Services
Data Analysis and Reporting
Deep experience working with a wide variety of data and analysis methods.
From descriptive analyses documenting student and community characteristics to sophisticated quasi-experimental, experimental, or simulation methods, we can do it all. We can build automatic reporting pipelines, draft practitioner-focused reports, write technical working documents, and more.
Selected Clients
- American Institutes for Research (AIR)
- EDC
- The Gates Foundation
- Policing Alternatives and Diversion (PAD) Initiative
- Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
Selected Projects
Developed forecasting systems to project student enrollment, math achievement levels, curriculum adoption and more to inform long-term strategic planning
Developed and applied semi-automated processes to produce monthly reports pulling in data from multiple sources and and accurately and efficiently matching data from different provider databases
Budget Analysis and Training
Understand where the public money goes and what it buys.
We have analyzed over 100 city, county, and state budgets and regularly conduct trainings for community groups and local officials to help them understand and advocate about their local budgets. We also conduct cross-locale budget analyses to compare revenue and spending in an "apples to apples" way.
Selected Clients
- Californians United for a Responsible Budget
- Greenlining Institute
- New School's Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy
- PolicyLink
- Youth First Justice Collaborative
- Southern Economic Advancement Project
Selected Projects
Pitched and led a project comparing total local spending (city and county) on carceral systems, health, housing and more in an apples-to-apples way, including creating a Tableau dashboard for viewers to learn more.
Co-developed a rubric to assess local budgets on dimensions like transparency and equitable resource allocation, recruited community groups to participate in a pilot of the rubric, and developed accessible checklists and scorecards sharing results
Study Design and Program Evaluation
Get credible answers to whether your program is actually moving the needle.
We can help you design your logic model or theory of action, build a system to collect data on program indicators and outcomes, plan a design that is both feasible and rigorous, and ultimately evaluate whether your program is working for whom and under what conditions.
Selected Clients
- AIR for the U.S. Department of Education - Evaluation of School-Based Mental Health Grants
- Leading Educators
- Mathematica for the U.S. Department of Education
- San Diego County Office of Education
Selected Projects
Assisted grant recipients in refining their logic models; determining how to collect data on inputs, mediators, and short- and long-term outcomes; and evaluating possible designs for rigor and feasibility
Gathered, standardized, and linked data on schools and districts, local labor markets, community characteristics and more to provide context on grantees’ operating conditions
Literature Reviews and Synthesis
There's so much research available but how do you quickly and reliably evaluate and synthesize the existing evidence?
We've conducted literature reviews for a variety of federal agencies and for nonprofits and love digging deep into what we actually know and don't know on a given topic. This is also an area where we've had a lot of success using AI to augment the work!
Selected Clients
- Abt Global for the U.S. Department of Labor
- Mathematica for both US ED and Health and Human Services
- Student Leadership Network
Selected Projects
Conducted two recent literature reviews on strategies to improve student attendance and reduce chronic absenteeism, including appropriate strategies when challenges are widespread vs. targeted and at different grades
Conducted an AI-assisted literature review and synthesis evaluating the strength of evidence for different strategies used by a nonprofit to support college access and persistence. Also identified ‘low-hanging fruit’ in terms of additional evidence-based strategies to consider adding
Grant and Proposal Writing
An extra set of experienced hands to fully prepare or augment your proposal writing teams.
We have written proposals to all levels of government, philanthropies, nonprofits and more both for our own work and as consultants for other orgs. We're happy to help with all stages of the process from proposal management and drafting through to grant reporting!
Selected Clients
- Leading Educators
- Population Reference Bureau
Selected Projects
Received grants from the American Educational Research Association-National Science Foundation (AERA-NSF) research program and Heising-Simons Foundation
Submitted successful responses to RFPs issued by governments and nonprofits, and have collaborated on proposals with many prime contractors
Data for the Public Good
The whole reason Civilytics was founded.
We build public tools, public open datasets, and write to share findings from social science with general audiences. Some of the work we're most proud of came from seeing a public data need, such as to understand the scale of American Rescue Plan funding for different communities, and figuring out how to access, analyze, and share the data with others.
Selected Partners
- Tableau Racial Equity Data Hub
- AERA-NSF Research Grant
Selected Projects
Produced aid estimates for how much funding communities could expect to receive from the American Rescue Plan act, releasing these in an interactive, public spreadsheet before the U.S. Treasury shared official numbers
Analyzed and shared data on student arrests in schools, including disparities over time and across places, as well as data and interactive maps on gerrymandering election districts based on prison locations
Looking for help with something else?
We've done projects focused on:
- Cost-benefit analyses or return on investment
- Streamlining data collection and quality assurance procedures
- Developing, piloting, and deploying surveys
- Tracing funding from state to county to local groups
- Conducting participatory research with community orgs
- More!
We're always interested in hearing about new possibilities and seeing if our skills could be a good fit for your needs even if the project falls outside the services listed here.