Your job is to change
the world.
Our job is to help you understand
and explain your impact.
Who we are
Glass Frog works with organizations that are addressing serious social and economic problems. Many of these organizations express a desire to improve their research and evaluation efforts, but don’t have the time or staff to make real progress on this front. Glass Frog exists to meet these organizations’ needs. Our overarching goal is to provide high quality, actionable research and evaluation services to nonprofit and education organizations both big and small, young and old. To learn more about the specific types of work we do, check out this overview of our services.
What makes us different?
We put clients first.
We love our work and we we love empowering organizations to use data to better understand their programs. This is demonstrated both in our core values and in the way we interact with and support our clients day after day.
We make evaluation useful.
Too many organizations “do evaluation” because they feel like they have to– a funding agency or board member is making them, they want to attract new donors, or they know it is something they should do but aren’t quite sure why. Part of the problem is that, even when an evaluation is done with the highest standards of rigor, the results are often presented in a way that is less than useful for these organizations. Executive directors and program managers may learn whether their program is having its intended impact, but they learn little about why or what the programmatic implications are.
Glass Frog entered this business because of a commitment to helping make research and evaluation “actionable.” We take the time to translate our results into a language and medium our clients understand and work with clients to help them brainstorm how these results might impact decisions about programming.
We work with organizations at all stages of the life cycle.
We live in an era ripe for social innovation as private donors and government invest heavily in new ideas, new strategies, and new methods of addressing social and economic disparities. These new organizations have serious research and evaluation needs, but often lack the staff to meet these needs and are many times priced out of the market for independent evaluation. Glass Frog is committed to working with organizations at all stages of the life cycle and we’ve developed a range of services that cater to organizations at various stages. Whether you run a start up venture out of your home office or you manage a well-known chain of charter schools, we will work with you to develop and meet your evaluation goals. Let us know where you’re at and we’ll meet you there.
Our core values
As a measurement and evaluation firm, we love using data. However, we also want our clients to feel supported, empowered, and confident that they are using that data to make informed decisions and improve their organizations. We want to cultivate a culture that addresses the whole client, not just their data needs, and addresses the whole employee, not just the part of their lives devoted to work. We have identified six values that define our internal work environment as well as our approach to collaborating with clients.
Energetic
Glass Frog is a boutique, woman-owned measurement and evaluation firm. Every day we’re energized that we get to do great work with great people. We are interminably curious about the world and put that curiosity to work for our clients.
Client-centered
Our clients are addressing serious social and economic problems. We’re honored to collaborate with them and empower them to make data-driven decisions. We meet organizations where they are at and, together, map out a practical way forward that is tailored to their circumstance and environment.
Resourceful
Doing research in the real world is messy! We believe in using a variety of research methods to help clients answer their most pressing questions about their programs. We understand that we’re not doing research in a black box. We work with clients’ constraints to develop creative solutions instead of canned responses.
Experts
Our staff members are experts in mixed methods research, quantitative and qualitative analysis, and project management. We bring our expertise to bear as we serve as thought partners with clients in their measurement and evaluation needs. Despite all the brain power, we ditch the jargon and present clients with information that is clear and reader friendly.
Diligent
We are committed to providing clients the highest quality service not only for high profile deliverables but also in the management and execution of day-to-day tasks. We plan so we can be proactive. We organize so we can be timely and efficient. On every engagement, we want our actions to speak louder than our words.
Collegial
We imbue in our staff the idea that we are “one for all, and all for one.” We provide a supportive work environment that is high on flexibility and low on hierarchy. This support includes fostering a healthy work-life balance where employees are encouraged to pursue a robust and holistic life outside of work.
What we do
The last 25 years have witnessed an encouraging shift in the nonprofit sector: organizations increasingly measure their impact and consider how to reallocate resources in light of data. Yet, the shift has also introduced new challenges:We provide mixed methods formative and summative evaluation services aimed at answering specific questions and offering actionable solutions. We have experience working on both smaller-scale evaluations of program implementation and processes as well as larger-scale, multi-year impact evaluations. Deliverables include monthly or quarterly progress reports, as well as final reports with detailed recommendations for how a program can modify theory, design, or implementation to improve its ability to impact outcomes.
- Organizations focusing singularly on measuring impact without revisiting theory, design, and implementation issues;
- Gaps in knowledge and understanding about data systems and applications among nonprofit staff members;
- Absence of strong evaluation culture to support internal evaluation and performance management efforts.
We offer two services to meet this need:
Evaluation consulting
These are close partnerships between Glass Frog and the client wherein we work together to identify areas for improvement with respect to program theory, design, or implementation, probe the existing systems meant to support evaluation and continuous learning, and build solutions. These engagements can be short-term (six months to a year) or continue from year-to-year as organizations gradually build their internal capacity for evaluation.
Independent evaluation
We provide mixed methods formative and summative evaluation services aimed at answering specific questions and offering actionable solutions. We have experience working on both smaller-scale evaluations of program implementation and processes as well as larger-scale, multi-year impact evaluations. Deliverables include monthly or quarterly progress reports, as well as final reports with detailed recommendations for how a program can modify theory, design, or implementation to improve its ability to impact outcomes.
We’ve worked with some of the best companies.
Our testimonials
What our clients are saying
Contact us!
Feel free to e-mail or call us with any research and evaluation questions you might have. You can use the form on the left or any of the contact points below. We love meeting new people and discussing ways to partner!