Philanthropy Management Capstones
The following capstone projects are examples of the work conducted by students in the John Lewis Public Administration Program. Please visit the Center for Applied Research website to learn more about working with our students.
Strategic Evaluation and Impact Measurement for a Private Foundation
Author: Brandon Bourque
Description: This capstone project establishes a recommended framework for measuring and communicating the outcomes of its philanthropic investments at a private family foundation based in Los Angeles that is committed to advancing arts education, youth development, and social equity. Through internal stakeholder interviews, sector research on equitable evaluation practices, and application of the City Resilience Framework, three actionable strategies are offered: implementing a tiered impact measurement framework to align reporting expectations with grantee capacity; piloting a storytelling-based evaluation tool to capture qualitative and cultural outcomes; and co-developing success indicators with grantees to ensure evaluations reflect community-defined measures of success. Included in this project is a detailed logic model and phased implementation plan, providing the foundation with a roadmap to strengthen its impact measurement practices while centering equity, reducing grantee burden, and deepening learning across its portfolio.
Orleans Parish Jail Population Management Initiative
Author: De'Anna LaVigne-Lawson
Host: Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office
Description: The Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office faces ongoing challenges in managing its jail population, resulting in chronic overcrowding, operational inefficiencies, and increased safety and health risks for both staff and incarcerated individuals. This capstone project offers recommendations for the mitigation of these challenges, advising development of real-time analytics dashboards, the use of pretrial risk assessment tools, and enhancement of interagency coordination. Included in this plan are a multi-phased implementation plan, projected fiscal impacts, and methods for funding initiatives. The anticipated outcomes include faster case processing, improved transparency, and more efficient resource allocation. . These reforms aim to create a just system that effectively addresses the needs of all community members through faster case processing, improved transparency, and efficient resource allocation.
Maximizing Executive Efficiency in a Small Nonprofit
Author: Jonathan Toups
Host: Angels’ Place
Description: All over the United States, executive directors play a critical and outsized role carrying out with limited resources the mission of their small community nonprofit organizations. The capstone project by Jonathan Toups researched practical and inexpensive ways executive director Mark Firmin can increase his effectiveness and efficiency to carry out Angels’ Place’s mission of providing support services to children with life-threatening illnesses and their families, including increasing the organization’s resource capacity, developing protocols for narrative storytelling, and implementing free and open-source digital and AI tools.
