How We Partner With Organizations
We offer three ways to work together, depending on where your organization is in its journey toward becoming a learning organization:
For Nonprofits
Story + Strategy
For: Education and youth development nonprofits ready to learn with data, tell their story with evidence, and grow their impact
The Challenge:
Most evaluation firms conduct a study, hand you a report, and leave. Six months later, you're back where you started—no systems, no capacity, no sustainable way to prove your impact.
The Our Approach:
We build your learning practice so you can generate evidence continuously and use it for reflection, improvement, and storytelling—not just when a funder asks for it.
Our process blends rigor and heart. We help you uncover what's working, understand why it works, and communicate your impact in ways that resonate.
What's Included
Discover What Matters
Clarify the outcomes that count through your community's perspective
Build Simple, Useful Systems
Create tools and dashboards that make data collection seamless
Learn Together
Facilitate reflection cycles and strengthen your team's capacity
Share Your Story
Conduct evaluations and craft evidence narratives that win funding
Timeline
Typically 12-18 months for a complete learning practice. Shorter engagements (3-6 months) available for specific phases.
Best For
✓ Nonprofits with annual budgets of $500K+
✓ Organizations ready to invest in building a learning culture
✓ Leaders who want data to guide strategy and reflection, not just satisfy funders
For Foundations
TRAIL Outcome Compass For: Philanthropic foundations supporting education and youth development organizations
The Challenge: Measuring impact across your portfolio is hard. Your grantees care about different outcomes, measure them inconsistently, or lack the capacity to track them at all.
You need a clear view of whether your investments are working, but you can't easily get it from varied grantee reports.
Our Approach
TRAIL Outcome Compass creates a Portfolio Outcome Map aligned with your foundation's priorities, then helps your grantees build the capacity to collect standardized data that shows whether your investments are making a difference.
We facilitate shared learning across your portfolio so grantees strengthen their practices while you gain portfolio-level insights.
What's Included
Design Your Portfolio Outcome Map
Clarify the outcomes that matter most across your investments through stakeholder conversations and grantee landscape analysis
Build Systems for Shared Learning
Create databases and dashboards that show each grantee's progress on standardized indicators
Learn Together—Build Grantee Capacity
Provide technical assistance, facilitate peer learning, and coach grantees on data collection, analysis, and storytelling
Share the Collective Story
Synthesize findings across your portfolio to show collective impact and inform future funding strategy
Timeline
Typically 18-24 months for full implementation. Includes multi-year support for grantee capacity building.
Best For
✓ Foundations with education or youth development portfolios
✓ Funders who want comparable data across grantees
✓ Foundations ready to invest in grantee capacity building
Data and Evaluation Coaching
Organizations that need support but aren't ready for a full learning practice implementation
What We Offer:
Evaluation Planning Support
We help you design evaluation plans that are right-sized for your capacity and answer your most important questions.
Data Analysis Coaching
We teach your team efficient strategies to analyze and interpret data you're already collecting.
Strategic Consultation
We provide expert guidance on measurement frameworks, data systems, and evaluation approaches.
Data Storytelling Workshops
We train teams to present findings in compelling ways that resonate with funders and stakeholders.
Learning & Reflection Sessions
We facilitate workshops with teams to reflect on data and create action plans based on findings.
Format
✓ One-time workshops (half-day or full-day)
✓ Multi-session coaching packages (monthly or quarterly)
✓ Technical assistance on specific projects
Best For
✓ Organizations with data who need help making sense of it
✓ Teams who want to build internal evaluation capacity
✓ Nonprofits with smaller budgets or specific, focused needs
NOT SURE WHICH IS RIGHT FOR YOU?
Book a discovery call. We'll learn about your organization's challenges and recommend the best approach.
