Evidence for Opportunity
We follow the evidence
Every child deserves the opportunity to thrive. We use rigorous research to identify the conditions and interventions most likely to meaningfully improve a child’s life trajectory. Guided by high-quality evidence—and continually evolving as the research does—our work centers on five interconnected areas with the potential to create lasting opportunity.
01: Safe, Stable & Nurturing Childhoods
Every child needs someone in their corner.
Strong, dependable relationships with caring adults are among the most important protective factors in childhood. Safe and nurturing environments can buffer children from adversity, support healthy development, and build the resilience needed to succeed later in life.
Research from the Harvard Center on the Developing Child finds that children who thrive despite serious hardship consistently have at least one stable, committed relationship with a supportive adult. The CDC similarly identifies safe, stable and nurturing relationships and environments as central to preventing adverse childhood experiences and helping children reach their full potential.
Explore the research:
Harvard Center on the Developing Child — The Science of Resilience
CDC — Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences
02: Learning & Educational Progress
Learning changes what becomes possible.
Education is one of the clearest pathways to opportunity—but simply providing educational programming isn’t enough. We look for interventions with credible evidence that children actually learn, progress, and remain on track for future success.
The evidence can be remarkably specific. J-PAL’s review of 96 randomized evaluations found tutoring to be one of the most effective educational interventions studied. Eighty-seven percent of evaluated programs improved academic outcomes, with most producing gains equivalent to approximately an additional half-year of schooling.
Explore the research:
J-PAL — Evidence on High-Impact Tutoring
J-PAL — North America Evidence Portal
03: Health & Healthy Development
A healthy start can last a lifetime.
Access to healthcare during childhood does more than address an immediate illness. Physical health, mental health and healthy development create the foundation from which children learn, grow and ultimately enter adulthood.
Long-term research on the introduction of Medicaid provides particularly compelling evidence: greater access to health coverage during early childhood reduced adult mortality and disability, with effects measurable as much as 50 years later.
For us, that means investing not simply in more care, but in effective approaches that improve children’s health and developmental outcomes over time.
Explore the research:
National Bureau of Economic Research — Long-Run Effects of Childhood Insurance Coverage
04: Stable Homes & Opportunity-Rich Environments
Where a child grows up matters.
A stable home provides security. The surrounding environment can shape opportunity.
Some of the strongest causal evidence comes from the Moving to Opportunity experiment. Researchers found that children who moved to lower-poverty neighborhoods while young experienced substantially better adult outcomes. The estimated effect of moving at approximately age eight was an increase of about $302,000 in lifetime earnings.
Housing stability matters as well. HUD’s Family Options Study—an experiment involving 2,282 families and more than 5,000 children—found that priority access to long-term housing subsidies reduced homelessness and food insecurity while improving other measures of family well-being compared with usual services.
Explore the research:
Opportunity Insights — Moving to Opportunity
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — Family Options Study
05: Family Economic & Basic-Needs Stability
Children thrive when families can provide stability.
Food, shelter, healthcare and other basic necessities create the conditions in which children can develop and learn without the constant disruption of crisis.
Research has linked greater economic resources during childhood with improvements that can persist into adulthood. Historical evidence examining cash assistance to low-income families found improvements in longevity, educational attainment, nutrition and adult income among children whose families received assistance.
But evidence also tells us that resources alone do not guarantee better developmental outcomes. Recent randomized research has produced more nuanced findings about unconditional cash assistance. That’s an important distinction: we support interventions because evidence suggests they improve children’s outcomes—not simply because they address a need.
Explore the research:
NBER — Long-Term Impact of Cash Transfers to Poor Families
CDC — Risk and Protective Factors for Childhood Adversity
Evidence Before Assumption
Every organization, program and intervention must earn our confidence. In partnership with the Columbus Foundation, we examine the quality of the underlying evidence, the strength of an organization’s model, its ability to measure meaningful outcomes, the durability of those outcomes, and the potential impact of each dollar invested.
We don’t begin with the assumption that something works because it sounds good. We ask what the evidence says. And as the evidence changes, so will we.
Because when the stakes are a child’s future, good intentions aren’t enough.