Asking the Right Questions
What is Data Collection & Tool Development?
This is the process of obtaining data in strategic ways that align with project goals, populations served, and context, and then creating and refining tools to improve the clarity, relevance, and reliability of what is discovered. LPC uses a range of qualitative and quantitative methods, including surveys, interviews, focus groups, observations, and document reviews.
Our work includes:
What Does LPC’s Process Look Like?
Our methods emphasize flexibility and responsiveness to the unique and emergent needs of your project. We design thoughtful, inclusive strategies for data collection, and develop tools to capture both outcomes and the lived experience of the populations you need to speak to.
WE ARE TRUSTED BY ORGANIZATIONS LIKE:
Case Studies
Our Work Speaks for Itself
For more than three decades, LPC has produced work of which we are proud. With permission from our clients, we’ve shared an overarching view of several of our projects, including our approach to each, the methodology involved, and key outcomes. As you explore these Case Studies, we hope that you’ll see similarities to what your organization is looking to achieve.
From 2023–2025, LPC supported the evaluation of California Health Collaborative’s Compromiso Adelante Project in Stanislaus County. LPC measured the effectiveness of community-led efforts in Riverbank and Ceres to adopt, implement, and enforce Tobacco Retail Licensing, an evidence-based policy designed to reduce tobacco access, particularly among youth, in predominantly Latino communities.
From 2022–2024, LPC participated in the Sacramento County Vehicle Emissions Project in partnership with Breathe California Sacramento Region. The project addressed air pollution as an environmental justice issue, focusing on communities disproportionately affected by poor air quality and elevated risks to respiratory and cardiopulmonary health.
LPC evaluated GrizzlyCorps, an AmeriCorps program designed by Project Climate at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment in partnership with CaliforniaVolunteers. The evaluation examined how the program strengthens organizational capacity in rural communities while advancing regenerative agri-food systems, fire and forest resilience, and the development of emerging climate leaders.
Additional Services
Extend Your Impact
LPC has a longstanding reputation for excellence in evaluation, analysis, and reporting. We’ve been honored that some of our longstanding clients have come to us for additional services, secure in the knowledge that our team can boost the capabilities and dedication that their organization’s staff bring to their work.
Answers Just for You
Frequently Asked Questions
From engagement structure to data quality and capacity building, these FAQs address the fundamentals of working with LPC. If you don’t see your question here, we’re always happy to continue the conversation.
Our clients include non-profits, public agencies, foundations, and businesses. We are open to working with many types of organizations. We have decades of experience with all types of projects, from multiple programs conducted under one umbrella, to multi-site initiatives, right through to straightforward, linear engagements.
There are two main differences, and these are purpose and focus. Research companies are often called upon to review external sources to unearth new, generalizable knowledge on a topic, while evaluators work to assess the effectiveness of a specific program, policy, or initiative (often internal). The focus for researchers is on what is happening or what is known. Evaluators, by contrast, look to discover how well a program or policy worked, whether objectives were met, or how an initiative can be made better.
We are prepared to help organizations figure out where to start, how to conduct evaluations, where to find required data, and who needs to be involved. We have a long history with many clients who came to us for their first evaluation project.
Yes. Many clients come to us for expertise in helping them with survey design and data collection. LPC is prepared to work with your existing applications and systems. Our team is used to walking you through best practice methods to make sure you ask questions well and pinpoint the useful data that lie within the responses that you receive. We make it a point to ensure that survey questions and collection tools are created with respondent needs in mind. Accessibility, equity, and diversity are among our top concerns.
You, as the client, own your data. LPC uses best practice methods for keeping all data safe and confidential. Our team trains annually in HIPAA best practices, and we have a set protocol for destroying and/or returning any data in our possession when a project ends, or when governance requires that it be done.
We produce a variety of materials to suit the demands of each client and project. We’ve created bespoke reports, interactive dashboards, choropleth maps, custom infographics, in-class presentations, and visualizations to provide to specific community members, the general public, branches of government, organization funders, and boards. We pride ourselves on sharing our findings in formats that are accessible and shareable.
We stay involved as long as you need us to. Whether you require help with results interpretation or assistance with planning next steps, we’re happy to act as your guide. However, we don’t linger beyond the time that we’ve been asked to work with you. Once agreed-upon milestones are met and your organization has made the decisions and discoveries that it sought to make, we close your project file. And we’re happy when clients come back to work with LPC again.
Our entire team is remotely located, and has worked with clients from in multiple states. If on-site visits or meetings are required, we’re happy to discuss the smartest and most economical ways to set those up.
It’s best to contact us as soon as a need for evaluation is identified. Depending on your organization’s scope, that sometimes doesn’t need to happen until you’re already running a program or initiative. We’re always glad to be involved well ahead of time when you may need our services to help brainstorm and support your program development.
A logic model is an evaluation tool that sets out inputs and outputs, to ascertain that a planned program will meet its stated objectives, or support the desired changes. It’s like a roadmap that shows the path toward an expected outcome, allowing stakeholders to understand how activities will impact a project. It’s very useful for making underlying assumptions explicit, and uncovering challenges and opportunities before any action takes place.
Many of the organizations that we work with have asked us to create and deliver customized training to increase their team’s skills. In doing so, we’ve been able to broaden knowledge in ways that support ongoing initiatives and better serve identified populations. We also offer partner coordination services, to provide behind-the-scenes assistance for teams that are undertaking large-scale projects. If you need technical assistance, we can also create simple systems that you can maintain internally and use in the longer term.
Our clients sometimes encounter unexpected changes, and we are accustomed to dealing with that. Whether it’s a change in team members, the extension of a funding deadline, an addition to the original project scope, or an expansion in the definition of the communities involved, we’ve seen these types of shifts and are prepared to shift alongside our clients and their stakeholders.
Get in Touch
Let’s Have a Conversation
You may see some of your own requirements reflected in the services described here, and we hope that it guides you to reach out to us.
We realize you may have questions, too. Let us know what you’re thinking, or what you’d like to understand more about, by filling out the form on the right. We’ll be glad hear what you’d like to tell us, and give you the answers that we can.
