Group today!

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Author Archives: Sara Anderson