Partner With Us

Partnering With CJP

Do you work for a government or non-profit and have an idea of how your community can improve the health, safety, and opportunity of the residents who live there?

We can work with you to help you understand the basics of your data, measure the impact of how your efforts are working, try out new ideas in the field, and help you inform decisions on which ideas are most worthy of future investment. Partners that have strong results of success are able to better communicate their efforts and raise support for continuing or expanding their operations. We’ve worked with some of the same partners year after year on successful collaborations—their willingness to come back is (to us) one of the best measures of our success.

Types of Projects We Take On

Data analysis to assess an existing situation and suggest potential solutions

We believe the research process can actually work better when someone in a government or non-profit works with independent outside researchers to set the agenda—it means that whatever the researchers produce will have a high chance of translating into changes in policy and programs. We work with partners at every level to help them scope out what their research priorities are, then work alongside our partners to gather data and conduct analyses on these priority questions. If possible, we leave our partners better equipped to understand, access, and use their data going forward.

Long-term partnerships with government or non-profit to investigate innovative practices

We form our research partnerships with the goal of creating long-term change—we aren't interested in "proving" or "disproving" a program and then moving on. Forming a longer-term outlook on research allows us to work with governments and non-profits as they try new approaches, pilot ideas, and make progress in getting new ideas to work. When a program doesn't work as intended, we work with our partners to understand why, and develop next steps that can lead to more success in future attempts. On the other hand, we always use the most rigorous research tools available to us, so that when a program is working well it can be explored further, publicized, and expanded.

Our Process

  • Fill out our Intake Form.
  • We have pro-bono conversations with groups—sometimes extensively—to help them determine what they are interested in and able to do.
  • Sometimes we will refer groups to our affiliates or partner organizations if we think someone else might be a better fit for the project needs.
  • If we are interested and have the capability and capacity to work with you, we will scope out what a project might look like.
  • Once we have the scope of a potential project, we’ll work with you to figure out how we might launch and support a research effort. Many of our partners don’t have dedicated research funding, so this step often involves looking for support from foundation or government grants.
  • Our work is non-profit, and the projects we take on don’t determine salaries of our core staff. Funding for our research goes directly to tasks such as hiring data analysts for individual projects and supporting research infrastructure.

How to get Started

Our first core value is the importance and connection to the work done by our partners. If you would like to work us as a partner, please email us at cjp-lab@sas.upenn.edu and let us know what you are thinking of.