Sara Goldrick-Rab

My summer office hours are now open!

If you’re working to improve outcomes for underserved students — in higher ed, K-12, workforce development, or the nonprofit sector — and could use a thought partner, I’d like to help.

Over the past 20+ years I’ve built and led research on college affordability, basic needs insecurity, and economic mobility — from founding the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice to writing Paying the Price to running the Survey now used at hundreds of institutions. I’ve also sat in the seats you’re probably sitting in right now: writing grant applications, defending a project’s theory of change to skeptical funders, translating messy data into something a board or a policymaker will actually act on, and figuring out how to disseminate findings so they change practice, not just fill a drawer.

I can help with:

• Funding applications — sharpening a proposal’s logic, positioning it for specific funders, tightening budgets and narratives
• Project strategy & design — theory of change, research questions, methods, evaluation design
• Dissemination — translating findings for policymakers, practitioners, or the public; report structure; framing that lands
• General thought partnership — stuck on a project, second-guessing a direction, need an outside read

This is open to academics, but not limited to them — I’d love to hear from people in nonprofits, government, and philanthropy doing this work too.

For July and August, I’m offering this as pay-what-you-can, with a suggested rate of $100/hour. If that’s out of reach, tell me what works — I’d rather make this accessible than gatekeep it. Simply send me a DM to get started.