Our Work

10:12 Sports

The client

10:12 Sports ministers to young black men in West Baltimore, connecting with them and teaching them important life skills through sports.

The project

Neighborhood adults mentor local youth in a disaggregated manner. Volunteers helped design a system for collecting relevant data about mentoring participation. A key element of the project was to determine which questions needed to be answered and what data was required to answer them.

Volunteers

1. Jagrutee Gawande
2. Sean Grogan
3. Preet Sinojiya
4. Prakash Sudhakar

organization-sports organization-youth-development project-data-collection

1000 Days Fund

The client

The mission of the 1000 Days Fund is to deliver a national, scalable solution for two pressing issues: transforming in-home access to information and providing critical training for village health volunteers in order to end stunting in Indonesian children by 2030. Whether it’s Flores, Sumba, or any of the 16 provinces of Indonesia in which they work, they go where they’re needed most.

The 1000 Days Fund installs height charts in homes and communities, works in close partnership with local government officials and local NGOs to build capacity and strengthen health systems, and co-creates six-month plans with the local health workers on the ground in each village.The organization stays committed to accompanying the people and communities they serve for the long term. 

The project

The 1000 Days Fund was planning to pitch a Stunting Impact Bond that would enroll 10,000 pregnant mothers across 5 islands. There would be five criteria that the mothers would have to fulfill over 1000 days—taking iron and folic acid, exclusively breastfeeding their child, getting six check-ups during their pregnancy, having a smart chart installed in their home, and ensuring there is soap in the house for hand washing. The Fund needed support from analytics volunteers to design a methodology to estimate the impact of this program in the 10,000 pregnant mothers/families.

Volunteers

1. Lina Song
2. Grace Zeng

organization-public-health organization-international project-impact-measurement

Advancement Through Athletics

Advancement Through Athletics (ATA) addresses the intersection of college readiness, academic success, and leadership empowerment and sports. ATA’s goal is to become one day the national leader in college- and career-prepared youth through sport. To date, ATA has supported 18 scholar-athletes through their model, 15 of whom have graduated college and seven who have competed or are competing at the collegiate level.

The project

ATA approached Pro Bono Analytics to understand the effectiveness of their programming. They asked for a way to quantify college readiness academically and athletically, and they wanted to know how much their scholar-athletes improve compared to the national or state average.

Volunteers created a graphic dashboard/matching tool to match program participants to potential colleges based on multiple criteria. The dashboard also provided analysis and documentation of the program's impact on participants' grades. The volunteers also provided a report summarizing audio, video, and written interviews with ATA's past and present scholars.

Volunteers

1. Alberto Marcos
2. Daniel Rossetti

organization-sports organization-youth-development project-data-collection project-data-analysis project-impact-measurement

Amanda Hope Rainbow Angels

The client

Amanda Hope Rainbow Angels is an organization focused on bringing dignity and comfort into the harsh world of childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. They address the "here and now" of the whole family and support them throughout their battle with cancer. They provide fun t-shirts and clothing, teach families to have a voice, provide financial assistance to families, train health-care professionals to offer Family Centered Care, and provide behavioral health counseling to the patients and their families.

The project

AHRA wanted to be able to communicate their data more effectively with grant funders, donors, stakeholders, and the community. Volunteers were asked to help consolidate all of the organization data into a cloud data-warehouse, to automate reporting, ensure accuracy, and eliminate data silos. This included developing metrics to convey the impact of their services, identifying the data needed, developing surveys and procedures to collect the data and tools to analyze it, and providing instructions on how to use the tools.

Volunteers

1. Ece Ceren Izgi
2. Michelle Muha

organization-health-care organization-family-services project-data-collection project-data-analysis project-impact-measurement

American Alpine Club

The client

The American Alpine Club works to support a united community of competent climbers and healthy climbing landscapes. They focus on being inclusive and fostering diversity across climber demographics. They are a membership-based organization providing benefits and services to members, grants, historical preservation, education, policy and advocacy.

The project

AAC sought help from Pro Bono Analytics volunteers to do the following:

• analyze demographic data collected through Survey Monkey;
• find sources of similar data;
• identify additional variables needed and their sources; and
  
• find sources of historical data (to allow a longitudinal analysis).

Volunteers

1. Arjun Berry
2. Kevin Mentzer
3. Tyler Penkofski

project-data-collection organization-recreation project-data-analysis

American Music Therapy Association

The client

The mission of the American Music Therapy Association is to advance public awareness of the benefits of music therapy and increase access to quality music therapy services in a rapidly changing world.

The project

AMTA was faced with a major decision regarding standards. They sought help to define the issue, identify relevant data, and develop a decision model to support an informed decision that would be in the best interest of their members and the general public seeking their services. 

Volunteer

1. Adam Clark

project-decision-analysis organization-arts organization-public-health

Arts Every Day

The client

Arts Every Day works with Baltimore City Public Schools and a network of arts organizations to improve equitable access to arts education. Their goal is to encourage creativity in education through participation in the arts, and their strategic goal is for all students in Baltimore City Public Schools to participate in courses on visual arts and music.

The project

Arts Every Day sought help to analyze their available data and to assist in producing reports on the state of the arts in Baltimore City Public Schools, both at the system and individual school levels.  Those reports would be open to the public, so that students, parents, and schools could have an informed perspective on participation in the arts at the various public schools in the district.

Volunteers

1. Olivia Chen

organization-arts organization-education organization-youth-development project-data-analysis

Asia Society Texas

The client

With 13 locations throughout the world, Asia Society is the leading educational organization promoting mutual understanding and strengthening partnerships among the peoples, leaders, and institutions of Asia and the West. The Asia Society of Texas executes this global mission with a local focus, enriching and engaging the vast diversity of Houston through innovative, relevant programs in arts and culture, business and policy, education, and community outreach.

The project

Data systems were crowded with several disconnected, siloed databases. Different departments employed different software tools for data management, and some data were simply stored in spreadsheets. Expert advice from Pro Bono Analytics was sought on how to integrate and consolidate data systems, as well as maximize the capacity of existing data vehicles. Data integration was identified as one of the key goals in strategic planning for Asia Society. This would enable tracking trends and ultimately managing data in the most efficient way possible.

Volunteers

1. Nimish Singhal

organization-community-support organization-education project-data-management


Baltimore Jewelry Center

The client

The Baltimore Jewelry Center is a 501c3 educational nonprofit building a vibrant creative community for the study and practice of metalsmithing and art jewelry. Community and educational outreach activities seek to inspire new and established artists, as well as promote metalsmithing and art jewelry to the general public through exhibitions. The Baltimore Jewelry Center offers classes, workshops, and studio space rental to anyone with an interest in contemporary jewelry and metalsmithing. Professional development, sales opportunities, and a promotional platform are offered to help metal and jewelry artists grow sustainable business practices. Additional offerings include a residency program for both emerging and mid-career artists, an internship program, and a robust kids and teen program that includes a workforce development element.

Two projects

Pro Bono Analytics volunteers analyzed student data over a seven year time period to determine student behavior related to retention, seasonal trends, and topic trends. Recommendations were provided about additional data to collect that might be helpful in the future.

Volunteers

1. Jessica Christian
2. William Christian
3. Mike Palazzolo
4. Xi Palazzolo

organization-arts organization-community-support organization-education organization-workforce-development project-data-analysis project-data-collection project-impact-measurement

Baltimore Teacher Supply Swap

The client

Baltimore Teacher Supply Swap, which has since closed, provided educational materials for students and teachers. By collecting donations of excess office supplies, arts and crafts materials, and classroom supplies from teachers, schools, businesses, and individuals and providing them to Baltimore City teachers and students, they sought to reduce the burden of teachers spending their own money on supplies, and ensure that teachers and students had the supplies they needed to be successful.

The project

BTSS asked volunteers to look at their data, determining whether that data was appropriate for grant requests and whether additional data was needed. This included working with BTSS to identify the metrics that best conveyed the value of their services.

Volunteers

1. Gisela Bardossy
2. Richard San Juan

organization-education project-data-analysis project-data-collection project-impact-measurement

Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) of Central Arizona

The client

Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) of Central Arizona matches volunteer adults (Bigs) with youth (Littles) that need mentors. Their Big Futures mentoring program is designed to facilitate guidance between Bigs and Littles to help prepare for adulthood, the workforce, financial security, and independence. Through their Bigs and the BBBSAZ staff, Littles are encouraged to stay focused on their academic and professional success. Big Futures programming provides enhanced training and support to matches that are focused on the student’s graduation from high school and progression into college, military and/or career.

The project

BBBS wanted to use participant surveys to assess their Big Futures Program. The main purpose was to enable reporting of impact to stakeholders. They asked for help with the following:

• assistance in development of the survey instrument, including consideration of a pre-test and post-test survey structure;
• advice on database tools for storing and handling survey data; and
• development of a data analysis procedure to enable reporting impact and training staff to independently conduct data analysis.

Volunteers

1. Guoying (Grace) Zhang

organization-youth-development project-data-collection project-data-management project-impact-measurement


Boston Public Schools

The client

As the birthplace of public education in this nation, Boston Public Schools is committed to transforming the lives of all children through exemplary teaching in a world-class system of innovative, welcoming schools. They partner with the community, families, and students to develop in every learner the knowledge, skill, and character to excel in college, career, and life.

The project

Boston Public Schools serve 54,000 students across 125 schools. Over 5000 of these students have a speech disability and receive support from approximately 150 speech language pathologists (SLPs). The students receive instructional support in either a group setting or one-on-one throughout the year. The SLPs will see students at different schools throughout the week, and sometimes must visit multiple schools on the same day. Pro Bono Analytics volunteers developed a scheduling tool to improve SLP utilization under specified constraints. This tool was also employed to study different SLP staffing scenarios.

Volunteers

1. Mehrnaz Abdollahian
2. Rozhin Doroudi

organization-education project-logistics project-process-improvement


C-10 Research & Education Foundation

The client

C-10 Research & Education Foundation works to protect public health and the natural environment surrounding the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant in coastal New Hampshire. We do this by operating a real-time radiological monitoring network, tracking and speaking out on safety and security concerns at the plant, and serving as a trusted source of information for our members and the public. Each and every day, we are holding Seabrook Station and federal regulators accountable to providing the highest level of safety, in order to ensure the very livability of our region.

The project

Pro Bono Analytics volunteers conducted data processing and analysis of existing historical radiological readings and weather data containing wind speed and direction (currently in plain files) and creating an easily readable format for C-10 to analyze. Additional information was sought via interviews with expert scientists to determine useful metrics and KPIs. Useful visualizations of the processed data included: time of day with increased beta levels, wind direction at these spikes, duration of the spikes, location of the spikes.

Volunteers

1. Alva Dillon
2. Phil Fry

project-data-analysis organization-conservation organization-public-health

Cascade Bicycle Club

The client

Cascade Bicycle Club, the nation’s largest statewide bicycle nonprofit, serves bike riders of all ages and abilities throughout the state of Washington. With a mission to improve lives through bicycling, they teach the joys of bicycling, advocate for safe places to ride, and produce world-class rides and events. Their signature programs include the Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic, Free Group Rides, Let's Go and the Major Taylor Project.

Six projects

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cascade Bicycle Club had organized community rides in the northwestern U.S. involving thousands of riders. Under the attendance size restrictions due to the pandemic, such large events could not be conducted. Consequently, CBC needed to examine a diversity of offerings to re-engage their riders while complying with pandemic restrictions. Further, it was desired that new offerings be selected such that that they could be viable both in the short-term and the longer-term. Analytics assistance was provided to evaluate possible new offerings, including virtual rides, small tours, and online options. To assess the viability of the different new options for re-engaging CBC riders, different data sources were leveraged, including transactional data from past riders’ purchasing experiences and survey data from a recent study of bike riders. A variety of analytics methods were implemented:

• clustering of contact records and rider journeys;
• ride events by gender and age to understand which customer segments to engage for which ride events; and
• analysis of relationships between marketing campaigns and donations and recommendations on marketing.

Volunteers

1. Tom Brown
2. Akshay Kotha
3. Sindhujaa Narasimhan
4. Anas Patankar
5. Daniel Plymire
6. Sankash Shankar
7. Megan Thomas

organization-recreation organization-sports project-data-analysis project-impact-measurement project-marketing


Chalkbeat

The client

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization committed to covering one of America’s most important stories: the effort to improve schools for all children, especially those who have historically lacked access to a quality education. They believe that every child deserves an excellent education, and that a strong press is vital to making that happen. They also believe that education is fundamentally a local issue, and have therefore focused their coverage in local communities.

The project

Chalkbeat reached out to Pro Bono Analytics with the desire to make evidence-based decisions.  Data were spread across multiple systems, and relevant metrics were not well defined.  Automated spreadsheets were being used for exposing the most frequently requested data in Google Analytics to all staff, but neither allowed for deeper queries nor included meaningful automated data from other sources, including Facebook/Facebook Ads, Mailchimp, Pardot, Salesforce, or Eventbrite.  Volunteers helped to evaluate whether or not a data warehouse / business intelligence (DW/BI) system was feasible and practical for their organization.  Feasibility was assessed via a set of analytical questions, such as the following.

• What are the stories, topics, series, and authors that lead to the most email newsletter subscriptions?
• What headline constructions lead to the largest number of page views per story?

A cost analysis was conducted to determine the economic practicality of a DW/BI system for Chalkbeat. 

Volunteers

1. Shagufta Gupta

organization-education organization-youth-development project-capital-planning project-data-management project-web-analytics

Collateral Repair Project

The client

There are over 600,000 refugees in Jordan, mostly from Iraq, Syria and Somalia. Collateral Repair Project (CRP) is one of the locally based nonprofit organizations providing assistance to refugees in need. CRP supports affected communities in Amman by easing the trauma of displacement, finding alternative income streams, and rebuilding lives. The limited CRP budget is used for food vouchers, housing assistance, education (both children and job training) and post-traumatic stress disorder support.

Two projects

Given the large numbers of refugees in Jordan, CRP needed a less subjective method for selecting which families to support. Pro Bono Analytics volunteers researched and delivered a vulnerability index to help CRP better and more consistently decide which families should receive aid. The index was based on a United Nation vulnerability index and customized to data available to CRP.  A second project involved the evaluation of CRP’s current database system and provided advice on system performance. Pro Bono Analytics volunteers were able to reduce the food voucher delivery system from a 2.5-hour process to a 30-minute process, thereby freeing CRP staff for other work.

Volunteers

1. Negin Ebadi
2. Riaz Hedayati
3. David Hunt
4. Zohar Strinka

organization-community-support organization-international project-data-management project-impact-measurement

Community Empowerment Solutions

The client

Community Empowerment Solutions was a nonprofit organization that worked with impoverished communities in the Caribbean region. Their model involved acquiring products beneficial to low-income families, such as solar powered lamps, and providing them to local entrepreneurs at or near cost. The local entrepreneurs then sold the items to consumers needing them at a modest markup, benefiting both parties.

The project

CES wanted to survey the consumers of their products to assess both demand and perceived value. Their entrepreneur partners would conduct the survey. Complicating matters were language issues (most of their operating area contained Spanish speakers but Haiti was a clear exception), cultural issues (possibly skewing responses to be favorable as a sign of courtesy) and literacy concerns among both respondents and surveyors. PBA volunteers designed an innovative survey and collection mechanism to address those concerns.

Volunteers

1. Matthew Brondum
2. Miriam Konz

organization-poverty-alleviation organization-international project-data-collection project-impact-measurement project-survey-development

Conflict Resolution Center of Baltimore County

The client

Founded in 2009, the Conflict Resolution Center of Baltimore County's mission is to support the resolution of interpersonal and community conflict through the use of community mediation, community conferencing, and other restorative justice services and education. CRCBC services are accessible to all persons and organizations in Baltimore County, at convenient times and locations, provided by trained individuals that honor the diversity of the community.

The project

CRCBC sought help in developing key performance indicators (KPIs) to demonstrate the impact of the organization's activities to sponsors and stakeholders. Their goals were to:

• review and evaluate the quality, completeness, and usefulness of the existing data held in the organization;
• define KPIs that could be derived from this data to document the ways CRCBC has served the county government;
• facilitate the development of a proposal for financial support from Baltimore County government; and
• help document data needs and other business requirements for other important work that CRCBC planned to do in the future.

Volunteers

1. Jess Christian
2. William Christian

organization-community-support project-impact-measurement project-data-collection


Davies Project

The client

The mission of The Davies Project is to connect families to resources and community by providing reliable transportation for seriously ill children and pregnant women to essential healthcare. Volunteer drivers provide rides to medical appointments for children with a serious health condition, pregnant women, and for parents with a baby in the NICU if no car is available.

The project

The Davies Project (TDP) uses a web-based software platform for both client and volunteer management and ride scheduling. The built-in reports provided by the platform do not match the reports that TDP generates for grants, fund-raising and internal operations. This resulted in a considerable amount of copying, pasting and recalculating by staff. Pro Bono Analytics volunteers created a pair of programs that allow TDP managers to import data from the software platform and produce reports tailored to their needs.

Volunteers

1. Rachel Osborne
2. Daniel Rossetti
3. Paul Rubin

organization-community-support organization-family-services project-data-analysis


Eggo's Friends

The client

Eggo's Friends partners with sustainability leaders to deploy innovative programs that make pet welfare a vital part of community infrastructure. Their programs help pet owners, shelters, and local governments by easing the shelter crisis and building pet welfare into a lasting community asset.

The project

The organization was looking to implement free or low-cost pet welfare programs around the country. To support this initiative, they needed to be able to quantify the expected/predicted impact in the following categories:

• Animal welfare: Pet euthanasia and disease prevention
• Financial: Economic direct and indirect cost savings of taxpayers money
• Community: Reducing disease spread and neighborhood safety

Volunteers

1. Peter Dyson

organization-animal-welfare project-data-analysis

Family Service of Greater Boston

The client

Since 1835, Family Service of Greater Boston (FSGB) had focused on improving the lives of at-risk urban children, youth and their families. They provided services through three main programs: an outpatient mental health clinic, in-home therapy team, and a residential program for teens. FSGB used data to bill clients and insurance, to store information on services provided and to track client and organization outcomes. It sought ways to improve their data management and reporting practices.

The project

There were multiple challenges to efficient data management: redundant data existed across the organization; most of the data was on paper and in filing cabinets; most staff were not technologically sophisticated; reports required manual processes; much information was stored in a third-party billing software not designed for data management. Pro Bono Analytics recommended a transformation strategy comprised of multiple solutions for short- to long-term impact, with low to high use of current resources. ‘Quick hits’ included: standardizing data collection, processing and reporting; setting up a database server using the existing shared network drive; hiring volunteers and interns; and moving to all-electronic data management. All of these tasks required buy-in from directors and a culture change among staff to emphasize data literacy and comfort with information technology.

Volunteers

1. Joanne Kang
2. Mark Reynolds

organization-community-support organization-family-services project-data-management


First Literacy

The client

First Literacy offers a range of Adult Basic Education services to provide basic literacy skills to adult learners. This includes free professional development workshops for teachers, grants for innovative new programs, and scholarships to adults continuing to higher education or vocational training. Its vision is to enable all adults to reach their full potential for fulfilling personal lives and career opportunities through English-language literacy. Its goal is to ensure that adult learners and adult educators receive the support and resources they need to make their vision a reality.

The project

First Literacy sought to measure the impact of its services, to support process improvements and demonstrate impact to funders. Its data reports on benefits to teacher participants in their professional development workshops but does not measure how the adult students they teach benefit from this participation. A Pro Bono Analytics team of volunteers piloted a set of brief pre- and post- workshop surveys of the teacher participants asking about student benefits. The team analyzed results and created a question bank and survey templates to be used for future surveys. Questions measured student outcomes across categories, such as ‘resilience, grit and persistence,’ ‘scaffolding strategies’ and ‘student engagement,’ as well as a general assessment of student benefits from workshops. The volunteer team recommended that First Literacy partner with other programs to use their assessment data and do advance planning to increase teacher engagement with the survey.

Volunteers

1. Jayashree Raman
2. Selin Topel
3. Jennifer Wu

organization-education organization-workforce-development project-data-analysis project-impact-measurement project-survey-development


Friendly Loving Opportunities

The client

Friendly Loving Opportunities (FLO) provides food, clothing, and supplies for people experiencing hardship. Through its weekly outreach and planned special events, FLO works to inspire men, women and children in need while connecting the most vulnerable in Baltimore to vital resources. Aligned to its mission, FLO strives to instill hope and help those in need transform their lives.

The project

FLO had accumulated participation data from their various programs and activities. They sought guidance on how to generate estimates of the impact of their activities on the well-being of the people they serve. Under consideration were analysis of their existing data, searches for publicly accessible supplementary data, and recommendations for additional data to collect (and how to collect it). They also sought suggestions on better ways to store and utilize the data they had.

Volunteers

1. Robert Coburn
2. Victor Fortin
3. Sharon Morris
4. Anna Svirsko

organization-poverty-alleviation project-data-collection project-impact-measurement




Friends Life Community

The client

Friends Life Community is an organization dedicated to offering skill-building to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities to decrease dependency, improve socialization, and increase community inclusion. They provide day programs that include art classes, life skills classes, community outings, volunteer work in the community, social clubs, and one-on-one coaching services.

The project

Friends Life Community sought help refining their data selection and reporting in an effort to improve communication around mission impact. They want to accurately showcase the progress of clients to their clients and the clients’ families and to donors, and to be able to make data-driven decisions about programming.

Volunteers

1. Wendy Swenson-Roth

project-data-collection project-impact-measurement project-decision-analysis organization-disabilities

FUSE - City of Oakland

The client

FUSE is a national nonprofit that partners with local government (in this case, the City of Oakland) to help urban communities thrive. They work with cities and counties on a range of issues, including economic and workforce development, healthcare, public safety, climate change, and education.

The project

The Oakland Mayor, City Council and City Administrator identified the creation of a performance management system as a critical priority. Specifically, the City wanted to ensure all departments had the tools and resources needed to track and report on equity-centered targets aligned to key health, climate and economic indicators. This system was also designed to help local leaders address the challenges faced during the COVID-19 Pandemic and improve results within resource constraints, engage all public employees in an era of complexity and rapid changes, and gain and keep the public’s trust and confidence through accountability and communication.

FUSE approached Pro Bono Analytics on behalf of the City of Oakland for help in designing a performance management system. Pro Bono Analytics volunteers developed a Business Requirements Document to inform the development of a data governance processes to drive data collection, storage, usage, interpretation, and reporting.

Volunteers

1. Jamie Bayless
2. Rodney Spears
3. Bobby Wong

organization-community-support project-data-management project-process-improvement project-goal-setting

Goodwill of Greater Grand Rapids

The client

The mission of Goodwill is to “strive to enhance the dignity and quality of life of individuals and families by helping people reach their full potential through education, skills training and the power of work.” Goodwill is one of the most respected companies in the US and Canada, known for operating hundreds of thrift stores based on extensive donation efforts and for its successful job training programs.

The project

The Grand Rapids headquarters operated 20 stores in an eight-county region in Michigan. They were faced with a problem most brick and mortar stores are having – declining foot traffic in the stores. The stores and online sales help provide funding and opportunities for job training.

Volunteers worked with the VP of Business Intelligence at the Grand Rapids Goodwill to evaluate the different campaigns used by Goodwill and their effectiveness in generating foot traffic at eight of the stores in their region. A secondary assessment was how the campaigns impacted donations. The marketing campaigns involved a variety of media, including television ads, social media, Pandora, print and billboards.

Volunteers

1. Michael Altemeier
2. Sophia Sullivan

organization-workforce-development project-data-analysis project-marketing

Green Pro Bono

The client

Green Pro Bono's mission is to help non-profits and social entrepreneurs define their legal needs and to provide legal assistance for environmental "change makers" who cannot afford the legal help they need. Pro bono opportunities are directed to lawyers and law firms depending on the specialty required, and the attorney-client relationship is monitored throughout the pro bono services process. By offering pro bono legal help for green social entrepreneurs, Green Pro Bono can do its part to expedite the innovations necessary to combat climate change.

The project

Green Pro Bono approached Pro Bono Analytics to better quantify the value of their free legal aid services. Available data tracked the exact services provided to each client. These data were analyzed to demonstrate impact for fundraising and marketing purposes.  Additional data were sought on the demographics of their attorneys and clients for grant-writing and fundraising purposes.

Volunteers

1. Brian Chaplin

organization-community-support organization-conservation project-data-analysis project-data-collection project-impact-measurement


Hannah's House

The client

Hannah's House was an organization based in San Diego, CA that provided a network of family programs seeking to create bright futures for children and peaceful resolutions for parents challenged by the adverse childhood experience of parental separation.

The project

Hannah's House sought help to measure impact of their programs and services on the well-being of clients, and long-term positive impacts of the program. This included assessing the availability, quality, and usability of their data, identifying gaps in their data, performing some initial data analyses and developing a plan for next steps to meet their organization goals and objectives.

Volunteers

1. Steve Tai

project-data-analysis project-impact-measurement organization-family-services

Housed Working and Healthy

The client

Housed Working and Healthy's (HWH) mission is to help people become self-sufficient. The HWH model is a partner based eco-system that co-locates housing, mental health services, workforce training and employment, along with a meal plan. This supportive structure and services helps people stabilize, develop a support network, become trained, gain experience, get a job, secure housing and ultimately become self-sufficient.

Three projects

HWH sought to create a set of community indicators that could be employed to assess the societal need for the HWH process of helping struggling individuals to become self-sufficient, with employment and housing. These indicators needed to be measurable based on available community data, which required exploration of available data sources. The ideal set of indicators would achieve the following:

• demonstrate the societal need for HWH;
• assess the potentially favorable financial impact of HWH on the City of Denver;
• enable comparisons between HWH and similar nonprofit organizations, so as to better articulate the HWH mission; and
  
• provide statistics to assist HWH in fundraising efforts.

After collecting three years of data on candidates for HWH programs, HWH sought to answer questions regarding the success of their students in employment, health, and self-sufficiency.  The analysis included suggestions for modifying and expanding the data collection process and identification of factors related to student success. PBA volunteers next created a dashboard to capture daily mood, student progress, and changes in external factors. This helps case managers identify and prioritize mental health assistance and other resources available to support students.

Volunteers

1. Dan Betcher
2. Vinayaka Gude
3. Shaifali Juneja
4. Arooba Kamal
5. Prajwal Narayanaswamy
6. Katherine Obenschain
7. Joel Ramos
8. Andini Safitri

project-data-collection project-data-analysis project-impact-measurement organization-workforce-development organization-housing-assistance organization-mental-health organization-poverty-alleviation


Houston Methodist Hospital

The client

Houston Methodist Hospital (HMH) Volunteer Services Department is responsible for providing engaged, well trained and resourceful volunteers who produce exemplary and meaningful service and support while demonstrating ICARE values to their patients, guests and the hospital they serve.

The project

HMH wanted to better understand how to interact with existing and potential volunteers in three primary areas.

• Engagement – The list of volunteers contains a mixture of (a) people regularly volunteering for specific assignments, (b) people volunteering only once or twice, and (c) people never volunteering for a specific assignment. There are cases where volunteers receive training yet never sign up for an event. What are the reasons behind different levels of engagement?
• Communication – HMH uses a variety of methods to advertise specific volunteering opportunities.  These include email, website postings, social media, etc. However HMH, currently does not utilize text messaging as an avenue for communication. How effective will text outreach be in communicating with volunteer? Which methods are most effective, and how does this differ by demographic?
• Branding – Although HMH is a well-known and respected organization, it still must compete with other international, national and local non-profits for volunteer time. What methods are most effective for encouraging volunteers to sign up?

PBA volunteers were recognized for their work with an award from HWH, which was highlighted in an article in the INFORMS Analytics Magazine.

Volunteers

1. Tingting (Rachel) Chung
2. Kiatikun Louis Luangkesorn
3. Roochi Mishra

organization-health-care project-data-analysis project-marketing

Human Milk Banking Association of North America

The client

The mission of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA) is to advance nonprofit milk banking through advocacy, evidence-based standards, and member accreditation.  HMBANA believes in a world where all infants have access to human milk through the support of breastfeeding and the use of pasteurized donor human milk.

Two projects

Pro Bono Analytics volunteers assisted HMBANA with understanding recent trends in their data.  One project studied equity and inclusion via member milk banks survey responses for the last three years. The analysis identified how their members incorporated inclusive language and any changes over time. Another project analyzed trends over time related to the dispensation of milk, including changes in both collecting and dispensing and changes in the number of donors.

Volunteers

1. Katie Burnham
2. Andres Osuna
3. Natalia Summerville

organization-community-support organization-public-health project-data-analysis

Humanitarian Data Exchange

The client

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities. Within UN-Habitat is the Global Urban Observatories (GUO), which among other activities, is responsible for publishing a “State of the World Cities Report.” This report is based on a City Prosperity Index (CPI) with the following six dimensions:

        a) Productivity Index
        b) Infrastructure Development Index
        c) Quality of Life Index
        d) Equity and Social Inclusion Index
        e) Environmental Sustainability Index
        f) Urban Governance and Legislation Index

A partner in developing the world cities report is the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX), which provides much of the data used in the CPI.

The project

The HDX team in Nairobi, Kenya contacted Pro Bono Analytics for assistance is considering and designing a new index for inclusion in the world cities report – a seventh dimension based on human vulnerability. Pro Bono Analytics designed an index that considered susceptibility (how exposed individuals are to external factors), inability to cope (short-term ability of a population to manage adverse conditions), and lack of adaptability (long-term planning ability to reduce impacts of negative events). Using data provided by GUO, a Microsoft Excel-based version was created and delivered for further evaluation and use.

Volunteers

1. David Hunt

organization-community-support organization-international project-metric-development


I AM MENtality

The client

The I AM MENtality Youth Empowerment Project provides mentoring and leadership development opportunities for male youth, ages 7-18, in Baltimore City and surrounding counties. The organization offers at-risk youth support in leadership skills, conflict resolution, anger management, financial literacy, professionalism, health and wellness, effective public speaking, character building, and other life skills. The program uses a variety of services to include individual and family counseling, peer-to-peer support groups and mentoring, and academic tutoring to reach and help these boys.

The project

I AM MENtality needed help in identifying, collecting, and analyzing data to support its mission, in particular:

• identifying and selecting outcome measures and models suitable for demonstrating the effectiveness of its programs;
  
• determining any additional variables necessary for those models; and
  
• determining which, if any, data currently collected (as manual records) would be useful for documenting outcomes.
  

Volunteers

1. Berna Basar
2. Veena Rao
3. Nouri Sakr
4. Joy Weaver

organization-youth-development project-data-collection project-impact-measurement

I AM WORTHY

The client

The mission of I AM WORTHY is to partner with schools to improve students’ mental-emotional health and build character.  Students who lack self-worth will struggle to make worthwhile decisions, devalue themselves, and mistreat others. I AM WORTHY is a video-based curriculum intended for use in classrooms around the U.S. and beyond. Whereas other programs focus on behavior modification, I AM WORTHY addresses the core issue of self-worth—how students see themselves determines their life choices and treatment of others. The curriculum emphasizes 21 universal, essential affirmations of worth, developed with expert input from educators, doctors, therapists, counselors, and more.

The program consists of 22 videos, each approximately nine minutes, designed for viewing one video weekly to bolster self-esteem and decision-making abilities. The program is delivered through interactive digital tools such as videos, reflective journaling, and family-engaging activities, allowing for easy implementation without extra preparation for educators.

The project

Targeted primarily at middle school students in grades 5 through 9, I AM WORTHY is expanding to cover additional age groups. Volunteers worked with I AM WORTHY to develop surveys and visualization tools that can describe their impact and create awareness among various stakeholders, including - funders, parents, and, most importantly, schools and school districts interested in implementing this program. Project goals are as listed below:

• Develop pre- and post-surveys to evaluate the impact of this program within a classroom once implemented.
• Develop a survey to assess the instructors' observations of the classroom environment to identify the relevant changes, thereby validating the advantages of implementing this program.
• Develop a dashboard to visualize the students' progress and instructor assessment and display it on the website.
• Provide training on data collection, storage and dashboard usage and maintenance.

Volunteers

1. Ethan Caldas
2. Vinayaka Gude
3. Selin Topel

organization-youth-development organization-mental-health project-data-collection project-impact-measurement project-survey-development

IDinsight

The client

IDinsight is a global advisory, data analytics, and research organization that helps development leaders maximize their social impact. They work with governments, multilateral agencies, foundations, and innovative non-profit organizations in Asia and Africa across a wide range of sectors, including agriculture, education, health, governance, sanitation, and financial inclusion.

The project

IDinsight was working with a national government in North Africa on eliminating barriers to schooling for out-of-school children. Since many children come from rural areas, safe transport to school was important but under-provisioned. The mission was to assist the national government in using population, demographic, and geographic data to plan investments in the construction of dormitories and provisioning of school buses.

Volunteers

1. Mohan Chiriki
2. Matheus Diogenes Andrade
3. Manuel Laguna
4. Paul Rubin
5. Joseph Schoenbeck
6. Sankash Shankar

organization-international project-location-analysis project-routing project-capital-planning



Indianapolis Art Center

The client

The Indianapolis Art Center (IAC) is like no other organization in Indiana and few in the country; it is an independent creative space that meets an individual where they are at with art, offering free access to six public art galleries and 17 university–quality studios with classes for artists of all ages and skill levels, and employing more artists than any other organization in Indiana.

The project

IAC had two primary databases, one for donors and one for participants in their education programs, that were disconnected from each other. In addition, data were available from ticket sales for their Art Fair. IAC was interested in cleaning, merging and analyzing their available data to gain a better understanding of their participants and relationships between different roles as donors, members, and students.

Volunteers

1. Lily Damron
2. Corey Flynn
3. Van Tran

organization-arts organization-education project-data-analysis project-data-management



John Jay College of Criminal Justice

The client

John Jay College of Criminal Justice is a community of motivated and intellectually committed individuals who explore justice in its many dimensions. The College’s liberal arts curriculum equips students to pursue advanced study and meaningful, rewarding careers in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. Their professional programs introduce students to foundational and newly emerging fields and prepare them for advancement within their chosen professions.

The project

John Jay wanted to conduct a comprehensive review of the College’s academic and support programs for students, including examination of student outcomes disaggregated by race, sex, income, and other factors.  This included both creating data visualizations of the analysis in order to make the data accessible and understandable to internal and external audiences and creating a process that could be used by the College in the future. Analysis targets included the following:

• identifying any hidden access or outcome gaps by race, sex, income, and other factors;
• increasing their understanding of – and testing their assumptions about – challenges and risk factors facing John Jay students;
• facilitating problem-solving to address identified challenges in order to achieve gains in success outcomes for all students; and
• launching a campus-wide improvement effort grounded in data and focused on increasing student success rates.

Volunteers

1. Adam Bookman
2. Lucas Cyr
3. Ashley Jackson

organization-education project-data-analysis



KABOOM!

The client

KABOOM! unites with communities to build kid-designed playspaces. Combined with their decades of experience in community engagement, these playspaces can spark joy and foster a sense of belonging for communities of color — communities that disproportionately have less access to play where they learn and live.

The project

Volunteers worked with KABOOM! to create a strategy map that could be used to eliminate playspace inequity gaps in underserved communities of color and low-income communities in three California cities: Los Angeles; Oakland; and San Francisco. Project goals included the following.

• Collecting data from distinct sources on the location of playspaces.
• Utilizing this data in combination with other datasets on race, ethnicity, and income to:
  • Create a report that shows where there is a need for investment in playspaces.
  • Generate a mathematical optimization model to suggest new playspace locations to maximize reach while adhering to budget constraints and other limitations such as bus stops, transportation, etc.
• Building step-by-step instructions to aid in a national rollout of this playspace analysis.

Volunteers

1. Mitch Stepleton

organization-youth-development organization-recreation project-data-collection project-data-analysis

LawNY

The client

Legal Assistance of Western New York (LawNY) is a nonprofit legal firm that provides access to the justice system for low-income people and other vulnerable populations who have civil legal problems.  In 2015, the firm closed 8,877 cases benefiting 18,246 people across Western New York.

The project

LawNY sought analytics help in developing a business process map of the intake system used in its seven offices, analyzing where barriers exist, and making recommendations for improvements.  Their ultimate goal was to improve the intake system so it works as efficiently and effectively as possible for its clients, intake workers and advocates.

Volunteers

1. Rebecca Gaupmann

project-process-improvement organization-community-support

LETS GO Boys and Girls

The client

LETS GO Boys and Girls is working to break the cycle of poverty through STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) education and workforce development. Operating in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, LETS GO inspires and supports participation of low income/high risk students in activities that help them develop a STEM identity leading to improved academic achievement and career success in the 21st Century information age. A goal of LETS GO is to increase the number of STEM professionals from urban underserved communities.

The project

LETS GO tracks students from the time they register in one of their informal STEM education activities (typically in elementary school) through middle, high, and post-secondary school and ultimately entrance into the workforce.  Pro Bono Analytics volunteers provided advice on improving their data management system to enable easier generation of desired reports. Volunteers designed approximately 30 reports that the LETS GO staff could then generate on their own, and then provided guidance on potential database systems that aligned better with the needs of LETS GO.

Volunteers

1. Pavan Narayanan
2. Upasana Raval

organization-education organization-poverty-alleviation organization-workforce-development organization-youth-development project-data-analysis project-data-management

Marine Conservation Institute

The client

Marine Conservation Institute is a leader in the global movement to protect vast ocean areas, using the latest science to identify important marine ecosystems, advocate for their protection, and measure progress toward effective, sustainable marine protection.

The project

A long-term goal is to develop a robust data and analytics strategy plan and revamp data platforms to improve the ability to find insight about their audience, donors, and program effectiveness. For the initial project, Pro Bono Analytics volunteers focused on the following.

• Obtaining a good understanding the organization's goals and objectives with respect to acquisition and usage of both external and internal data.
• Assessing the current availability, quality, and usability of the data.
• Identifying gaps in their data which, if filled, would improve the ability to measure impact and tailor sponsorship and marketing programs.
• Enabling web analytics services and perform initial data analysis to get value quickly.

Volunteers

1. Nienke Wagenaar
2. Kathryn Walter

organization-conservation project-data-analysis project-data-management project-impact-measurement project-web-analytics

Meals on Wheels / FeedMore WNY

The client

FeedMore WNY provides home-delivered meals designed to enhance the health and independence of homebound older adults and individuals living with a disability. Clients in the program may receive two meals, a hot lunch and cold supper, both of which are delivered during the lunch hour. These meals provide 2/3 of the daily recommended nutrition for a senior. Home delivery additionally provides clients with companionship and conversation with a caring FeedMore WNY volunteer.

Two projects

The Buffalo area Meals for Wheels / FeedMore WNY organization maintains a complex inventory of perishable items in various freezers. Pro Bono Analytics volunteers first conducted a complete accounting of the existing inventory, and second developed a data management process to enable efficient collection and updating of inventory data. The developed data management tool also generated desired inventory reports and enabled utilization calculations to facilitate inventory management.

Volunteers

1. Puneet Agarwal
2. Yashar Khayati
3. Vineet Payyappalli

organization-community-support project-data-collection project-data-management project-process-improvement

MedSurplus Alliance

The client

The MedSurplus Alliance (MSA) is a cross-sector alliance that works collaboratively to improve access to quality donated medical products, through accreditation, capacity-building, management and technology solutions, and leadership. MSA is a program of The Task Force for Global Health. Collectively, Task Force programs have a real impact by solving massive health problems. They work with partners to eliminate diseases that have plagued humanity for centuries and transform health systems, so that in the end, all people can realize their right to living a healthy life.

The project

The goal of the project was to help MSA build a resilient supply chain to be able respond efficiently and effectively at critical times such as pandemic spread as well as normal situations. Three main deliverables were envisioned.

• Optimal Network Design - MSA did not own a logistics system and used third party offerings. They wanted to build a logistic network to move inventory around and increase the scope of service.
• Optimize Inventory Strategy - MSA wanted to create predictive models to forecast different medical supply, equipment and device demand across the network and develop an optimal inventory plan.
• Flexible Processes - Upon developing network design and inventory models, MSA wanted to build a set of action-oriented dashboards to bring full visibility into current state, and develop processes to lead to desired actions.

Volunteers

1. Oswaldo Almonacid Rivas
2. Diego Delgado Caseres
3. Sebastian Granda Altamirano
4. Christian Ramirez Luna

organization-public-health organization-international project-process-improvement project-data-analysis project-logistics

Mentoring Mentors

The client

Mentoring Mentors (MM), a Baltimore-area organization, employs an intergenerational, team-based, near-to-peer mentoring approach to help, guide, and inspire African-American youth to become mentors in their communities. MM works with both young men and young women, using a combination of an African American professional, a high-school mentee, and middle-school mentees for young men and small group workshops with working professional women for school-aged young women.

Two projects

Mentoring Mentors was just beginning to explore the use of analytics. They sought help from Pro Bono Analytics to construct an initial data acquisition and storage strategy. Questions to be answered in the first project included the following.

• How would the data be used? What were the desired results from analysis of the data?
• What data did they have, what data did they need to collect, and what data could/should they acquire from public sources?
• How should the data be stored?

In the second project, MM sought help to integrate or design a system to store the data they had collected, with the aim of developing cross-sectional data, analyzing current data, comparing and contrasting data, and using their data to evaluate the effectiveness of their programs.

Volunteers

1. Rachel Brame
2. Sean Justice
3. S. (Kam) Kamakshi
4. Noah Purcell

organization-youth-development project-data-collection


Milk Bank

The client

The mission of The Milk Bank is to promote community health by expanding the safe use of human milk for all babies, especially premature and ill infants. The Milk Bank impacts the greater Midwest area through the safe collection and distribution of pasteurized human donor breast milk. The Milk Bank dispensed safe donor milk to hospitals and families across 25 states in 2021.

The project

The Milk Bank provided de-identified data on donors, including donor characteristics and donor application materials. Pro Bono Analytics volunteers conducted analyses on historical data to describe the typical donor profile and to study the journey of successful milk donors.

Volunteers

1. Silviya Simeonova

organization-community-support organization-public-health project-data-analysis

Mobile Integrated Health - Community Paramedicine

The client

The Baltimore City Fire Department, University of Maryland Medical Center, the City of Baltimore, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore partnered to launch Mobile Integrated Healthcare – Community Paramedicine (MIH-CP), a community-based pilot program. MIH-CP supports the health of individuals through a comprehensive, free, multidisciplinary care model for patients which provides care outside the hospital setting, designed to reduce health disparities, decrease emergency department visits, and prevent hospital readmissions.

Two projects

Minor Definitive Care Now (MDCN) is a program that supports low acuity patients who call 911 for EMS evaluation and transport. MDCN was only permitted to respond to 9-1-1 calls dispatched as low acuity by the 911 call center. There were potentially missing medically appropriate patients to evaluate and treat because of inaccurate information via the call center. Provider referrals would allow for any paramedic working within the 9-1-1 system to refer patients directly to MDCN for evaluation and treatment. Volunteers were asked to help determine how provider referrals would impact MDCN. Additionally, MDCN wanted to know whether there was an optimal location to station the MDCN vehicle, and at what point an expansion of the coverage area would require a second vehicle.

Transitional Health Support (THS) is designed to help patients with multiple social, environmental, and healthcare challenges to improve the successful transition from hospital to home. The primary objective of the THS program is to reduce 30-day unplanned re-admissions to any hospital. Volunteers were asked to help THS gain an understanding of their performance metrics and how certain decision variables are connected to these performance metrics, and to identify relevant and potentially available data to support the optimization of decisions.

Volunteers

1. Lucy Huang
2. Steven Lauretti
3. Kiatikun Louis Luangkesorn
4. Venroy Porter

organization-health-care organization-public-health project-data-analysis project-data-collection project-decision-analysis project-location-analysis

Nashville Zoo

The client

The Nashville Zoo is a progressive and dynamic zoological park serving Middle Tennessee, southern Kentucky, and hundreds of thousands of tourists who travel to Nashville every year.

Two projects

The zoo’s Education Department was working on a comprehensive evaluation methodology for all their programs to measure knowledge, attitude, and behavioral change among participants. They wanted help in improving the data analysis and the overall program evaluation process. The project was done in two phases. The first project involved defining metric that would help the zoo make strategic decisions about improving programs and also provide information to funders, and assessing the data needed. In the second project, the volunteer helped develop a data pipeline from Google Sheets (where the data was stored) to software that could be used for visualization.

Volunteers

1. Paul Jurek

organization-conservation organization-education organization-animal-welfare project-data-analysis project-decision-analysis project-data-management


Next One Up

The client

Next One Up (NOU) is a long term mentoring and out of school time program. They recruit young men from Baltimore City and work with them through middle school, high school, and their post-secondary journey. One of their goals is to ensure the program participants are stable by their mid-twenties and can start giving back to the organization by helping the next generation of students.

Two projects

NOU tracked the following data: weekly attendance to their program, retention of students from year to year, percentage of students who graduated high school on time, percentage of students who were accepted into college, and a few other items. They needed the help of Pro Bono Analytics to determine if there were other data they should be collecting in order to better gauge their impact and success with program participants. In a follow-up project, volunteers advised on a potential customer relations management system to hold the data and provide reporting capabilities, and helped extract existing data from the previously used system.

Volunteers

1. Elizabeth Dombowsky
2. Laurent Poulain
3. Kim Sembrano
4. Rodney Spears

organization-youth-development project-data-collection project-impact-measurement

On the Rise

The client

On The Rise provides assistance to women and transgender/non-binary individuals experiencing homelessness and seeks to cultivate long-term relationships that foster safety and belonging. Their process encourages a society that nourishes the well-being of their participants by engaging with the people, programs and systems that most affect them.

The project

Pro Bono Analytics volunteers conducted an analysis of individuals participating with On The Rise. Their analysis characterized individuals in their programs, identified the most common types of housing used, and summarized a distribution on the rate of visits.  These results were used to inform further data collection and potential analysis.

Volunteers

1. Anna Danandeh
2. Rina Schneur

organization-community-support organization-housing-assistance project-data-analysis

Open Works

The client

Open Works is a 34,000 sq. ft. nonprofit maker space located in Central Baltimore. Their mission is to make tools, technology and the knowledge to use them accessible to all. They achieve this by offering affordable access to tools, education and studio space,  and by offering a variety of education, programming and community events to engage audiences from youths to seniors. They serve as a hub for creatives and community members.

Two projects

Open Works uses a third party hosted system to maintain account data and track member activity. The first project targeted "cleaning" their data. Volunteers developed software to identify accounts missing key data or problematic in other ways and to assist staff in correcting those issues. The second project involved volunteers developing software to access the membership data and allow Open Works staff to do quantify client demographic and usage information.

Volunteers

1. Nusrat Chowdhury
2. Brugen Rajan
3. Paul Rubin

organization-education organization-workforce-development project-data-management project-impact-measurement

PhD Project

The client

The PhD Project was founded upon the premise that advancements in workplace diversity could be propelled forward by increasing the diversity of business school faculty. Today, their network of supporters, sponsors and universities helps Black/African Americans, Latinx/Hispanic American and Native Americans attain their business PhD and become business professors who will mentor the next generation of leaders.

The project

The PhD Project sought support from Pro Bono Analytics to analyze available data of applicants to the annual PhD Project conference. The goal was to identify criteria/attributes of those admitted to full-time business doctoral programs. Those criteria would be used in the application review process to determine who should be invited to attend the conference.

Volunteers

1. James Cochran
2. Diego García
3. Kouame N'Goran
4. Paul Rubin

organization-education project-data-analysis


Remerg

The client

The mission of Remerg is to stop the revolving door of recidivism, one resource at a time. Their vision is a world where people released from incarceration are able to restart successfully and never go back. They connect people released from prison and jail to resources and information they need, when they need it. By doing so, Remerg.com fosters agency, supports success, and ultimately helps to reduce the rate of recidivism in Colorado.

The project

Remerg uses Google Analytics for their website. They sought guidance in how to use it, what information they could extract, and how to interpret that information.

Volunteers

1. Venroy Porter
2. Laurent Poulain

project-web-analytics organization-community-support


Schizophrenia & Psychosis Action Alliance

The client

Schizophrenia & Psychosis Action Alliance (SPAA - formerly Schizophrenia and Related Disorders Alliance of America) is dedicated to improving the lives of people affected by schizophrenia-related brain illnesses through support programs, education, collaboration, and advocacy.

The project

The organization sought help in reviewing their data and then creating a plan for moving forward. Salesforce.com was the underlying data infrastructure housing a contact database including members, supporters, stakeholders and other interested parties. Pro Bono Analytics enabled an examination of the available data to provide SPAA with a better understanding of the information in the database (e.g., geographic distribution, completeness of the data, etc.). Analysis was targeted to improve operational performance and support decision-making, including better visualization and communication tools for sharing information with leadership and managers.

Volunteers

1. Katie Critelli

organization-disabilities organization-health-care project-data-analysis project-data-collection project-data-management project-process-improvement

Silver Whiskers Farm

The client

Silver Whiskers Farm is a very small nonprofit founded in 2018 with the primary goal of raising awareness for homeless senior cats in foster care and raising funding to defray the cost of care needed for older cats. When a senior cat in foster care requires special medical treatment, the rescue group caring for that cat can request a financial contribution from Silver Whiskers to help cover this cost. Fundraising is currently by direct donations or by donating a portion of the sales of the farm's products.

The project

The budget and all financially related transactions and decisions were handled manually via an Excel spreadsheet. In addition, information on the senior cats in foster care was not officially tracked. This made it difficult to manage an appropriate balance between available funds and requests for contributions towards medical treatment. A more streamlined and coordinated system was desired that could achieve the following:

• enable easy entry and management of transactions;
• provide tracking of relevant information on senior cats in their foster care group; and
• allow data analysis capability that could potentially anticipate future needs for the senior cats and/or identify the appropriate size of contributions toward their medical care.

Volunteers

1. Jessica Mehrens
2. Pavithra Sripathanallur Murali

organization-animal-welfare project-data-management

SkillWorks

The client

SkillWorks, a program launched by The Boston Foundation, invests in employer-driven, sector-based training and placement strategies to help low-skill, low- and moderate-income residents move to family-sustaining jobs; and help employers find and retain skilled employees.

The project

SkillWorks needed analytics help to understand its data, formulate and investigate options for data storage and automating production of performance metrics, and develop a plan for moving forward.

Volunteers

1. Mehrnaz Abdollahian
2. Rozhin Doroudi

project-data-management organization-workforce-development


Southwest Works

The client

The Southwest Partnership is a community-led community development organization. They work to revitalize seven neighborhoods in southwest Baltimore City and implement the 'Vision Plan' created by area residents.

Southwest Works (SW) is the Southwest Partnership’s workforce development program. It exists to advance the Workforce Development Committee’s goal of working towards full, appropriate employment at a living wage for all community members. It covers three main program areas -- working with individual community members, working with other workforce development organizations in the area, and working with local anchor institutions on advancing their local hiring goals and increasing the number of community members hired at local anchors. Each of these areas is connected, but all have distinct evaluation, data management, and analysis goals.

The project

Southwest Works needed to effectively describe their impact to a range of stakeholders: funders; community leaders; community members who might take advantage of the program; and partners, including other workforce development organizations in the area. In order to do this, SW asked for help for the following:

• developing a system and a plan to fully utilize their new Client Management System to run reports and analysis on data they already had;
  
• reviewing performance metrics for each of the Southwest Works program areas;
  
• identifying what data they were not collecting that would be needed for calculation of performance metrics, and developing a strategy for collecting that data; and
  
• developing a report on Southwest Work’s impact that could be shared with multiple stakeholders (or multiple reports for different audiences).
  

Volunteers

1. Cooper Aspegren
2. Barbara Lond
3. Kendra Taylor

organization-workforce-development project-data-collection project-data-management project-impact-measurement

Teacher’s Desk

The client

The mission of The Teacher’s Desk is to distribute free school supplies to students in need, encourage teachers, and provide purpose through volunteerism. The Teacher’s Desk opened in October 2011 and annually distributes over $8,500,000 in new school supplies, books, incentives and hygiene products to 6000 teachers located at 250 schools serving 150,000 students in need throughout the Western New York community.

The project

The Teacher’s Desk in Buffalo, NY has the store, the office, and the warehouse in the same building. One of most labor-intensive jobs is unpacking newly received products, placing them in designated storage locations in the warehouse, and replenishing shelves in the main store, as needed. Moving the inventory of products is predominantly conducted by volunteer workers, but only the store manager and permanent staff knew the exact locations for each product in the warehouse and in the store, which added to the problem of correct material movement. Pro Bono Analytics volunteers were asked to help the Buffalo Teacher's Desk improve the efficiency of moving their products. To create a new material movement process, the storage locations and their capacities were optimized based on the refilling frequency of the products. Labeling of the product locations in both the warehouse and the store was added, and a clearly marked, color-coded warehouse map was designed. Finally, a quality control system was implemented to enable continuous improvement.

Volunteers

1. Puneet Agarwal
2. Yashar Khayati
3. Vineet Payyappalli

organization-community-support organization-education project-logistics project-process-improvement


Young Audiences

The client

Young Audiences of New Jersey & Eastern Pennsylvania (YA NJ/EPA) inspires young people to expand their learning through the arts. They do this by bringing arts experiences by professional teaching artists directly to students; making the arts accessible regardless of socioeconomic background, geographic area, and ability.

Three projects

YA NJ/EPA reached out to Pro Bono Analytics to study different challenges. One challenge was whether or not to continue a fundraising event that required considerable staff time to organize. Working through a structured process with Pro Bono Analytics experts in decision analysis allowed the Board of Directors to reach an agreement on the best path forward. A second challenge was motivated by the strategic goal of diversity, equity, inclusion, and access (DEIA). Pro Bono Analytics conducted an internal analysis for systematic pay differences on the basis of DEIA, taking into consideration the numerous factors that influence compensation/artist fee and the required mark-up to pay YA for their work as the booking agent. Finally, a third challenge sought ways to improve revenue generation. The current YA system was centered around a set price for each program, published in the program guide and good for one school year. This price is composed of the artist fee (set in the artist contract) and a YA mark-up on the artist fee. YA wanted to better understand if improved strategies could simultaneously increase the number of children served yearly, the artists’ scheduling, and profit.

Volunteers

1. Xixi Chen
2. Sagar Das
3. Matthew Gorman
4. Michael Kennedy
5. Jack Kloeber
6. David Krahl
7. Naga Kundeti
8. Emilia Silebi
9. Alexander Wong
10. Yunsheng Xiao
11. Peiran Zhao

organization-arts organization-education organization-youth-development project-data-analysis project-decision-analysis project-process-improvement


YouthBuild USA

The client

YouthBuild USA is a national network of programs that serve opportunity youth – young adults between the ages of 16 and 24 who are neither in school nor employed, especially those who lack a high school diploma and financial resources. YouthBuild programs combine support services for personal and professional development, counseling for secondary, post-secondary and non-degree educational credentials and hands-on training in construction and other career pathways to ensure that young people can achieve long-term career success. Key outcome categories include: education; construction and other career pathways, support services, leadership development and alumni success.

The project

YouthBuild wanted to learn more about the nature of successful programs in order to design future investments and activities to provide the greatest benefits to participants. Using a range of machine learning models for data on programs across the U.S., our PBA volunteer identified program attendance as a strong predictor of aggregate program success. In turn, improved program attendance was positively associated with improvements in job placements and employment wages. Improved outcomes for YouthBuild participants were also associated with higher levels of voter registration and higher rates of FAFSA form completions for college financial aid.  Finally, this analysis revealed limitations in operations and outcomes analysis: more needs to be learned about measuring youth attendance, participation and engagement, factors associated with youth family situations that may affect these measures, and how to identify levels of these measures that are associated with significantly more positive or more negative outcomes for different categories of youth participants (‘tipping points’). 

Volunteers

1. Brian Chaplin

project-data-analysis project-impact-measurement project-metric-development organization-workforce-development organization-youth-development