Date of Award

5-7-2026

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Business Administration (MBA)

Department

Business Administration

Abstract

NorthStar Foundation commissioned this engagement to answer a single question. Does its existing measurement infrastructure capture the developmental outcomes described in the Portrait of a NorthStar Graduate, the five-tier framework of Basic Needs, Belonging, Hope, Agency, and Leadership that President Wayne D. Brown has formalized as the organizing definition of success? The finding is that NorthStar is significantly closer to outcomes measurement than it realized. A crosswalk analysis of sixty-five unique survey items across six existing instruments shows that items measuring Belonging, Hope, and Agency are already embedded in the spring surveys at every grade level and align with validated developmental constructs in the research literature. The recommendation follows directly from the finding. NorthStar does not need to adopt new instruments. It needs to score what it already has, fill targeted gaps, and track growth over time. The framework delivered through this engagement makes that recommendation operational. It maps every existing item to the Portrait, defines an Emerging, Developing, and Thriving scoring protocol, identifies six measurement gaps and closes them with twenty-one new items adapted from NorthStar's own surveys and validated public-domain scales, and provides a longitudinal tracking design and a donor communication structure that organizes outcomes by Portrait tier and programming pillar

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