Opportunity

This opportunity space energizes the work we do and why we do it.

Mission-driven work exists within a sea of change

The need for mission-driven work to advance human agency and well-being is greater than ever. Yet, political climates are fluid. Government support ebbs and flows. Enlightened capital is unpredictable. The demand for evidence-based impact, to justify supporting mission-driven work, is growing. Business models are evolving and technology is transforming the nature of work itself. We believe that change offers us a continuous opportunity to imagine, innovate, and build a better future together.

Moving the needle depends on actional information

At the heart of mission-driven work sits the field of social impact measurement and management. The field is converging on standardized theoretical and analytical frameworks for understanding and responding to social impact data. We believe that the nature and quality of information itself holds the wisdom for mission-driven efforts to adapt and sustain impact amidst continuous change.

Today, social impact data often…

  • Relies on unexamined causal assumptions. Yet, we need to understand what actually drives change for each individual, family, and community.
  • Satisfies legal, funding, and other external requirements. Yet, we need to pursue information for the sake of mission-driven efforts improving its impact on human well-being.
  • Examines humans as the object of mission-driven work. Yet, we need to honor human agency over their own lived experience as partners in the endeavor.
  • Captures the collective condition. Yet, we need to understand how the well-being of individuals and families are impacted.
  • Reflects intermittent snapshots. Yet, we need real-time feedback loops of information representing the complexity of well-being as it evolves over time.
  • Represents disparate and incompatible variables. Yet, we need consistent operationalizations that can be shared and compared across the field.
  • Strains already-thin organizational resources. Yet, we need slack to do the actual work.

Together, we pursue a new frontier of living data for a better world

We operate on the horizon of self-reflection, existence, and possibility — where mission-driven work meets the individuals, families, and communities it serves. Within this opportunity space, we relentlessly pursue a new frontier of living data that leverages public interest technology to advance human agency and sustainable well-being for a better world. We do this by taking a complex-adaptive-systems and theory-of-change approach to conducting applied research and advancing practical innovation that truly moves the needle.