Our services are designed to help organizations make evidence-based decisions that
drive meaningful outcomes. From program evaluation to needs assessment and survey
research, we provide the tools and expertise to strengthen your impact and maximize
your resources.
Since 1990, we have been a member of the Consortium of University Public Service Organizations (CUPSO), a network of university-based public service institutes working with state and local governments, nonprofits, business organizations, and the media on a range of contemporary issues and challenges.
Program evaluation measures the efficiency of projects, programs, and initiatives.
Our team works with you to develop evaluation plans, identify key performance indicators,
and track progress at prescribed intervals to ensure that you are achieving your goals.
We provide status reports throughout the year to help you measure progress, as well
as summative evaluation reports that detail your success.
Benefits of Program Evaluation
Program evaluation gives actionable insights for decision-making and operational improvements.
Efficient projects or programs can be scaled to meet higher demand.
Program evaluations can demonstrate your organization's effectiveness to potential
donors or investors, highlighting the benefits you provide.
Needs Assessment
What is a needs assessment?
A needs assessment should be your first step prior to introducing a new program or
implementing changes to an existing one. Needs assessments help you uncover the actual
needs of the clients or community you serve, as well as the potential impacts implementing
the program or changes will have on them. We use data-driven methods to pinpoint gaps
and provide clear recommendations for targeted solutions.
Benefits of Needs Assessments
Needs assessments provide insights that general observation cannot. They also help
you avoid wasted resources by focusing on actual needs rather than assumptions. Using
the insights from needs assessments enables you to develop tailored programming that
enhances relevance, improves outcomes, and builds trust with the population you seek
to serve.
Surveys
The Burruss Institute is a founding member of the Association of Academic Survey Research Organizations. The Burruss Institute has collaborated with several prominent organizations and
has worked together on joint projects with other universities, including Emory University,
Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University, and the University of Georgia.
What types of surveys do you conduct?
We design and conduct web and direct-mail surveys to collect reliable data from diverse
audiences. Each survey is customized to your objectives, ensuring accurate insights
that inform critical decisions. Once we've collected the desired number of submissions,
our team carefully analyzes the responses to provide your organization with detailed
summaries and insights for each survey question.
Benefits of Surveys
Survey results enable your organization to make informed decisions based on comprehensive,
trustworthy data collection and analysis. This starts with working with our team to
ensure questions measure what they are intended to measure. Clearly understanding
stakeholder perspectives can help you strengthen engagement and support strategies
that drive measurable impact.
We use advanced, versatile software to ensure an easy-to-navigate experience that maximizes participation. Features like personalized invitations, secure logins, skip logic, randomized lists, and dynamic question piping create a user-friendly survey, eliminate manual data entry, and reduce errors—all while storing data securely at every step.
Advantages of web-based surveys include:
Respondents may be assigned a unique identifier (login name), allowing only that person
to access the web page. This also prevents a respondent from taking the survey more
than once.
Questions can be programmed so that non-applicable questions can be skipped.
Information obtained from one question can be "piped" into another question, which
can be used to create a separate list of questions based on the respondent's answer.
Web surveys eliminate the need for data entry, reducing error and saving you money
by eliminating a step in the data collection process.
When Internet access is limited or broader outreach is needed, our team designs and distributes traditional mail surveys that are clear, easy to complete, and simple to return. We manage every step, from personalized letters to secure data entry, to ensure accuracy, confidentiality, and the highest possible response rates.
