We are happy to announce that Results for America, a national nonprofit, has added Mary Walsh and City Connects to its Moneyball for Government Team, a list of leaders and organizations that are using data to solve problems.
Sports fans know that “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game,” is a book by Michael Lewis. It tells the stories of how the Oakland A’s, a baseball team with a limited budget, gave up on conventional wisdom and started using a statistical approach to evaluate and recruit players. Data, in other words, helped the A’s become a better team and win games.
In the same vein, Results for America uses its “Moneyball for Government” designation to encourage “governments at all levels to increase their use of evidence and data when investing limited taxpayer dollars. By playing Moneyball, we can improve outcomes for young people, their families and communities.”
“We are very pleased to join the ranks of the Moneyball for Government roster,” Mary Walsh, City Connects Executive Director said in a Boston College press release. “This recognition will serve as a spur to deepen our understanding of the mechanisms that drive our evidence-based success.”
Thanks to that evidence, we know that students in City Connects schools do better academically. We also use data to continuously improve our work. And we have the research to show that our work is cost effective.
As Results for America says on its webpage, “Solutions exist. Progress is happening. Success is possible.”
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City Connects was also recently chosen for inclusion in a giving guide published by the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for High Impact Philanthropy (CHIP). The 2018 High Impact Giving Guide provides information for donors who want to give gifts that make a big difference. Last month, the guide was featured in The New York Times.
“CHIP’s endorsement is a critically important designation for a wide range of both public and private funders,” Walsh says. “To be recognized by organizations with rigorous standards for public and private investments is an honor, and will hopefully further the work we do to support students and show what is possible for every child.”
A BC News story on these endorsements is posted here.
City Connects Blog 