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Anyone can deliver a plan. We measure what happened after.

Results

A finished plan is not the same as a changed institution. We know the difference because we stay long enough to see it. Every result on this page is shown in two parts. First, the work we delivered. Then, what our clients were able to do differently because of it.

300+

policy and program redesigns influenced

160+

trainings delivered across the country

2.4 million

people reached through client engagements

147

U.S. counties touched

$21B

in government operating budgets served

CITY GOVERNMENT

City of Alexandria, VA | Office of the Mayor

A citywide plan only matters if the city adopts it, funds it, and keeps it moving. Alexandria did all three.

WHAT WE DELIVERED

  • A 5-year citywide strategic plan and 3 year Progress Report

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  • Implementation structure, tools, and processes designed into the plan itself, before launch

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  • KPI alignment and tracking systems

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  • Technical assistance to implement key parts of the Strategic Plan, including a Community Engagement Tool

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  • Developed the Communinity Engagement Tool with multilingual stakeholder engagement across residents, nonprofits, and city departments

WHAT CHANGED

  • The plan was adopted across 15 or more city departments

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  • The plan was moved into active implementation across the city

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  • The office's budget expanded by 300% on the strength of demonstrated results

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  • Over 600 staff were trained, and the city rolled out the Community Engagement tool for adoption

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  • Culture change in how staff understand , analyze, and implement community engagement within their projects, programs, policies, and other initiatives

Labor Organization

Washington State Labor Council

The truest test of a toolkit is whether people reach for it on their own. Across Washington State, they do.

WHAT WE DELIVERED

  • Statewide multi-stakeholder engagement through surveys, focus groups, and interviews

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  • A co-developed toolkit built with the people who would use it, not just for them

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  • Scalable technical assistance across a highly complex, multi-stakeholder environment

WHAT CHANGED

  • The published toolkit is now used by 600 or more local unions

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  • Those locals collectively serve 550,000 or more workers across Washington State

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  • The capacity to apply and extend the tools lives inside the organization, not with us

Legislative Office

Washington, DC | DC Council

Most institutional work collapses the moment leadership changes. This office was built to survive exactly that, and it did, three times.

WHAT WE DELIVERED

  • A legislative office built from inception: structure, systems, staffing model, and onboarding

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  • The development of a proprietary assessment framework to review and analyze legislative policies and programs

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  • The development of a toolkit and training to build capacity among council members and their staff for legislative review

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  • 140+ trainings, retreats, facilitated conversations, and coaching sessions to build staff capacity

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  • A multi-year vision, mission, value alignment across the team that the office could execute independently

WHAT CHANGED

  • The office continued operating at full capacity through 3 major leadership transitions

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  • 200+ legislative reviews have been conducted using the framework

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  • Ongoing capacity building and culture change among council members and their staff 

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  • Other jurisdictions in the U.S. & internationally have learned from & incorporated their analysis as a best practice

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  • The systems, not any single person, now carry the institutional knowledge

County GOVERNMENT

Montgomery County, MD | Office of Legislative Oversight

Research offices are rarely given the investment to modernize how they work. This one rebuilt its methodology and raised the rigor of everything it publishes.

WHAT WE DELIVERED

  • A strengthened research methodology using our RDL Model for a major county legislative oversight office

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  • The development of a leadership committee that supported the ongoing implementation efforts of the strengthened methodogy across the office

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  • A 5-part language and writing series and a 3-part methodology training for staff

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  • 165+ trainings, retreats, facilitated conversations, and coaching sessions to build staff capacity

WHAT CHANGED

  • Legislative report quality and analytical rigor measurably improved

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  • The methodology is institutionalized in how staff conduct oversight work today

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  • Culture shift on how to analyze, engage in research, and apply restorative practices to strengthen their overall methods

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  • The office has the capacity to carry the practice forward independently, and hold itself accountable

National Nonprofit

Feeding America

Organizational assessments usually end as documents nobody opens twice. This one changed how a national advocacy team works day to day.

WHAT WE DELIVERED

  • An organizational assessment through anonymous surveys, one-on-one interviews, and team facilitation

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  • Facilitated strategic priorities to support the upcoming strategic planning process

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  • Practical tools and training given to staff, built for daily use rather than the shelf

WHAT CHANGED

  • Internal alignment and team communication strengthened across a national advocacy team

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  • Staff continue to apply the tools, practices, and learnings in their daily work

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  • Culture shift among team for how to do their work and entered its next phase as a team with clarity instead of confusion

Research University

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

A tool is only as strong as the assumptions behind it. We helped strengthen the analysis so the numbers reflected the people they were meant to describe.

WHAT WE DELIVERED

  • A methodology review of the analysis behind a widely used living wage calculator, examining how the underlying figures were built and modeled

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  • An assessment of where the existing model left gaps in capturing the full economic reality of the people it was designed to serve

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  • Advisement on how to expand and strengthen the analysis so the tool reflected those nuances with greater accuracy

WHAT CHANGED

  • The team gained a clearer view of where their modeling could better account for the realities behind the numbers

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  • Concrete, practical direction for making the calculator more accurate and more representative of the communities it serves

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  • A stronger analytical foundation and staff capacity that raised the credibility of the tool and overall project

MORE OF OUR WORK

The pattern holds across sectors.

Different institutions, same discipline: deliver the work, and build the capacity that makes the work stick.

Prevent Child Abuse America

Designed and administered a staff survey for Prevent Child Abuse America and its Healthy Families America network,  one of the nation's most recognized child abuse prevention networks. Then analyzed the responses to surface the trends, gaps, and priorities that mattered most to the organization. From that analysis, we built a customized workshop and supporting tools and facilitated a working session with the group at their annual conference, followed by a set of concrete recommendations and next steps for strengthening how the organization operates, to strengthen their internal systems and staff capacity.

Duke University

Equipped university stakeholders to embed stronger design approaches in processes, systems, and institutional practices, with internal capacity built for ongoing independent application.

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Developed specialized curriculum training for university stakeholders contextualized to their needs and realities, to promote stakeholder alignment and build their capacity to strengthen their internal systems, culture, and processes.

The Chicago Community Trust Foundation

Equipped foundation network to embed stronger design approaches in their processes, systems, and practices, building internal capacity for ongoing application of restorative design methods.

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Developed curated toolkit and accompanying training for the foundation's network and supported the implementation of this toolkit across the nation with affiliated network members, to build their capacity and enable the network to indepently implement their strategic direction.

CampusCompact Network

Built research and community engagement capacity across the network, strengthening the connection between university research and community outcomes with tools institutions carry forward independently.

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Advised university stakeholders, including presidents, chancellors, leadership, staff, and students on practical ways to strengthen internal alignment, organizational development, and overall culture within their institutions.

Our tools and expertise have been cited by the NY State AFL-CIO, Children's Health Watch, and the Georgetown Law Review. Full project references, contact information, and work samples available upon request.

Your institution's results could be next.

Tell us what needs to change and what has kept it from changing. We will tell you, honestly, whether and how we can help.

contracting@gamblinconsults.com     |     (323) 204-3708 (Main Office)

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