Peter York
Peter York is a Principal and Vice President of Analytic Solutions at BCT Partners. He has over 20 years of experience as a consultant and researcher in the evaluation and nonprofit fields, as well as a national spokesperson for social impact and impact measurement issues. He has spent the last ten years developing analytic techniques that leverage machine learning algorithms and big data to create predictive, prescriptive, and rigorous evaluation (causal) models and tools for social change agents in many fields, including nonprofit capacity building, child welfare, juvenile justice, workforce development, adult justice, adult protective services, and child mental health.
Examples of some of his related publications include: Measuring Results and Impact in the Age of Big Data: the Nexus of Evaluation, Analytics, and Digital Technology; and Unlocking Real-Time Evidence for Practitioners: How Evaluation and Data Analytics Are Generating On-Demand, Actionable Evidence for Front-Line Practitioners at First Place for Youth and Gemma Services. He leads the development of the National Equitable Impact Platform (EquIP), a big data platform combining IRS 990 (nonprofit tax form data), American Community Survey (US Census Bureau household survey data), and geospatial data to assess, evaluate, and study the nonprofit sector’s contribution to equitable community improvement.
In addition to his data science work, he has spent the past 20+ years designing and leading numerous research and evaluation studies with private philanthropies, corporations, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies. He has authored book chapters, academic and professional articles, and a book on evaluation entitled, “Funder’s Guide to Evaluation: Leveraging Evaluation to Improve Nonprofit Effectiveness.” He is a popular speaker on evaluation, capacity building, and data science/analytics, regularly presenting at professional conferences.
York has served as an advisor to institutions, and a member of national leadership groups focused on impact measurement, investing, and data analytics. For example, he served as an advisor to the Rockefeller Foundation on the use of big data for evaluation; a reviewer and evaluation design advisor for the Social Innovation Fund; a member of the Alliance for Effective Social Investing, Reimagining Service, and Data Analysts for Good; and a board member of the Alliance for Nonprofit Management.
Pete is also a Leap Ambassador, which is a private community of nonprofit thought leaders who are committed to the adoption of high performance in the nonprofit sector. York has a B.S. in Psychology from Purdue University and an MSSA and Ph.D. (ABD) in Social Work from Case Western Reserve University.