MORE TO EXPLORE: Nonprofits and Government

STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE DATA AND COMMUNICATIONS PRACTICES

Client
NEW YORK PEACE INSTITUTE
Faculty
Erin Connell
Team
Samantha Harpool, Domny Hernandez, Aashika Nagarajan

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.

Capstone Year

CONDUCTING A PROCESS EVALUATION OF THE HOME+ PROGRAM

Client
NEW YORK CITY MAYOR'S OFFICE TO END DOMESTIC AND GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE
Faculty
Karin Sommer
Team
Megan Noelle Cantor, Symantha Clough, Joe Lenczewski, Saunders Ruffin, Siqi Wang

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.

Capstone Year

DEVELOPING A LEGISLATIVE STRATEGY IN SUPPORT OF ALICE RESIDENTS

Client
UNITED WAY OF CENTRAL MARYLAND
Faculty
Elizabeth Angeles
Team
Garrett deGraffenreid, Maria Allyn Dolojan, Daisy Fleming, Justice Jenkins

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.

Capstone Year

PREVENTING DISPLACEMENT AND ADDRESSING RACIALLY DISPARATE IMPACTS IN PASCO

Client
CITY OF PASCO, WASHINGTON
Faculty
Michael Keane
Team
Lucia Marquez-Reagan, Douglas Pardella, Daniel Russo, Alexander Yamron, Karen Yao

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.

Capstone Year

CAPITAL CAMPAIGN STRATEGY FOR PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS

Client
INSTITUT PASTEUR
Faculty
Anna Levy
Team
Yeseul Lim, Jan Osea, Eshrat Oyeshee

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.

Capstone Year

ASSESSING THE EMPOWERMENT OF SUBNATIONAL GOVERNANCE INSTITUTIONS IN ASIA

Client
LOCAL PUBLIC SECTOR ALLIANCE II
Faculty
Paul Smoke
Team
Michael Carrady, Nicole Eason, Alondra Payan Mejia

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.

Capstone Year

REACHING TARGET DEMOGRAPHICS AND BRINGING CREATIVE WRITING INTO THE DIGITAL AGE

Client
UPTOWN STORIES
Faculty
Veronica Manning
Team
Maia Cattan, Haoyue Ju, Patrick Stein

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.

Capstone Year

ASSESSING THE FINANCIAL LANDSCAPE TO GUIDE ORGANIZATIONAL DECISIONS

Client
PROVIDENT LOAN SOCIETY
Faculty
John Ceffalio
Team
Sean Gilfeather, Zelan Li, Ziao Lin, Shiqi Ma, Yidan Wang, Chauntenay Young

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.

Capstone Year

ADVOCATING FOR TRANSPARENCY IN NEW YORK CITY FAMILY COURT DATA

Client
HER JUSTICE
Faculty
Karin Sommer
Team
Bergen Bodensteiner, Alexis Hidalgo, Zi Lin Liang, Elena Pereira, Jahmair Stewart

Her Justice supports women living in poverty in NYC by recruiting and mentoring lawyers to provide pro bono legal services that address individual and systemic legal barriers in the civil justice system. A challenge that Her Justice encounters in its policy work is the lack of transparency in court data, including litigant demographics, availability of language interpretation services for litigants, caseloads, lead times, and outcomes. Her Justice engaged the Capstone team to a) conduct an environmental scan of currently available mechanisms for data sharing in New York courts and in family courts in other states, b) submit a data request to the Office of Court Administration, and c) identify organizations that would benefit from the effort to increase court transparency. In its final report, the team summarizes its research and findings, offers recommendations for Her Justice, and includes a guide outlining how its research can be used as a base for further advocacy.

Capstone Year

COASTAL STORM PREPAREDNESS FOR HOMEBOUND INDIVIDUALS AND THE STORM SHELTER SYSTEM

Client
NEW YORK CITY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
Faculty
Alexander Shermansong
Team
Hunter Blas, Maggie Jean Knight, Elizabeth Rilling, Izzy Vieira

New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM) is the emergency coordination agency responsible for coastal storm preparedness, evacuation, and shelter in NYC. NYCEM tasked the Capstone team to support the agency with two coastal storm preparatory challenges: (1) determining nationwide best practices for evacuating people who are homebound and (2) identifying commonalities among residents in need of emergency shelter in low-lying and flood-prone areas of the city. The team conducted a literature review, interviewed emergency management officials nationwide, and completed a needs-based census analysis. Based on its findings, the team recommended a heightened communications plan, additional exploration of modern resources, and renewed use of existing technology and data. The team’s final report provides evidence-based recommendations for evacuating the homebound and emergency shelter preparedness.

Capstone Year

ENCOURAGING INCLUSIVE GROWTH AND SOCIAL PROTECTION IN NIGERIA'S INFORMAL SECTOR

Client
UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME I
Faculty
Alexander Shermansong
Team
Jeremy Bohmstein, Sahril Kasim, Ped Thanapoom Thongsamoot, Jing Zhang

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been in Nigeria since the country became independent in 1960, providing capacity building and policy development support to the federal government of Nigeria in areas of governance and peace building, inclusive growth, and sustainable development. To help pinpoint areas and policies of interest, the Capstone team completed a literature review and time-series quantitative analysis around what factors motivate Nigerians to find work in the informal sector. The team then selected policy recommendations, addressing the most impactful motivators, in order to improve informal labor's social and economic growth in the long-term by providing incentives for workers to formalize their businesses and opportunities for employees to receive government benefits and support.

Capstone Year

EVALUATING AND IMPROVING A BLOOD PRESSURE SCREENING PROGRAM

Client
BRONX COMMUNITY HEALTH NETWORK
Faculty
Rona Affoumado
Team
Boris Ingberg, Yuhang Liu, Nikita Lotwala, Yiru Pan, Jessica Sharkey

Bronx Community Health Network (BCHN) is a nonprofit, community-based organization and federally qualified health center (FQHC) with a mission to improve the health of individuals and families in the Bronx. BCHN has implemented evidence-based blood pressure control programs to improve its patients’ hypertension control and encourage self-management and healthy lifestyle goals. BCHN engaged a Capstone team to compile four years of data into a comprehensive report on the effectiveness of its blood pressure program at Bay Eden Senior Center. The team analyzed the data, conducted a literature review, and interviewed BCHN and Bay Eden staff members. Based on its findings, the team compiled a final report that includes comprehensive data analysis, outlines areas for improvement, and provides evidence-based recommendations to improve the existing screening program.

Capstone Year