Rainbow Research Inc., based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1974. Our mission is to improve the effectiveness of socially concerned organizations through capacity building, research, assessment, and evaluation.
Our clients include non-profit agencies and service providers; local, state and national government agencies; and foundations and other funders.
Projects range in scale from one-time program evaluations to multi-year, multi-site research studies. We adapt our services to meet each client’s needs and budget.
Rainbow Research can
help
your organization:
Deepen understanding of key program elements that contribute to program effectiveness.
Increase program impact by integrating effectiveness principles with day-to-day operations.
Manage resources to
focus on achieving your critical objectives.
Align organization activities more closely
with community needs and opportunities.
Strengthen staff and board commitment to your organization's mission.
Improve communication between your organization and its stakeholders and audiences.
Develop tools and infrastructure that strengthen program performance and outcomes.
To learn more about how Rainbow Research can work with your organization, please contact us.
Our Approach
Partner with socially concerned organizations to discover what works and evaluate—through studies and participatory projects—the best practices associated with building stronger, healthier communities.
Engage stakeholders in projects, including planning, design, data collection, analysis and reporting phases. Experience has demonstrated that this builds ownership, understanding and credibility, making it more likely that findings are used.
Effectively and sensitively work with diverse communities to conduct research and evaluation that addresses their information needs, and those of their funders. Attention is given to developing together culturally appropriate methodologies that incorporate community traditions and understandings.
Improve effectiveness of socially concerned organizations through workshops, technical assistance, and collaborative tool development. This builds lasting capacity within organizations and the local community to sustain evaluation efforts.
Well-balanced evaluation designs that address both the process and the outcome evaluation issues associated with a project, and incorporate both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods. The Rainbow team is skilled in a wide range of research methods from the old standards to the new and more innovative methods and technologies.
News
Recent Staff Presentions
Rainbow Research staff presented on the following topics at the 26th Annual American Evaluation Association Conference: Evaluation in Complex Ecologies in Minneapolis:
Culturally Specific Approaches to Systems and Policy Change to Reduce Health Disparities: Evaluating the Eliminating Health Disparities (EHDI) Initiative Experience
Mia Robillos, Ann Zukoski et al.
The Importance of Client Engagement and Dosage
Multipaper Session
Barry Cohen, Chair
Youth Participatory Evaluation and Research: Ways to Engage and Empower Youth Under Time Constraints
Round Table with Mia Robillos and Lola Adebara
Think Tank: The Revolution Will Not Be Culturally Competent
Diana Yefanova, Presenter Support Group
Building Evaluation Capacity to Address Health Disparities: Working with Diverse Cultural Communities, Perspectives from the Field
Ann Zukoski, Chair and Presentor; Barry Cohen, Discussant; Presentors: Eric Moore, Julie Nielsen and Rodolfo Gutierrez
Advisory Groups For Evaluations in Diverse Cultural Groups, Communities and Contexts
Multipaper Session
Barry Cohen, Mia Robillos, Eric Moore
Contingencies in Conducting an Evaluation Under Extreme Circumstances
Multipaper Presentation
Barry Cohen