Our Mission:
National Research Center, Inc. (NRC) uses sound innovative social science research methods to provide organizations with knowledge to improve the quality of life of the consumers they serve and the staff who provide the service.

What Inspires Us

Measuring What Matters

We communicate real world perspectives necessary for making good decisions. We help organizations listen before taking action. We provide reasoned focus when pressures build just to try anything. We direct organizations toward what works and what helps and away from what is weak or untenable. We teach the value of our craft and the methods to practice it. We remain sensitive to the resources available to organizations and optimize those resources to provide the best work possible.

Our Principles

We thrive on diversity, operate in close partnership with our clients, provide strong leadership and work hard to produce high quality results with honest conclusions.

Cultural competence

We thrive on the diversity of geography, history, race, language, personality and thought. We become more creative, empathic, wise and useful to our clients by absorbing and reflecting the full range of differences we may encounter in our work relationships. In particular, we strive to include the voices of the underserved—the low-income, ethnic minority, frail or disabled resident or program participant. Often this requires translation of data collection instruments, using native speakers of languages other than English and reaching out to members of hard-to-reach communities for participation in data collection and interpretation.

Partnership

Simply being expert in content or research methods does not guarantee that an organization can produce a research or evaluation study that is useful to clients. We know that we need help from our clients. NRC staff understand that planning for the best deliverable begins with close collaboration with the client. At the outset of our work, NRC staff seeks to clarify the purposes of the project, identify the key contacts and stakeholders and learn the personal, political and geographic contingencies that will influence the work. Throughout each project, NRC staff check in with our client to test our direction, work on solving problems and plan for the final product. Collaboration with our clients vastly improves our work and assures that clients get what they expect and what is most helpful to their mission.

Honesty

There is almost an infinite number of ways to tell the story of research results. NRC staff have built a reputation for candor and simplicity. This does not mean that we ignore the pressures of the context in which our work is conducted. We are sensitive to the constraints of personality and politics, but we give our advice in a palatable and straightforward way so that it can be heard and acted upon by all parties. We believe that there is no bad news from research results and that our findings help to move our clients in a better direction or at a faster pace than they were moving before, so we feel no pressure to tell a client what the strongest pressure groups “want” to hear. Top references are not built on half-truths. NRC’s ability to construct strong partnerships with our clients ensures that the truth is expected and easy to receive.

Leadership

The best leaders know when to lead and how to follow. NRC’s reputation for high quality research and evaluation brings with it the responsibility to identify the best ways to conceive and implement a research or evaluation project. Nevertheless, we are careful to listen before we lead. Our skilled and thoughtful staff do not rest on NRC’s reputation. We understand that there is a lot to learn from the accomplishments of our clients and their stakeholders, so in each new venture, before we plot a path, we pay close attention to the body of knowledge already accumulated, the voice of staff closest to the issues and the nuances of the context in which we work. We lead best as part of the group, not apart from the group.

Productivity

NRC produces what it promises. We design a workplan and budget at the beginning of the project and we stick to what we design. When a change in scope or timeframe is required, we work with the client to select the best options and we come to agreement about the associated costs before we move ahead. When high quality research must be done at reasonable cost and on time, NRC excels.

Excellence

For NRC, it is not enough merely to produce the expected. We strive to add unique value to the research process and to the final product. In keeping track of milestones and maintaining communication with our clients, we assure that the activities needed to bring a project toward completion are clearly understood. We are easy to contact and encourage our clients to do so whenever they wish. No question is too small; no inquiry unimportant. We think of both the process and final product as the foundation of our reputation, so NRC staff intend to make our reports, presentations, trainings and curricula not only what the client expects, but something we can be proud of for years.

Our Mission: