Lumen Impact Group
Lumen Impact Group

Blog

Elevating School Improvement Planning: From Compliance to Transformation

By Gina Schlieman, Partner at Lumen Impact Group When your school engages in its annual planning cycle, it can be tempting to focus on the requirements. Reviewing metrics, filling out forms, and discussing outcomes around a board or conference room table can feel monotonous and dry when it’s about checking boxes. With this mindset, School […]

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Turning the Mirror: How We Collect Data that People Trust and Actually Use 

By Cori Egan, Partner At Lumen Impact Group, we take data collection seriously, but not stiffly. One of the Lumen Ladies said it best in a recent team meeting: good data starts with making people comfortable and asking good questions. That simple reminder guides everything we do, from a hallway conversation with a teacher to […]

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From Inspiration to Implementation: A Framework for Impactful Dissemination in Education

Imagine you’ve built a sturdy, beautiful bridge across a deep river. It’s changed everything for your community, connecting people, opening up opportunities, and making daily life easier. Naturally, others want a bridge just like it. But handing them a photo or a list of materials won’t be enough. To replicate it, they’ll need your blueprints, […]

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Turning End-of-Year Insights Into Impact: A Guide to School Improvement Planning

By Gina Schlieman, Partner at Lumen Impact Group Students are taking end-of-year assessments, which means summer is almost upon us, and teachers, school administrators, students, and parents are in the home stretch. We’re all looking forward to warmer weather, a change in routine, and a break from school. But there’s important work to be done […]

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Building Our Team Based on Values

At Lumen, we work with many teams that are growing and changing, and we see time after time the importance of strong organizational values that guide who is hired and how the team works together.  Stephanie and Lisa sat down to have a conversation about the process of building a strong team and organizational values at Lumen Impact Group. In this conversation, we […]

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Building Strong Internal Systems to Support Grant Success

At Lumen, we support organizations applying for grants in every stage, whether that’s kicking off with project visioning or supporting implementation. Lauren Outlaw, J.D. is our in-house grants expert, and in this blog series, Driving School Improvement Through Strategic Use of Grant Funds, she’s sharing a few things she’s learned along the way that may […]

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Crafting a Strong Budget Plan – Strategic, Data-Driven Use of Grant Funds

At Lumen, we support organizations applying for grants in every stage, whether that’s kicking off with project visioning or supporting implementation. Lauren Outlaw, J.D. is our in-house grants expert, and in this blog series, Driving School Improvement Through Strategic Use of Grant Funds, she’s sharing a few things she’s learned along the way that may […]

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school kids working at computers

Maximizing Grant Success Through Stakeholder Engagement and Strategic Planning 

At Lumen, we support organizations as they build their approach and strategy to securing grants and then during implementation. Lauren Outlaw, J.D. is our in-house grants expert, and in this blog series, Driving School Improvement Through Strategic Use of Grant Funds, she’s sharing a few things she’s learned along the way that may help your […]

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A Conversation about CSP Grants with Dawna Taylor from the Colorado League of Charter Schools

Congratulations to our partners at the Colorado League of Charter Schools who received a $68 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Charter Schools Program (CSP) this year! We sat down with Dawna Taylor from the League to talk about this significant accomplishment for their organization and their plans for distributing these funds to […]

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Your Strategic Plan is Done– Now What?: How Operational Planning Makes Strategic Plans a Reality

There’s something energizing about strategic planning. After days of focused work to build a plan at the board level, you feel accomplished and excited as you present the plan to your team. But, now what?  With so many competing demands for your time and energy, how will your team prioritize follow-through on the actions that […]

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picture of women meeting together

If you Want Your Organization to Thrive, Spend Time with Your People

By Lisa Diaz, Founder One of the things that I’ve learned over the years is the power of investing in the people on your team. While professional development opportunities and training for team members are certainly investments, that’s not the type of investment I mean. I mean a time investment. As a leader, you’re busy. […]

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The Long Game: Sustaining Data Collection for Lasting Insights

By Cori Egan, Junior Partner Like the rest of the world, I have been soaking up Paris Olympics coverage over the past few weeks and my most important takeaway is that champions are not made overnight. Whether it’s the relentless training of the gymnasts or the strategic plays of a water polo team, success is […]

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Testimonials

"They don’t tell you what you want to hear. They tell you what you need to hear. That makes a huge difference. We needed to understand our weaknesses in order to make the organization work right, and I was overwhelmed by how they really got it and they helped us to get it too. They were able to do it in a way that really made me want to understand the goals we needed to focus on. I believe Lumen was absolutely the best we could have found."
Barbara Sellinger
Cresthaven Academy
"I’ve been in nonprofits for 30+ years and have used the services of many consultants, but I have never been so comfortable with their commitment to helping us. It was as if the Lumen team shared our need to have a successful outcome and they were committed to the notion that they would indeed bring value to what we were doing. "
Caroline Novak
Alabama School Readiness Alliance
"The Lumen team did a really good job sharing the hard truths with us. Their findings were different from what we were expecting, but they used the information to push us farther than we originally planned. They were candid and didn’t hide anything from us. We’re now on the path to developing products that are very different from what we’ve done before but are hopefully much more useful for the people we serve."
Drew Jacobs
National Alliance of Public Charter Schools
"The management of a federal CSP grant is a really niche area that requires a tremendous depth of expertise and technical know-how. You need to have a microscopic attention to detail when it comes to compliance and reporting timeliness. The Lumen team is excellent at all of the above. "
Tyler Barnett
New Schools for Alabama
"In my coaching, we make really strong, specific plans for next steps and then we follow up on them in our next conversation. We try to keep those next steps really manageable. When I’m busy, I can’t layer a ton of personal growth on top of my other responsibilities, so we make plans for growth that are baked into the work I’m already doing. That has been really helpful for me. "
Kristen Forbriger
City Fund
"With everything in the CSP world, Lumen has someone on their team with the experience and focus to guide you through the processes. They partnered with us through what would have been a very difficult process had we tried to stumble through it on our own... we probably could have muddled through it as a team, but with their support it was much more smooth, efficient, and professional."
Shannon Greer
Utah Association of Public Charter Schools
"As I got to know the Lumen team, their questions and willingness to support us made it clear they were a good match. They were very engaged, quick to respond, and aligned with how we think as an organization."
Donterrio Marzetti
KIPP Tulsa Public Charter Schools