Your thorniest questions hold the key to your nonprofit’s success.

Through the Thriving Congregations Initiative, Lilly Endowment aims to help congregations thrive by strengthening ministries that help people deepen their relationships with God, enhance their connections with each other, and contribute to the flourishing of their communities and the world. Beyond Data works with three grant recipients to evaluate the effectiveness of their interventions. We have worked closely with each team to design feasible but comprehensive research projects. Each year, we analyze all collected evidence, synthesize the results, and provide a report.

As a Community in Mission, one that is dispersed worldwide in the form of a “sodal order,” the mission of Street Psalms is carried out in large measure by members of its Ordained Community. Although the staff of Street Psalms knows the individual Ordained Members, the size and varied nature of the group has made it difficult to describe its combined impact or its specific needs. Through a series of hour-long interviews with nearly all Ordained members, Beyond Data came away with a rich sense of the type of work and posture/ style shared by members of this community. By tagging key variables in the interviews, Beyond Data was able to provide both a summary and detailed views of the work which can assist the organization in guiding future initiatives. 

Mile High Ministries provides long-term transitional housing to individuals experiencing homelessness and have creates a true sense of community where residents flourish. Although Mile High Ministries could describe the key values of their organizational culture, they  asked Beyond Data to help them understand why and how those values were cultivated, communicated, and sustained. The final report was able to narrow in on specific organizational practices, leadership qualities, and creatively held tensions that were not apparent at the beginning of the research. Together with their staff and Board, Mile High leadership was able to extrapolate these learnings and begin discerning how to implement them at a new facility.