PropelNext
Since 2012, PropelNext has worked with over 40 youth development nonprofits in groups of cohorts. The organizations sharpened their program models, developed theories of change, put performance measurement and management systems in place, and built cultures of learning and continuous improvement. The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation developed the three-year program and led its first national cohort from 2012 to 2015. Two California cohorts followed, from 2015 to 2018 and from 2018 to 2021, with support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Sobrato Family Foundation, the Weingart Foundation, and the Heising-Simons Foundation. Learning for Action implemented the program in later years. The third cohort completed the program during the COVID-19 pandemic and a national reckoning on racial justice. Over time, the program brought justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion further into the foreground of its work.
Engage R+D evaluated PropelNext across three cohorts. This page brings together the products from that work, including a post-program study of the first cohort, a developmental evaluation of the second cohort's implementation, and how the third cohort continued to learn and adapt through the pandemic.
