Market Research for NGOs and Educational Organizations

Is your program solving a problem people actually have, or one you assumed they had? We answer with applied market research for the social and education sectors: program evaluation, needs assessment, and beneficiary research. Recent work includes MERITO, Autism Voice, Cushman & Wakefield, and Upriserz. See the full portfolio below.

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Our portfolio across sectors:

How we help social and education teams decide with evidence

Budgets in the social and education sectors are tight, and every decision affects real people: students, teachers, beneficiaries, communities. Market research with MKOR tells you whether your program addresses a real need, how the intended audience perceives it, and where you lose participants along the way.

We work with NGOs, public institutions, and educational organizations on projects where the data has to hold up in front of funders, boards, and the communities being evaluated. We calibrate methodology to context: rural or urban, adults or young people, quantitative at scale or qualitative in depth.

Program evaluation & needs assessment

A program launched without prior evaluation risks solving a problem that does not exist. We test assumptions before implementation through concept testing, and check operational feasibility through business idea evaluation and opportunity analysis. Example: the teacher professional development study for MERITO, where we measured the real training needs of teaching staff before the program was redesigned.

Perception & positioning of the organization

How well known is your organization outside its bubble of beneficiaries and funders? What does the general public associate with its name? We answer through brand awareness research and continuous brand tracking, useful especially for advocacy campaigns and national scaling phases. From the field: the brand tracker study for the POR program with ADR, where we tracked how a European-funded program is recognized by its target audience.

Understanding beneficiaries

People do not answer a questionnaire in the same voice they use to talk to each other. That is why we combine usage and attitudes research with beneficiary studies, and, where fine segmentation is needed, consumer profiling. Real output: the PULSEZ 2024 study on Generation Z, with data any organization can use when it wants to speak to young people without sounding like an adult imitating a teenager.

Engagement & participation

You ask yourself where you are losing participants: at registration, in the first two weeks, or at the end of the program? We measure drop-off points and satisfaction at every stage through experience research, and when you need a fast answer between two cohorts we run agile research with delivery in days. Applied: the online education platforms study for Upriserz, which showed what keeps young people in a course and what makes them quit.

Social & educational directions

The profile of the Romanian donor is changing, and so are the expectations young beneficiaries have of education and civic involvement. We read these shifts through beneficiary and donor research and translate them into program decisions through innovation and forecasting, so you do not end up with a strategy that fit last year. Concrete example: the donor profile research for Autism Voice, where we identified real donation motivations and the channels that work for each segment.

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Common questions about social & education research

How much does a program evaluation study cost for an NGO?

It depends on methodology, sample size, and whether we are working with hard-to-reach beneficiaries (rural populations, vulnerable groups, children). As a rough guide, a qualitative concept evaluation on a few focus groups starts from a few thousand euros, while a national opportunity study on a representative sample costs proportionally more. For NGOs with limited budgets we recommend quant plus qual mixes, so you do not pay for scale where you need depth. Send us the brief and we will come back with a concrete estimate.

How do you measure the impact of a social or educational program?

Impact is measured across several indicators: change in behavior, change in attitude, and change in the beneficiary’s situation. We use usage and attitudes research on comparable samples before and after the intervention, plus qualitative interviews for the context behind the numbers. When the program is live, we add experience research along the way, so you catch problems before they show up in the results.

What methods do you use for needs assessment?

We start with a qualitative phase: interviews with beneficiaries, field staff, and community representatives, to identify perceived needs versus stated needs. Then a quantitative phase on a larger sample, to prioritize those needs. Where the context calls for it we add beneficiary research and analysis of existing secondary data (national statistics, Eurostat, sector reports). The deliverable is a ranked list of needs, not a narrative report.

Can we use market research to identify the profile of our donors?

Yes, and it is one of the most requested studies in the NGO space. We combine consumer profiling applied to donors with behavioral research to understand what drives donation, which channels perform, and what kinds of message resonate on each segment. The output feeds directly into fundraising campaigns and into the communication strategy with existing donors.

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