Across the country, we are seeing nonprofits playing Moneyball to get better results and make better choices about how to invest their limited time and resources. In Cincinnati, Ohio, The Strive Partnership is improving outcomes across the cradle-to-career learning continuum, in part, by using data to identify, lift up, and shift resources toward what works.

Strive partners in Cincinnati have worked individually and collectively to improve kindergarten readiness by 11 percent between 2006 and the 2012-2013 school year. Fourth-grade reading achievement is up 16 percent over the same period. Here, nonprofit leaders, educators district superintendents, businesses, college and university presidents, civic leaders and funders are all working together to share results to collectively improve outcomes.

“The bottom line: If data is used properly by leaders who collectively respect and actively protect privacy, communities are more likely to see big changes in outcomes because cross-sector partners can work together to make better decisions about how to invest their limited resources.” – Jeff Edmondson, managing director of the Strive Network in the Cincinnati Enquirer

Strive Together, a national network that includes more than 50 communities across the country, is sharing the lessons-learned from Cinncinati. They have built a framework for what they term a “Cradle to Career Civic Infrastructure” as a way to bring communities together and use data to improve outcomes.