Select Current and Past Projects

Health Resources and Services Administration
In partnership with the University Center for Child and Human Development, Communicating for Social Change supported a number of state family-to-family centers (organizations that connect families with children with special needs to information and support). Communicating for Social Change developed marketing communication plans for the centers and provided technical assistance in developing communication materials.

Leadership for Healthy Communities, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative
The project encompassed in-depth interviews with policy makers, analysis of grantee and policy maker surveys, analysis of event evaluations and development of case study vignettes, as well as review and analysis of various trends that emerged during the implementation of the program.

National Education Association (NEA)
To help NEA build a bridge in communication between parents and teachers developed and managed production of a series of advocacy guides that identified collaborative strategies for helping students transition to new educational standards and offering advice on how to advocated for student achievement.  

National PTA
Developed and produced a series of guides explaining the roll out of new education standards and state assessments.  The guides serve as a valuable educational tool for parents as states continue to transition to new standards-aligned assessments.  

The General Electric Foundation
Developed and conducted a series of studies (focus group discussions, intercept interviews and in-depth interviews) with teachers, parents, and students from various public school districts across the country to develop and pre-test messages, develop communication materials, and inform and develop communication strategy.

Based on the research findings, planed and implemented community engagement strategies to foster parental involvement in student education and promote the work of the grant.  The campaigns take advantage of variety of tactics including newsletters, print and radio advertising, community forums, and video production.  

AARP Foundation
Conducted a series of quantitative and qualitative studies to help the Foundation hone in on the organization’s value proposition and message platform.  In addition, Communicating for Social Change worked with the AARP Foundation to review the way the Foundation tracks its impact indicators.  As a result of the assessment, framework was developed to help AARP Foundation program staff map out a blueprint for achieving large-scale, long-term goals and capture social impact indicators.

Smithsonian Institution
For the National Museum of Natural History’s Department of Anthropology, Communicating for Social Change conducted a series of focus groups with middle- and high-school students to collect feedback to inform the development of an online learning experience called AnthroQuest.  AnthroQuest is a media rich online experience that will offer youth ages 10–17 meaningful science and humanities learning interactions based on anthropology museum collections.  The results of the study offered insight into the target audience’s interests, motivations, and reactions to AnthroQuest’s content and delivery systems.

USAID, The Growing Organizational Value Chain (GROOVE) Learning Network
GROOVE is a group of four organizations—CARE, CHF, Conservation International (CI), and Practical Action—engaged in a collaborative learning process that applies, generates, captures, and shares knowledge, enabling participants to identify effective, replicable practices and innovations.  To support the work of the grant, Communicating for Social Change conducted a baseline and impact evaluation studies employing a blend of qualitative and quantitative methods and synthesized lessons learned.   

National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD)
Communicating for Social Change helped NACDD identify opportunities for the Association’s involvement in national asthma control activities and ways to support states’ work in this area.  The following activities were conducted: an environmental scan of the asthma control efforts; a series of in-depth interviews with NACDD members working in the asthma field; full membership survey of NACDD representative members as well as asthma contacts, and key informant interviews with national organizations involved in asthma control. Upon completion of the research activities a series of action steps and recommendations were provided to the client.

Kidsave International
Communicating for Social Change served as an evaluator on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Family’s grant to Kidsave International Project Adopt Older Kids!  The program was designed to connect older foster care youth with caring adults who are interested in creating lasting relationships with children and help youth find an adoptive family.  Evaluation employed a blend of qualitative, quantitative and quazi-experimental methods to evaluate program implementation and outcomes.

FHI  360
Communicating for Social Change developed a Research and Evaluation module for FHI’s Strategic Behavioral Communication training of the organization’s field staff. The module described the role research plays in the creation of a strategy-based communication campaigns and provided an overview of various qualitative and quantitative research methodologies and evaluation techniques.  

Rare
Rare, a US-based international conservation organization, trains, equips and supports social change agents with the tools, skills and knowledge they need to care for and protect natural resources in the world’s most threatened natural areas.  Dr. Karavanov has been working with Rare to develop social marketing training curriculum including modules on social marketing principles and theories, segmentation and cost-benefit analysis strategies, and message and material development and pre-testing.

Corporation for Public Broadcasting
For the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s Ready To Learn grant, Dr. Karavanov designed and oversaw formative research efforts encompassing environmental scan, interviews with various literacy organizations serving Title 1 families at the national and community levels and extensive focus group study with low-income parents exploring child education and literacy issues.  Armed with research findings, Dr. Karavanov led a team in developing a community engagement marketing plan for the initiative and worked with creative team to develop message strategy and creative concepts.  She designed and led research efforts to pre-test the messages as well as monitored campaign execution.  

Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) – Office of the Secretary
To help DHHS develop materials informing American public and businesses about pandemic influenza preparedness Dr. Karavanov developed and conducted a comprehensive research study encompassing an environmental scan, mystery shopping, focus groups with American public and a series of informational interviews with representatives of various government agencies and nonprofit and for-profit organizations regarding their pandemic influenza preparedness. Informed by the research findings, Dr. Karavanov also led a team in developing materials for American public about pandemic influenza.