Client Story

The Center for Leadership Development (CLD) has been transforming the lives of African American youth for more than 40 years by preparing students for the highest academic, college, career and life success. Because of CLD’s strong focus and emphasis on hard work and high achievement, 77 percent of CLD participants report enrolling in some institution of post-secondary learning. Moreover, 46 percent of CLD participants who attend college earn a college degree. By comparison, only 25 percent of Indiana’s African American college students in publicly supported institutions earn a bachelor’s degree in six years.

CLD wanted help in improving their capacity to collect and report on the impact of their college readiness programs for African American students in order to improve their program. They requested assistance in establishing systems and procedures to determine whether they were meeting their program objectives in the short and long term as well as if they were meeting their desired outcomes.

CLD is a typical nonprofit with many competing priorities, and we understood their challenges and limitations. We also understood the important work they do and the critical role that data plays in communicating their impact and refining their programs and services.

This client is fully committed to building a data-informed culture within their organization. They have set ambitious goals and need assistance in developing and implementing an evaluation plan to track, monitor, and report on their goals. We created an organization-wide logic model and individual logic models for each program. In addition, we streamlined their data tools and systems, so they are only collecting the data they need to report back to different funders regarding their key performance indicators (KPIs). We trained their staff on implementing their evaluation plan and provided targeted coaching support to key staff in areas where they needed to strengthen their “data muscle” further. Lastly, we assisted them with analyzing and summarizing their data. We created a data dashboard to combine their different data sources into one system organized by their KPIs (aspirational goals). We also helped them make meaning with their data and summarized it in their grant reports and other communication tools.