Research & Evaluation

“Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.”

— Zora Neale Hurston

Research and Evaluation form the core of Mighty Crow’s services. Most of what we do begins with the evaluation of a program, need or situation, then goes through a grant-funded implementation and facilitation process, and then ends with another evaluation intended to demonstrate and report on how well it all worked.

Mighty Crow is led by three Ph.D.-level social scientists with extensive research experience, as well as vast career experience in the fields we serve. We know the ins and outs of our clients’ work because our Crows have worked in those same trenches. We’re versed in quantitative and qualitative research methods, and our evaluation services are guided by the Program Evaluation Standards and Practices set forth by the Federal Office of Management and Budget.

We bring those standards and practices to everything we do, with a keen eye on rigor, independence and objectivity, relevance and utility, transparency, and a firm grounding in ethics.

These are some of the evaluation and research services we offer:

As the expression says, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.”That’s why everything begins with evaluation. Research-based evaluation determines the shape of the problem a client faces (or that a grant seeks to remedy) before, during, and after the decided-upon programs are done.
From up-front literature reviews to post-cycle reporting, we’ll your team identify the most meaningful metrics or constructs to measure, how to measure them, and identify ways to improve current data tracking.
In this way, you get what you need to succeed, and your grantor gets their required information.
Evaluation begins with information-gathering. Our expertise in survey design and data analysis allows us to capture meaningful stakeholder feedback, then helps you interpret it. If surveys are right for your project, we’ll design and conduct tailored surveys for you to help find pain points and identify points of leverage.
Sloppy, mismanaged data is misleading and helps nobody. With our characteristic rigor, we’ll help you build processes that ensure continuity and cleanliness of your data. Our approach ensures data integrity, accessibility, and compliance enabling informed decision-making.
Non-profit work is most impactful when its influence spreads beyond the scope of a single project. That’s why “disseminating results and findings” is a key step in the grant cycle. We don’t just help clients accomplish their goals. We also help them tell the world about what they've done, so that others can build on and benefit from their good work.
“Disseminating results and findings” can mean many things, depending on the client and the project. Often, it means publishing articles in peer-reviewed academic journals but often it’s done through other channels as well: social media, marketing campaigns, presentations, and brand messaging, just to name a few.