Hewnoaks Artist Residency is a small nonprofit located in Lovell, Maine that provides artists the gift of space and unstructured time to advance their work. Relying heavily on support from grants, Hewnoaks engaged the Capstone team to provide evidence-based guidance and recommendations on ways to diversify its funding resources and build a better fundraising apparatus. The team completed surveys and interviews of key stakeholders and researched fundraising strategies and peer organizations that completed similar expansions. Based on its findings, the Capstone team devised an overall fundraising strategy for Hewnoaks and developed key recommendations and tools, including a three-year implementation plan, strategies for augmenting volunteer and board member engagement, fundraising event best practices, and a detailed guide to enhance the donor engagement cycle of the organization.

The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) innovates financial solutions to empower local governments in the least-developed countries to increase dedicated budgetary space and resources for programs that improve lives. UNCDF’s West Africa team engaged a Capstone team to identify ways to better finance service delivery within Morocco's public finance architecture. The team focused on public lighting infrastructure—an expensive budget item for municipalities—and identified an initiative to cut expenses in half. The Capstone team traveled to Morocco to interview stakeholders at the regional and national levels to refine its analysis. The team proposed the introduction of a revolving loan fund to finance upfront investment in energy-efficient public light systems, with repayment being made through cost savings realized from energy savings. The team recommended application of this approach in Morocco's Oriental Region as a scalable model to implement a revolving fund for infrastructure development, furthering the client’s mission to find local solutions to local service delivery gaps.

Jersey Cares is a nonprofit organization that leads volunteerism in New Jersey by engaging volunteers in projects that address community-identified needs. Through its successful Corporate Service Program, the organization customizes projects for corporate partners to engage their employees in volunteer initiatives. Given rapid revenue growth from this program, Jersey Cares enlisted a Capstone team to address concerns about financial management systems that can be time-consuming and prone to human error. The team designed and executed a four-phase project that entailed: 1) mapping existing revenue and expense management systems using evidence from staff interviews and organizational documents, 2) researching best practices in nonprofit financial management related to staffing, processes, and technology, 3) identifying and evaluating recommendations to improve operational efficiency and reduce risk, and 4) developing an implementation timeline informed by the client’s unique context and best practices in nonprofit change management.

The Center for Just Journalism (CJJ) is a resource for journalists covering public safety issues that aims to support stories that are rooted in fact, lack sensationalism, and enhance public understanding of safety. CJJ engaged a Capstone team to investigate the diversity of sources and viewpoints that journalists include in written news pieces about crime and the legal system. The team conducted a content analysis to quantify the frequency at which law enforcement and non-law enforcement sources are quoted in stories, as well as the viewpoints expressed by different source types related to policing, adjudication, incarceration, and other strategies to address crime. The team used a random sample of 300 US-based crime stories to develop a codebook to analyze sources used and viewpoints expressed. The team’s final deliverables to CJJ included a research report detailing the findings of the content analysis, recommendations for further research, and a guide for journalists to audit their own reporting.

New York Peace Institute (NYPI) is a community dispute and resolution center (CDRC) that provides mediation, conflict coaching, group facilitation, and restorative justice services to promote peace in Manhattan and Brooklyn communities. Research around effective methodologies for domestic conflict resolution is limited. As a result, there is insufficient access to research around measures of success in the field, and a lack of adequate guidance and standardization for CDRCs across the country. NYPI engaged the Capstone team to assist with developing strategies to improve the organization’s data and communications practices in order to convey impact more effectively to funders and the public. To inform the strategy development, the team completed internal and external assessments of data and communications practices in the field. The internal assessment consisted of interviews of NYPI staff, a review of NYPI’s existing data, and a communications SWOT analysis. The external assessment consisted of a literature review, peer scan, and interviews of peer organizations. The team synthesized its findings from these assessments in a final report to NYPI that includes a logic model and recommendations for strategic data and communications practices.

The NYC Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence (ENDGBV) is an executive office that ensures inclusive services for survivors of domestic and gender-based violence. Home+ is a signature ENDGBV program grounded in client self-determination that provides survivors and their families with an alternative-to-shelter model. Home+ partners with community-based organizations (CBOs) in each borough to provide clients with free safety and security tools, including personal emergency response systems, locksmith services, and safety planning resources. ENDGBV enlisted a capstone team to conduct a process evaluation of Home+ comparing the program's theory of change with its complex implementation. The team conducted a literature review, examined program documents, interviewed key stakeholders, and surveyed clients to identify best practices and determine if Home+ services are being delivered as intended. Finding implementation discrepancies across the CBOs and resource vendors, the team’s final report offers recommendations to improve communication and cooperation between ENDGBV and its partners.

United Way of Central Maryland (UWCM) is a nonprofit organization committed to promoting equity and creating opportunity by increasing access to education, employment, health, and housing for people designated as ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed), whose earnings are not enough to support a “survival budget” for life’s essentials. Seeking to advocate and create change for ALICE individuals and families in Maryland through targeted legislation, impactful advocacy, and effective service delivery, UWCM enlisted a Capstone team to develop a legislative strategy to inform and educate newly elected officials and support greater outcomes for ALICE residents. The team conducted interviews with relevant stakeholders and used that data to produce an environmental scan and power map, a legislative analysis, and a legislative roadmap for UWCM for the upcoming 2024 Maryland legislative session. The team’s final report contains a comprehensive analysis of its findings and outlines legislative recommendations for how UWCM can best serve the ALICE population of Maryland.

Pasco is a small city in eastern Washington with a majority Hispanic population where housing production has lagged behind rapid population growth. Lower-income households in Pasco have been disproportionately affected by displacement, overcrowding, and lack of housing options. Rents have risen to unaffordable levels while new large-lot single-family home construction does not meet the existing housing need. In response to this crisis, Pasco's Community and Economic Development Department engaged a Capstone team to develop strategies to prevent, minimize, and mitigate displacement, determine how to remediate policies with racially disparate impacts, and identify additional housing funding or financing strategies to leverage existing funding. The team conducted extensive research on nationwide and global approaches and interviewed key stakeholders to inform its policy recommendations, which will be incorporated into Pasco’s Housing Action Plan and 2026 Comprehensive Plan to guide the future of Pasco’s housing policy.

The Institut Pasteur is a private, nonprofit foundation and internationally renowned center for biomedical research with a worldwide member network and 135-year history dedicated to studying infectious diseases. The client launched its “Pandemic Preparedness” capital campaign in 2022, with the main goal of building a new Center for Infectious Emerging Disease Research and a global surveillance system. In order to access this new market effectively, the Institut Pasteur enlisted a Capstone team to assist in its plans to expand the regional scope of its fundraising for this campaign to the United States. The team analyzed the characteristics of the fundraising landscape for emerging infectious diseases in the US and produced a final report identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the new center, along with environmental opportunities, threats, and strategies.

The Local Public Sector Alliance (LPSA) is a nonprofit organization seeking to promote inclusive, equitable societies by enriching the understanding of decentralization and localization as complex, cross-cutting, and multi-stakeholder reforms. LPSA elevates the debate on public sector decentralization and localization by maintaining a global platform for policymakers and researchers interested in decentralization. LPSA engaged a Capstone team to perform a regional analysis on the empowerment of subnational governance institutions in South and East Asia, in order to advance the global state of knowledge on subnational governance in the region. The team utilized the Local Governance Institutions Comparative Assessment (LoGICA) framework and conducted fieldwork in India, working with local counterparts to assess the status of urban and rural governance institutions within three Indian states: Kerala, Jharkhand, and Maharastra. Based on its inter-country research, the team produced a detailed case study of the status of decentralization in India, highlighting variance between states. The final report incorporates the team’s research and interviews with country experts and includes a regional analysis to be distributed among LPSA’s professional network.

Uptown Stories is a nonprofit organization that brings creative writing workshops to children and young adults ranging in age from eight to eighteen. The client engaged the Capstone team to develop strategies to broaden its audience to include more communities of color and lower income students than are currently participating in its programming. The Capstone team analyzed demographic trends, conducted a parent survey, and did a comparative analysis of participant engagement at similar organizations. In its final report, the team devises a series of tools and recommendations for the client to allow for its increased reach into key demographic populations and offer more attractive programming for students and parents alike.

For over a century, the Provident Loan Society has been providing access to cash to New Yorkers in need, with a special focus on immigrant and impoverished populations. The nonprofit client engaged a Capstone team to investigate the contributing factors to its decline in lending in recent years. The team conducted research on the changing wants and needs of the client’s target population, potential customers who may not be aware of its services, and the broader financial landscape in which the client operates. The team reviewed Provident Loan Society’s historical lending data and financial statements, explored entrance into buying and selling, and reviewed potential investment options. The team’s final report will help guide Provident Loan Society in its decision making on how to move forward and continue to be a beacon of hope for New Yorkers experiencing financial hardship.