Our Approach

How We Partner

We work with mission-driven organizations—nonprofits, foundations, schools, government agencies, social innovators and activists—people working in complex situations where what to do and what will happen as a result is often not clear.

We understand that context matters and one-size-fits-all solutions rarely exist. The world you work in is dynamic, and you are constantly innovating to meet emerging needs and opportunities. 

Evaluation and planning need to be equally dynamic, responsive, adaptive and useful. We integrate tools and methods from planning, research, evaluation and capacity building to customize how we work with each client and support them at every point in the innovation cycle. 

To provide coherence throughout this process, we return frequently to these guiding questions:

  • What is happening and is it working?
  • What is resulting and is it valuable? 
  • What are we learning and what does it mean?
  • What should happen next?

     

Our Guiding Principles

 

  • We work with organizations whose missions we believe in
  • We approach our work with grace, integrity, empathy, flexibility 
  • We remain client focused—always
  • We listen and observe to discover your big, important question
  • We match the right methods to the important questions
  • We help you gather information that is insightful and useful 
  • We pay attention to our impact on others and seek to match our intent to our impact
  • We respect you as an expert on what your organization is and what it does
  • We stay focused on goals while managing the details involved in getting there
  • We build capacity at every step. We teach as well as do

Help where you need it

PLAN

​We will help you turn what you know—and what you don’t yet know—into a plan for action. Depending on where you are in your innovation process, this might be a research plan, a program logic model, a theory of change, a strategy, an evaluation framework or a dynamic combination of these.

 DO

We can help put your plan in action through:

  • Full-service evaluation
  • Training & technical assistance
  • ​Frameworks & tool design
  • Mixed methods data collection & analysis 
  • Facilitation of community input
  • Figuring out what help you need

 

LEARN

We will help you make sense of what is happening, what you’re hearing and what is emerging. Collecting data is only one piece of evaluation.

The important part happens when you take stock of what it means for your community, mission, values and next steps. We make sense-making fun, participatory and insightful.

USE

We help you take what you learn and make it actionable. We explore your “utilization purpose” and help you use evaluation results to inform decision-making and next steps, such as:

  • Increasing impact
  • Advancing equity
  • Launching a new initiative
  • Adapting to changing circumstances
  • Involving participants in planning
  • Reporting to funders

Testimonial

“Praxis Associates asks tough questions that encourage us to think more deeply about what we are asking and what we are looking for, while at the same time showing us patience and grace.”

Teddy Dillingham, Imagine Children’s Museum

Praxis Associates, LLC  |  Vashon Island, WA & Berkeley, CA  |  info@praxisassociates.com