Methodologies and Data Sources

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Methodology for “Maximizing Your Dollar”

Thanks to the generosity of the NAUDL Governing Board, 100% of your contribution to the NAUDL goes towards programming that builds, strengthens, expands, and connects local UDLs serving students in urban schools across the country. The Board ensures that your investment solely provides opportunities to students by personally covering the NAUDL’s fundraising and administration expenses (i.e., “overhead”).

The “Maximizing Your Dollar” figure was built up by considering how much additional investment your contribution leverages from the NAUDL Board, national sponsors, school systems, and local private partners. In other words, for every dollar you invest, how many total programming dollars are attracted from other sources to support local schools and students?

Specific Methodological Considerations

Your Dollar: The contributions counted in the “Your Dollar” category determine the ratio for comparing donations in all other categories. “Your Dollar” comprises contributions to the NAUDL during Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 from non-board individuals and outside institutions. FY 2009 donations were used to examine the empirical impact of a dollar invested in the NAUDL.

National Board and Sponsors: This category includes all of the NAUDL’s FY 2010 Governing Board contributions, including contributions made by Board members as part of the NAUDL’s Annual Dinner, and all in-kind contributions. In-kind contributions include the salary of the NAUDL’s Urban Debate Advocacy Fellows, deferred legal associates who hold pro bono positions at the NAUDL but are paid salaries by their firms.

Local School System: Local School System dollars are the allocated commitments from school systems for their UDL programs in FY 2010. Those school systems in which the NAUDL conducts its Building and Strengthening work are counted in this analysis. FY 2010 figures are used, in contrast to the FY 2009 figures used for the “Your Dollar” category, to calculate the resultant impact on investments catalyzed by prior contributions.

Local Private Partners: Local Private Partner contributions are calculated from the funding that local UDL Advisory Boards will provide their UDLs in FY 2010, as outlined in signed Memoranda of Understanding between the Advisory Boards, school systems, and the NAUDL in each of the cities where the NAUDL conducts its Building and Strengthening work. As with Local School Systems, FY 2010 figures were used to calculate the leveraged nature of your investment and demonstrate the extent to which your contribution attracts other investors.

Making an Impact for Students and Schools

The impact of your investment on students and schools represents the leveraged value of your investment (calculated above) divided by the cost per student and school added to the Urban Debate Network. The leveraged value of your dollar means that your investment amount attracts 7.94 total dollars of programming. This corresponds to how NAUDL efforts catalyze the collective investment of the NAUDL, its Board, national sponsors, school systems, and private partners to fund UDLs.

Specific Methodological Considerations

Students: The impact of investments on students assumes that the incremental cost of adding a student to an existing debate team in an established UDL is $750. The figure of $750 is derived from historical costs of providing a year’s worth of involvement to a student in a number of long-standing UDLs from across the Urban Debate Network. This figure is not based on current spending in Building and Strengthening UDLs because these UDLs have incurred significant one-time startup expenses over the past year both in getting the UDL organization off the ground and adding new schools to the UDL; these expenses skew the present per-student cost. Given the 8:1 leveraging of your investment, you can fund a student for $96 per year by funding the NAUDL’s efforts. The number of students served at each price point in this piece is rounded down to the nearest single student. We encourage donors also to support local UDL Advisory Boards. We use this figure to demonstrate the impact the NAUDL has in catalyzing the development of more debate in more schools.

Schools: The cost of adding a school to a UDL incurs startup and overhead costs similar to what the NAUDL has experienced in Building and Strengthening UDLs over the past three years. These Building and Strengthening UDLs have started programs at nearly 150 schools in the past two years alone. The approximate cost of starting a program appears to be $31,839 per school. This total cost encompasses all local operating expenses, national support expenses, and the cost of serving all teachers and students. With your 8:1 leveraged investment, you can support the NAUDL’s effort to launch a school in the coming year for a cost of $4,059. The number of schools served at each price point in this piece is rounded down to the nearest single school.

Graduation Impacts

Income: Income data by educational attainment are available from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Student graduation statistics are available at: http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/education/cps2006.html.