Milwaukee | Founded: 2017
Industry: Evaluation & Education
Employees: 13 | Sales: $1.5 million (2022 projected)
Ubuntu Research and Evaluation provides evaluation of programs, partnerships and practices intended to improve or create systemic, behavioral or social change. The company also designs programming for young people and adults that promotes critical thinking and develops analytical skills to increase individual and collective capacity to create a just and equitable world.
What factors have contributed the most to your growth in the past three years?
Monique Liston, founder, joyful militant and chief strategist: “Being community engaged! We are responsive to the needs and experiences of Black people in Milwaukee and bring that into every project that we engage.”
How has your company navigated the challenges of the past few years?
“We moved our service delivery to a primarily virtual model, which increased accessibility. We also moved our staff to a fully remote model, increasing their quality of life and relationship to work.”
What are the biggest obstacles to your company’s continued growth?
“The sociopolitical and socioeconomic climate. As the political climate changes, we are faced with new challenges and new ways of engaging decision makers in things that currently have their attention. Also, budgets are moral documents and with changing leadership, there comes changing priorities that might impact budgets for research and evaluation on topics we are experts in.”
