Below are examples of previous research with culturally specific organizations through the pro bono program. These examples are intended to help inform ideas.

• The Somali Museum is the first museum in the nation devoted to preserving and sharing Somali culture. In addition to its collection, the Somali museum has workshops, dance programs, and other cultural events. Wilder Research worked with the museum to conduct interviews and focus groups with both Somali and non-Somali museum visitors. Data collection focused on evaluating how programming improves community cohesion and cultural understanding, as well as ways the museum can be more engaged with the community.
• Planting People Growing Justice Leadership Institute utilizes arts and humanities to plant seeds of social change in youth and communities. PPGJLI also promotes literacy through increasing diversity in children’s books. Wilder Research developed evaluation tools and strategies to effective capture program impact and enhance PPGJLI’s ability to share their success with donors, funders, and the wider community. Wilder staff also worked with PPGJLI leadership to develop a program logic model.
• Hopewell Music Cooperative North improves music education in North Minneapolis through affordable, inclusive, and engaging programs. Wilder Research and Hopewell developed a comprehensive logic model linking the program’s activities to student outcomes. We also developed a bank of measures for data collection to build a solid framework and foundation for program evaluation based on available literature on community-based music education and key informant interviews with current program students.

• Irreducible Grace Foundation creates safe spaces and healing opportunities for youth of color. Wilder and Irreducible Grace developed a culturally responsive evaluation framework for their Black Youth Healing Arts Center program. Designed to understand the impact of the program on participants, the evaluation plan includes a combination of participatory and pre/post data collection methods with program participants and staff, administrative data, and community trends and indicators. 
• Wakaŋ Tipi Awaŋyaŋkapi: Formerly known as Lower Phalen Creek Project, Wakan Tipi Awanyankapi is a Native-Led, East Side environmental conservation nonprofit. Wakaŋ Tipi Awaŋyaŋkapi’s mission is to engage with people to honor and care for our natural places and the sacred sites and cultural value within them. Wakaŋ Tipi Awaŋyaŋkapi and Wilder Research partnered to create a logic model to help align their new strategic plan and programming efforts, and explain their work and long-term goals to potential funders and partners.
• Telling Queer History: TQH’s mission is to bring communities together to foster compassion, empathy, belonging, and healing. Their goals are to serve queer communities as a space for intergenerational and intersectional connections. TQH and Wilder Research partnered to build evaluation capacity and to demonstrate TQH’s impact through updating a post-event survey for ongoing use and interviewing participants in TQH events to learn more about the organization’s impact. A brief evaluation report and summary were created.
• MN8: MN8’s mission is to keep Southeast Asian communities together through direct support, advocacy, community organizing, and leadership development for social and systems change. MN8 and Wilder Research partnered to conduct a community needs assessment of the Cambodian community in Minnesota to learn about their needs, challenges, and how MN8 can support them. Topics included access to food, elections and voting, health care, and immigration.
• Rebound, Inc.: Rebound, Inc. aims to improve well-being and reduce systems involvement among Black youth by providing therapeutic supports, life skill development services, and enrichment activities. Wilder Research worked with Rebound, Inc. to identify the short-term, intermediate, and long-term outcomes of Rebound, Inc.’s programming, which informed the creation of a logic model. We also developed an evaluation plan, based on the logic model, aligning Rebound, Inc.’s data collection activities with program outcomes and identifying opportunities to improve data collection, management, and analysis processes. Rebound, Inc. is using the logic model and evaluation plan to inform evaluation activities, demonstrate impact, improve programming, and secure funding.
• Raíces Sagradas: Raíces Sagradas is a community mental health organization that serves the Spanish-speaking immigrant community and is committed to providing free, culturally appropriate therapy in both Spanish and English. Wilder Research partnered with Raíces Sagradas to build a logic model for their organization. Using the model as a guide, we built an evaluation plan to measure the impact of a newly launched community mental health initiative. Together, we built a data collection and analysis plan that would work for those they serve and offered guidance to program staff to carry out the evaluation on their own. Raíces Sagradas plans to use these tools to better communicate the scope of their work, demonstrate their impact, and secure funding.