Quantifying the impact

By Kevin Manne

Through their range of academic enrichment, social-emotional and support services, Buffalo Prep ensures that middle and high school students are ready to meet the challenges of competitive higher education environments.

As part of the organization’s 35th anniversary, leaders wanted a way to quantify and communicate the impact Buffalo Prep has had on its students by analyzing data related to the educational and career achievements of their alumni.

“It’s important to be able to show where our alumni are, what sectors they’re working in and where they’re excelling,” says Grace O’Connor, director of community relations at Buffalo Prep. “We can tell the story all we want through alumni testimonials, but having data points to share with our board, current students and stakeholders is crucial.” 

As a nonprofit with limited resources, Buffalo Prep needed help pulling all that data together. So O’Connor reached out to Dominic Sellitto, clinical assistant professor of management science and systems in the University at Buffalo School of Management, for assistance. 

Sellitto then connected O’Connor with a group of School of Management graduate students who organized data related to alumni positions, salaries, industries and more, and built a dashboard system that Buffalo Prep can use to analyze all that information and generate reports.

“What’s amazing is that we now have a tool we can continue to use as we move forward, adding in information as students graduate and as our alumni progress through their careers,” says O’Connor. “It wasn’t just a one-off kind of a project; it’s a tool that helps us explain the data.”

Sellitto says the work with Buffalo Prep is just one example of how the School of Management gives students practical, hands-on experience with work that makes a difference.

“We want our students to have experiential projects, but there’s a huge focus here on the intersection of data and societal impact,” he says. “With Buffalo Prep, we were able to find that their work is paying off. Not only do their graduates get to go to their college of choice for an undergraduate degree, but a high percentage also continue on to the master’s and doctoral level.”

The UB School of Management offers a number of programs and opportunities connected to experiential learning with a focus on the social impact of management, such as the Projects Clinic, Social Impact Fellows, Western New York Prosperity Fellowship, Jordan A. Daniels Nonprofit Board Fellowship and more. 

“We really want to give back, and to take the skills our students are building here and to put them to work to build their portfolios in a meaningful way with organizations that do big things for society,” says Sellitto. “If your organization fits, reach out to us because we can help and we have students who are eager to do the work.”