Insights
Sector evidence, verified to source—and engagement records showing the method in practice. Where a brief makes a claim, a case shows it carried; where a case makes a move, a brief shows why. Read either. They point at each other.
Evidence briefs × case examples
Briefs separate the facts, the connection, and what the evidence does not say. Case examples show the sequence inside real work, with anonymization and unfinished analysis labeled.
August 3, 2026 · 6 min read
The 2024 Uniform Guidance raised the government-wide de minimis ceiling, but NIH returned to its prior indirect-cost provisions in April 2026. A portfolio assumption is no longer enough; the agency, award, and applicable cost base have to be identified.
Read the evidence briefAugust 3, 2026 · 7 min read
OMB raised the de minimis indirect-cost ceiling. Bridgespan found that most rapidly scaled nonprofits in its study relied on one dominant revenue category. Read together, those facts call for portfolio analysis—not an automatic move toward either concentration or diversification.
Read the evidence briefAugust 3, 2026 · 7 min read
A federal random-assignment evaluation found capacity growth across five domains for participating small nonprofits. CEP reports that the typical funder reaches about 17% of grantees with capacity support. The useful grantmaking question is what specific condition to build and how anyone will know it changed.
Read the evidence briefAugust 3, 2026 · 8 min read
A working diversion program had already absorbed a six-figure funding clawback because its outcome reporting outran its documentation. Second Order built the evidence infrastructure—the Structured Accountability Model—that made the program defensible under audit and reframed which funding pathways it could credibly pursue. The grant-strategy read of those pathways is active work now.
Case in progress: the evidence-infrastructure work is complete; the funding strategy analysis is still underway.
Read the case exampleJuly 31, 2026 · 5 min read
The strategic value appears when sourced facts reveal leverage, sequence, a portfolio pattern, or a binding constraint—and change the decision.
Read the method noteJuly 31, 2026 · 5 min read
A larger grant can create less usable capacity when cost recovery, restrictions, compliance demand, and sequencing are left outside the decision.
Read the method noteJuly 31, 2026 · 4 min read
Missing evidence should narrow a conclusion or create a confirmation need. It should not quietly become a negative judgment.
Read the method noteJuly 31, 2026 · 5 min read
An opportunity can fit the mission and still be the wrong move now. The order of pursuits changes capacity, evidence, and future credibility.
Read the method noteBring the actual opportunity, portfolio, or grantmaker question.