Image of the Vikings Table food truck; Image credit: The Minnesota Vikings Foundation
November 11, 2022 - 10:43am

Hi! I’m Nick Stilp, a Senior Consultant at The Improve Group. I was thrilled to lead our work with the Minnesota Vikings Foundation to evaluate Vikings Table, a food truck program with the mission of serving healthy meals and nutrition education to youth across the greater Twin Cities area.

Leah speaking at The Improve Group’s 15-year anniversary party.
September 28, 2022 - 9:40am

A message from Leah Goldstein Moses

Hello, IG community! I’m writing today to share exciting news. On August 1, I stepped down as CEO of The Improve Group and into an advisory role, while other members of our team stepped in to bring their considerable talents to the roles I once filled.

Image of the outside of our new office space at 700 Raymond Avenue
June 13, 2022 - 8:29am

We’re excited to share that we’re moving to a new physical space in July, and we should be fully moved in by Aug. 1, 2022! We’re excited to be staying in the same neighborhood, maintaining our strong ties to the community and organizations around us—in fact, the new space is just a little over a block from our current office. 

An image that demonstrates all the phases of the IG-Way: Inception, Design, Data Collection, Analysis, and Sharing
May 10, 2022 - 3:33pm

Over more than 20 years of working with partners and community members to conduct evaluation, The Improve Group has learned many lessons. In recent years we have collected key learnings into what we call the “IG Way.” You might notice us refer to IG Way when we refer to phases like inception, when we listen deeply about project context and needs, or to common IG Way practices like an emerging findings meeting, when we share initial reflections on evaluation data.

Graphic that includes a headshot of Marsha Base and the title of the article: "Coaching for Growth and Development: Supporting a culture of feedback"
March 29, 2022 - 9:14am

Hi, I am Marsha Base, and I have the best job at IG, at least I think so. My primary role is to support the growth and development of our powerhouse consulting team. This is an occasional series about my passion—coaching for growth and development.

A graphic that lists actions you can take for planning for uncertainty: 1. Set directions rather than goals and targets; 2. Be grounded in principles; 3. Allow new ideas to emerge; 4. Engage those who will be impacted by the outcomes of the plan.
January 13, 2022 - 11:58am

How do you plan for uncertainty?

Instead of planning goals, action steps, and targets, you set directions and determine principles (see more on how we did this with a client in this article) that will guide your decisions.

That is exactly what The Improve Group did when, several months into the pandemic, we began to think about our physical office space.

Image of the new Peris Hill housing that recently opened up in Minneapolis
January 7, 2022 - 12:27pm

Have you heard the news? The new PERIS Hill in Minneapolis’ Lowry Hill neighborhood has opened! As an organization with a portfolio of work supporting youth aging out of foster care, we were excited to see this development open—the first of its kind, PERIS Hill offers an innovative, affordable housing model that includes and supports young people who are aging out of foster care.

Graphic of text that includes the title of the article "Coaching for Growth and Development: In-service to the long term"
November 30, 2021 - 4:52pm

Hi, I am Marsha Base, and I have the best job at IG, at least I think so. My primary role is to support the growth and development of our powerhouse consulting team. I am excited to share with you the first part of an occasional series about my passion—coaching for growth and development.

A table that describes the differences between a strategic framework and strategic plan. The framework: explores emerging factors and their meaning, sets the organization in a powerful direction, is a decision-making tool, and measures success by progress and evolution over time. A strategic plan focused on strengths and weaknesses, sets goals for the org., Acts as an action plan, and measures success by achieving goals.
October 25, 2021 - 5:15pm

As 2021 began, Greater Minneapolis Crisis Nursery was ready to revisit the direction and focus of its work through a strategic planning process. Like many organizations, the Nursery made major changes to respond to the pandemic and was evolving to find new ways to center equity in its work. The Nursery turned to IG as a partner because we’ve built a strong baseline of trust through our long working relationship.

The Nursery had two key priorities going into the process:

Graphic that includes Karissa Propson's headshot and the title of the article: "Using data for good: How we support clients to act on findings"
October 25, 2021 - 4:16pm

Hi, I’m Karissa Propson, a Senior Consultant at The Improve Group. In my role, I often bring a fresh perspective to the organizations we serve. I want to share some themes I’ve noticed from recent experiences of supporting clients to think deeply about evaluation and use results.

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