The Challenge

The Ganas Network runs fellowship programs to develop education advocates, but faced significant challenges in analyzing and reporting program outcomes for funders and understanding what drives successful fellow engagement.

Key Pain Points:

• Time-consuming grant reporting process requiring manual data analysis

• Difficulty identifying which intake factors predicted fellow engagement

• Limited ability to quantify program impact with concrete metrics

• Challenges tracking engagement patterns across different fellowship cohorts

• Data integrity issues with disconnected datasets across cohorts

The Manta Solution

The Ganas Network deployed Manta to analyze their fellowship data across multiple cohorts, saving hours of manual work while uncovering deeper insights about program effectiveness and participant engagement.

The Analysis

Manta performed multiple sophisticated analyses that would have taken significant manual effort:

1. Grant Reporting Acceleration: Transformed raw program data into comprehensive impact narratives for funders, showing concrete metrics like a 1.57-point average improvement in fellows' understanding of advocacy pathways

2. Engagement Prediction: Identified that career development readiness factors, particularly networking and relationship-building skills, were the strongest predictors of fellow engagement

3. Program Evolution Analysis: Revealed that more recent cohorts had dramatically higher engagement rates, validating program improvements over time

4. Data Integrity Improvement: Identified "orphaned" data points across datasets, enabling better tracking of fellows across program stages

Organization Impact

Current Impact:

• Reduced grant reporting time by 2-3 hours while producing more comprehensive analyses

• Validated the connection between career development and advocacy skills

• Identified key engagement predictors to inform future program design

• Provided concrete metrics to strengthen future grant applications

• Enhanced confidence in program effectiveness with data-backed insights

Future Applications:

• Tracking long-term vs. short-term engagement patterns across cohorts

• Designing program elements that build the specific skills that predict engagement

• Strengthening grant applications with data-driven impact models

• Creating more targeted development opportunities for fellows

Key Takeaways

1. Enhanced Funding Strategy: Manta transformed not just reporting but how Ganas approaches impact measurement from the beginning of grant cycles

2. Integrated Program Design: The analysis revealed that career development and advocacy skills development aren't separate tracks but interconnected competencies

3. Data-Driven Decision Making: Replacing perceptions with concrete data has validated program leadership's approach while providing new insights

4. Program Evolution Validation: The analysis confirmed dramatic improvements in fellow engagement across cohorts, validating program changes