Center for Family Flourishing
Good intentions are trapped in a broken feedback loop. And it is the vulnerable who pay the price.
Think Tanks
Diagnose without proving
Foundations
Fund without knowing
Nonprofits
Deliver without measuring
Impact Investments
Measure without connecting
The operating system American communities have never had.
Built on the most rigorous dataset ever assembled.
GPAL Database
600+ public data sources per city
US Cities Benchmarked
Diagnose the symptom. Prescribe the root cause. Measure the cure.
Diagnose
The scorecard shows what is broken.
Upstream causes. Downstream outcomes.
Prescribe
The cascade analysis maps why.
↑ 1% rent burden → ↑ property crime within 24 months.
Find the root. Target the lever.
Measure
Upstream matches solutions and tracks what moves.
Did the root cause shift? Did the downstream outcome improve?
1% Rent Burden Increase
The Root Cause (Upstream)
Property Crime Rises
Within 24 Months
Family Homelessness
The Downstream Symptom
Funding based on evidence, not eloquence.
Every solution carries an honest evidence level.
Measured-Results — rigorous evidence across multiple cities. Ready to deploy.
Promising — successful deployments in a few locations. Strong signal.
Emerging — catalytic ideas with credible theory and committed measurement.
We will not claim a solution is working until the data supports it.
Measured-Results
Rigorous statistical evidence across multiple cities.
Promising
Supporting data, plausible causal relationship.
Emerging
Promising theory, limited evidence.
A fiduciary compass for the fastest-growing capital in philanthropy.
Donor Advised Funds are the fastest growing vehicle for charitable giving in America — projected to exceed $2 trillion in assets by 2026. Most of that capital sits idle. Not because donors do not care. Because financial advisors face fiduciary risks if they steer clients toward specific charities. So the money stays parked.
CFF's community dashboard changes that. It is a neutral data driven tool that shows clients exactly what is broken in their own community and which solutions have the strongest evidence behind them. The data does the directing. The advisor stays protected. And the capital finally moves to where it matters most.
Donor Advised Funds
Fiduciary risk prevents steering
Targeted Impact
Data directs the giving safely
Helping Think Tanks Turn Hypotheses Into Measured Solutions.
Think tanks produce compelling research. But without the data infrastructure to test their hypotheses against real community indicators across hundreds of comparable cities their conclusions remain exactly that — hypotheses. Compelling. Well intentioned. But unproven.
CFF is backed by three of the most rigorous research organizations operating at the intersection of data and community health. Polco's National Research Center. The Hoover Institution at Stanford. The High Road Strategy Center at the University of Wisconsin Madison.
Think tanks bring the hypotheses. CFF brings the upstream and downstream data to test them. If the evidence holds we scale it. If it does not we say so honestly. That is what makes our conclusions worth acting on.
Hypothesis
Think Tanks
GPAL Testing
Data across hundreds of cities
Marketplace
Measured Solutions
Investing in a growing infrastructure, not a static product.A world where no family suffers because we funded the wrong thing.
GPAL today compiles over 600 public data sources per city across six domains benchmarked against every other city in America. And we are just getting started.
Our mission is to consume every relevant piece of data that exists about community and family health. Every variable. Every relationship. Every city.
Because when the dataset is complete communities stop guessing and start knowing. They see what is breaking before it becomes a crisis. They always know what to fund next.
That is the future we are building. Not a report. A living system that watches over the conditions families need to thrive — so no family is ever left behind.
Core Infrastructure
GPAL baseline, initial cascade mapping, Indianapolis proving ground.
Dataset Expansion
Gender-disaggregated indicators, young men's health outcomes integrated.
National Scale
Continuous living dashboard across major US cities.
Our Vision:A world where no community has to guess why families struggle — or what to do about it.
Imagine a foundation CEO who can show exactly which causes their investment addressed and which outcomes improved. A nonprofit that shows funders data — not a story. A DAF client who gives with complete confidence. A city where family struggle stops being a political argument and becomes an empirical one.
That is what we are building. A living system where every dollar is connected to an indicator, every solution is honestly measured, and every result is transparently reported.
Every family flourishes when we fund the right thing.
Downstream Impact
Property Crime
-12% YoY
Downstream Impact
Homelessness
-8% YoY
Active Solutions
Your role in building the operating system for impact.
Live scorecards