How can nonprofit networks be rewired for maximum social impact?

 

This is the main question that the Network for Nonprofit and Social Impact is dedicated to answer. 

Located at Northwestern University, the research team includes undergraduates, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty members. Since its establishment in 2012, NNSI uniquely focuses on research that emphasizes collaborative efforts and network structures that include nonprofit organizations and their many organizational and community partners.

Meet the Team

Michelle Shumate is a Professor in Communication Studies and Associate Faculty at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. Her research focuses on how to design interorganizational networks to make the most social impact, which has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Army Research Office. In addition to leading NNSI, she offers workshops, consulting, and coaching through the Social Impact Network Consulting. Professor Shumate holds a Ph.D. from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California and a Bachelor’s Degree from Pepperdine University.
Kate Cooper is an assistant professor at DePaul University. Her research interests include nonprofit and cross-sector collaboration in response to social problems as well as stakeholder participation in collective impact models. Kate’s research has appeared in Management Communication Quarterly and Communication Yearbook; her work also includes the development of the bona fide network perspective to explore collaborative networks convened around complex social problems. Kate holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.A. from Wheaton College.
Amy O’Connor is an associate professor at the University of Minnesota. She received her Ph.D. from the Brian Lamb School of Communication at Purdue University. O’Connor has published or presented over 30 research papers focusing on corporate social responsibility and the corporate society relationship. Her research focuses on the role of corporations in society, specifically the rights and responsibilities of corporations in the global commons. She is co-PI of the nonprofit-corporate partnership project.

Michelle Shumate

Founding Director

Kate Cooper

Affiliated Faculty

Amy O'Connor

Affiliated Faculty

Marwa Tahboub is a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Media, Technology, and Society program. As a Research Assistant for NNSI, she has worked on projects studying veteran referral networks and individual help-seeking behaviors. Her research interests surround nonprofits, community organizations, and activism. She received her M.A. from Northwestern, in which her thesis explored how Muslim nonprofits engage in social movements in the United States. She holds a B.A. in professional communication and psychology from the University of Michigan-Flint.
Yeha Kim is a Ph.D. candidate at Northwestern University's Media, Technology, and Society program. He studies how communication shapes the interactions between individuals in need and the systems designed to support them. His work includes studies examining help-seeking journeys during material hardship, evaluations of the “take-up gap” in a social support program, and analyses of social care infrastructure and network resilience in referral systems. Currently, Kim is working on a paper analyzing how navigation programs shape help-seeking experiences, comparing individuals with and without structured referral support. Before pursuing his doctorate, Kim worked at Publicis Groupe, where he developed global advertising campaigns for clients such as UNICEF, Samsung, and AB InBev.
Xinmeng “Cecilia” Huang is a research assistant at NNSI, actively contributing to projects that examine the effectiveness of purpose-oriented networks under varying constraints. She is interested in advancing theories of network impact, including dynamics, effectiveness, and integration of technology. She has an interdisciplinary background in the nonprofit and finance sectors and holds an M.S. in Leadership for Creative Enterprises from Northwestern University’s School of Communication, with a minor in Entrepreneurship from the McCormick School of Engineering, as well as a B.A. in Drama from the University of Virginia.

Marwa Tahboub

Graduate Research Assistant

Yeha Kim

Graduate Research Assistant

Cecilia Huang

Graduate Research Assistant

Qiwen Zhang provides data analytical support for all ongoing projects in the lab, with a focus on the Trajectories of Care and VSC projects. She is interested in using data analytical skills to discover statistical information and trends, and promote public policy changes that improve people's wellbeing. Qiwen holds a B.A. in International Liberal Studies from Waseda University, Japan, and a Master of Public Policy from the University of Chicago.
Tatum Thomas is a fourth-year undergraduate student studying Data Science, Global Health and Economics. As a Research Assistant at NNSI, she has actively contributed to projects focusing on veteran referral networks, care trajectories, and predictive analytics. Whether it's crafting literature reviews, performing data analysis, or conducting interviews with clients, she loves the lab's collaborative and impact-driven environment. She is passionate about harnessing data analytics to drive social impact, aiming to enhance efficiency across the nonprofit sector.
Yasmin Zaiani is a fourth-year undergraduate student studying Learning and Organizational Change, Cognitive Science, and Business Institutions. As a Research Assistant at NNSI, she has contributed to projects focused on predictive analytics and improving outcomes for help-seekers. Through conducting literature reviews, investigating research, and carrying out interviews, she is interested in learning how policy can be leveraged to maximize social impact across organizations.

Qiwen Zhang

Data Research Analyst Associate

Tatum Thomas

Research Assistant

Yasmin Zainai

Research Assistant

Janice Yoo is a fourth-year undergraduate student studying Political Science, Sociology, and Data Science. As a research assistant at NNSI, she has contributed to a range of projects, including predictive analytics for veterans’ referral networks, purpose-oriented network toolkits, and health and human service referral networks. Whether conducting literature reviews, coding in Dedoose, or cleaning data in R, she is passionate about advancing impactful research that enhances efficiency in the nonprofit sector and expands support for communities in need.
Jezel Martinez is a third-year undergraduate student studying Political Science, Journalism and Spanish. As a Research Assistant at NNSI, she works on projects that examine the effectiveness of purpose-oriented networks under varying constraints. Her work includes international outreach, research, and Spanish-language communications.
Steven Xu is a first-year undergraduate at Northwestern University studying Statistics and Communication Studies, with additional interests in Data Science and Business. As an Early Research Assistant with the Network for Nonprofit and Social Impact (NNSI), he contributes to projects analyzing nonprofit partnerships, referral systems, and community-impact networks. Passionate about nonprofit networks and organizational strategy, Steven is committed to using data, storytelling, and strategic communication to help organizations solve complex problems, particularly those that advance social impact and community well-being.

Janice Yoo

Research  Assistant

Jezel Martinez

Research Assistant

Steven Xu

Research Assistant

Courtney Kim is a fourth-year undergraduate student studying Psychology, Data Science, and Creative Writing. As a Strategic Communication intern at NNSI, she oversees the lab’s social media content, writes blog articles featuring NNSI’s original research, and organizes its monthly newsletter, Impact Insights. She is interested in exploring the dynamics of team collaboration and studying the processes through which effective change is implemented within and across organizations.
Matilda Le is a second-year double majoring in Communication Studies and Economics and minoring in Business Institutions. As one of NNSI’s Strategic Communication Interns, she writes blog posts featuring the latest research insights, designs the website interface, and creates graphics for social media. She is passionate about community initiatives related to education, sustainable development, and poverty and hope to launch a social fund focusing on these areas in her home country - Vietnam.
Jenna Jeon is a third-year undergraduate student studying Communication Studies, Sociology, and Integrated Marketing Communications. As a Strategic Communication intern at NNSI, she writes blog articles featuring original NNSI research and develops social media campaigns to publicize NNSI’s current research and projects. She is interested in exploring how organizational communication can be best designed to create greater alignment amongst stakeholders.

Courtney Kim

Strategic Communications Intern

Matilda Le

Strategic Communications Intern

Jenna Jeon

Strategic Communications Intern

Current Projects

Help Seeking and Navigation Support

Technology and human-centered navigation solutions have emerged in the last decade as ways to support individual help-seeking. The key idea behind these interventions is that it is confusing for individuals to identify which organizations offer benefits, programs, and services that they are eligible for and that the enrollment processes for these benefits, programs, and services may be a barrier. This pilot project examines the experiences of individuals who have received help or sought help but didn’t receive help. We will interview individuals about their experiences with help-seeking during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Examining the Outcomes of Repeated Client Referrals Based on the Trajectories of Care

The proposed study aims to introduce and validate a system-derived measure of the quality of client outcomes based upon trajectories of care. The focus will be on network performance, defined as “the longitudinal improvement of client well-being across multiple service episodes.” We will analyze data from Combined Arms, a collaborative network that provides support for veteran transition. This study will then aim to answer three questions: 1) What is the effectiveness of different pathways in the network over time? 2) Which referrals should be made first? 3) Which providers are most effective at each stage along the trajectory of care?

Predictive Analytics with the Veterans Services of the Carolinas

Veterans Services of the Carolinas (VSC) provides supportive services to veterans and military-connected individuals across North Carolina. Recently, VSC has been using a predictive analytics product developed by UniteUs to identify veterans and military-connected individuals with high social needs scores who do not currently have a relationship with social services or a medical home. Research questions include: 1) What services do clients identified through predictive analytics request and receive? 2) How similar are these services to clients who enter NCServes through other means? 3) What combination of services improves social needs scores for clients identified through predictive analytics? 4) How similar are the social needs scores of clients who enter NCServes through other means?

Improving Veterans Referrals by Optimizing Network Design in Response to COVID-19

AmericaServes is the United States’ first coordinated system of public, private, and nonprofit organizations working together in communities to serve veterans, transitioning service members, and their families. We will analyze data collected in their shared referral management and analytics platform. First, the study will examine how referral networks adapt to a substantial increase in the number of cases as a result of the secondary impacts of COVID-19 (i.e., economic downturn, disruption of service delivery mechanisms). Second, this research will utilize high-level analytics to understand how different network structures perform in the face of a surge of cases.