At SPOTLIGHT, we judge our impact by whether and how civic and social sector leaders use our work to redesign policies and programs, redirect resources to increase efficiency, and govern health and safety systems more effectively.

How We Define Impact

We define impact as measurable changes in how public systems make decisions and deliver services. That includes civic organizations using our estimates in budget and planning processes, adopting or modifying programs based on our evaluations, and formalizing governance and ethical safeguards informed by our work. Scientific publications matter, but our primary focus is how our work can change options on the table, the way those options are compared, and the decisions that follow.

Policy and Systems Decisions

SPOTLIGHT projects are anchored in live policy questions. By partnering with civic and social sector leaders, we answer essential, real-world questions, rather than focusing on ivory tower issues. Our research and products are used by health departments, hospital systems, public safety organizations, and civic agencies to compare options, anticipate consequences, and justify difficult choices. In addition to our scientific output, we communicate with partners through recurring briefings, white papers, and public testimony to ensure that our work reaches both public leaders and practitioners in community.

Ethical Capacity Building

Beyond individual studies, we build tools and frameworks that live inside public systems even after SPOTLIGHT leaves. The include investment models to generate projections, dashboards for system-level planning, and ethical toolkits to guide future work by our partners. We prioritize delivery of our products with documentation and analytic support so tools can be maintained and put to use by practitioners, not only academic researchers.