Open Primaries is a nonprofit organization with a mission to advocate for open and nonpartisan primary election systems, educate voters, counter efforts to impose closed primaries, and build local, state, and national coalitions. The organization engaged a Capstone team to examine the efforts to close primaries in the Republican-controlled states of Idaho, Tennessee, Alabama, and Arkansas. The team conducted background research on the types of primary elections in the US and three key reasons for keeping primaries open: protecting the voice of independent voters, avoiding electoral polarization, and preventing expensive logistics for taxpayers. The team also explored Idaho's successful effort to close its primary election in 2012, subsequent changes, and public responses thereto. The team’s final paper details its findings, reviews current campaigns to close primaries in Tennessee, Alabama, and Arkansas, and proposes recommendations for strategic messaging to keep primaries open.

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. To advance this work, LPSA engaged a Capstone team to perform a regional analysis on the empowerment of subnational governance institutions in South and East Asia. The team utilized the Local Governance Institutions Comparative Assessment (LoGICA) framework—an assessment tool that analyzes a country’s multilevel governance structure, subnational institutions, and intergovernmental systems contributing to inclusive governance, effective public service delivery, and sustainable localized development. The team conducted fieldwork in Bangladesh to compare the country's de facto versus de jure multi-level governance system, and worked with local counterparts to prepare an in-depth assessment of the country’s subnational governance institutions. The team’s final report includes a regional analysis that draws upon desk research and interviews with country experts, to be distributed among LPSA’s professional network.

Church World Service (CWS) is a nonprofit organization serving underprivileged communities across the world. Its Refugee Housing Solutions (RHS) initiative provides housing support for refugee resettlement in the US, in response to the challenge of accessing safe and affordable housing due to inadequate supply, resources, and policies. CWS enlisted a Capstone team to conduct a cross-comparative policy analysis of housing policies at local, state, and federal levels to identify policies and programs that would best serve the RHS mission. The team conducted stakeholder interviews with public and nonprofit resettlement and housing experts, and with refugees who have gone through the resettlement process in the US. The team performed a comprehensive policy analysis of potential programs to house a higher number of refugees, prepared a communication strategy to synthesize its findings for the general public, and delivered a set of recommendations for the client to consider for its continued resettlement work.

The US continues to face a nursing shortage that was first recognized in 1998, and widely exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has driven nursing school graduates to shift careers and active nurses to retire earlier than expected. The team conducted a literature review outlining the factors that are most responsible for the current nursing shortage and reviewing the repercussions of the shortage. The team found that burnout, low pay, a lack of educational programs, an aging nursing population, and a growing advanced practice provider workforce all contribute to the low supply of nurses, and that an aging population, more chronic illness, and a need for more highly-trained nurses all contribute to the increased demand for nurses. Based on its findings, the team recommends the following measures: 1) addressing the shortage during the recruitment phase, 2) expanding access to, and advisement provided by, Bachelor of Nursing programs, and 3) offering financial incentives for entering the nursing profession. The team further recommends that efforts to retain existing nurses should include increasing the number of nurse residency and mentorship programs, improving nurse leadership, addressing burnout, and providing financial incentives to practicing nurses.

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.

ODI, formerly known as the Overseas Development Institute, is Britain’s leading independent think tank on international development and humanitarian issues. The ODI Development and Public Finance program covers research on public finance and financial management, with an increasing focus on how best to support delivery of public services. ODI commissioned a Capstone team to explore urban water provision and financing in Accra, Ghana. The team conducted field interviews with key stakeholders, including ministries, the Ghana Water Company, civil society organizations, informal actors, and private agencies. Building on its literature review and field findings, the team prepared a set of deliverables exploring the interplay of private and public sectors in closing the demand gap for water supply—including a blog post, presentation, and policy brief—and provided recommendations to improve the financing and management of water service delivery.

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.

The Jersey City Department of Infrastructure, Division of Transportation Planning (DTP) oversees the planning and development of a well-functioning and safe transportation system. Jersey City’s 2019 Let’s Ride JC Bicycle Master Plan called for more than 20 miles of shared-use bike and pedestrian paths (“greenways”) but did not consider how those greenways would connect to each other and to Jersey City sidewalks, bike lanes, and parks. To close the gap, DTP engaged the Capstone team to evaluate and recommend potential greenway connections. The team gained a thorough understanding of the context of Jersey City’s planned and existing greenways through a scan of existing conditions and prior greenway plans, and through public engagement that included key stakeholder interviews, a community survey, and two public workshops. The team also gleaned greenway planning best practices through a comprehensive literature review and greenway case study analysis. These research efforts allowed the team to create a scoring tool to evaluate proposed connections and recommend priority projects, informing the Jersey City Greenway Connectivity Plan.

BoardStrong’s mission is to help nonprofits achieve the highest standards of board leadership, governance, and oversight through board training, consultation, and the provision of educational resources. BoardStrong currently has an online matching platform that helps organizations find talented board candidates in New York. The organization enlisted a Capstone team to conduct research on how to expand this matching platform to new markets. Although BoardStrong has nonprofit connections across the country, it sought additional context on regional nonprofit environments. The Capstone team met with stakeholders across various nonprofit landscapes and crafted an expansion strategy, identifying regions for initial expansion and the important players within those regions. The team presented its final report to BoardStrong leadership, detailing its findings, recommendations, and best practices for scaling the technology platform.

Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA) is the US-based entity of the global Islamic Relief (IR) organization, a faith-based humanitarian and development agency that serves over ten million people annually across 45 countries through relief and development projects in vulnerable communities. In 2019, IR launched its Qurbani Plus program, which focuses on creating financial self-sufficiency for low-income, female-headed farming households in Mali and Niger through an Islamic microfinance livelihood program. IRUSA tasked a Capstone team to review its program model and provide recommendations on improving its scalability and the long-term sustainability of beneficiary income streams. The team reviewed the academic literature on smallholder farmer value chain programs in West Africa, conducted a landscape analysis consisting of six peer humanitarian and development institutions, and interviewed key internal IR stakeholders. The team produced recommendations centered on conducting a livestock value chain assessment in Niger in order to maximize sustained income generation for IR’s beneficiaries.

The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) acts as a hybrid development organization and finance institution that works to invest in and catalyze capital for projects in developing countries. As part of its efforts to incorporate municipal finance strategies that promote public and private funding to deliver sustainable public services, UNCDF enlisted a Capstone team to develop a municipal finance strategy to fund green city solutions for a waste management system in the Indonesian regency of Banyuwangi. The team conducted a literature review on global best practices for municipal financing, current Indonesian regulations, and fiscal systems related to project financing and waste management practices. The team also conducted interviews with private sector representatives and national and local government agencies to identify gaps and opportunities for locally financing waste management projects. Using this information, the team designed a financial strategy and created a presentation to be used at UNCDF donor meetings and conferences.

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.