Our Story
Knowledge to Inspire Action.
For more than 40 years, Equal Measure has been at the forefront of providing actionable insights for foundations, nonprofits, and government. Our equity-focused learning, measurement, evaluation, and strategy approach strengthens how our clients design, implement, and communicate the change they seek. We serve organizations at every stage of their journey of inquiry and innovation.
We balance our passion for learning with pragmatism, thought leadership with humility, and excellence with flexibility. And we are committed to upholding equity and showing up as partners—as a team and in every engagement.
That’s how we help our clients apply knowledge to inspire action.
Our Mission
We strengthen the knowledge and capacity of our partners to transform systems, eliminate disparities, and build equitable communities.
History
’83
Equal Measure began in 1983 at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, exploring how large institutions could collaborate to address complicated issues such as economic development, educational opportunities, housing, and jobs in the surrounding community, focusing on capacity building in the social sector.
’90s
The organization moved out of the University of Pennsylvania to become the nonprofit OMG Center for Collaborative Learning. We were at the cusp of two important trends: a nascent social sector commitment to independent evaluators and the emergence of more complex methodologies, prompting the expansion of our services into strategic planning, evaluation, and capacity building.
’00s
As foundations, along with the rest of the social sector, began placing more emphasis on place-based systems change, our work continued to evolve in complexity. We took on major multiyear projects focused on education, community health, and diversity, equity, and inclusion with clients like the Gates Foundation, Lumina Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
’10s
The 2010s saw several major developments, including a name change to Equal Measure and continued growth. We also refined our strategic positioning, repackaging our services with more bundled, customized offerings to help our clients go even deeper, so we can work together in an ongoing relationship to advance social change.
’20s
Building on our 40-year legacy, we entered the new decade by deepening our commitment to equity and systems change across all our service lines. Today, our equity-focused learning, measurement, evaluation, and strategy services help our clients transform systems and create more equitable opportunities for all.