Mission Impact Report 2022

For nearly six decades, across the U.S. and in more than 50 countries, we have tackled the world’s most pressing issues. We’ve always worked differently. From our founding to today, Abt has pioneered what it means to be a social impact organization, inside and out. We care as much about how we work as the difference we make through our work. It’s in our DNA, and it’s what makes Abt effective and resilient.

Our founder, Clark Abt, led by operating and measuring Abt by the social benefits it generates. Today, we continue that legacy through a robust mission impact management program that systematically evaluates the change we generate and what it means for those who experience it.

Abt recognizes that the health and well-being of individuals and communities are shaped by historical inequities and structural, systemic factors. Simply put, we cannot build a healthier, fairer world without tackling the injustices that undermine peoples’ potential. That’s why equity is the cornerstone of our strategy, and why we are actively defining every day what equity means for our employees, our work, and our clients.

As a company, we welcomed Roslyn Brock as Abt’s first-ever Chief Global Equity Officer to advance equity through our work and across our company. We co-founded the Evidence and Equity Collaborative to support diversity and strengthen inclusive practices in domestic policy research. And we put our expertise and our profits back into the community to advance equitable outcomes for those most in need.

With our clients, we tackled inequities in health, housing policy, education, and workforce and economic development—in the United States and around the world. We published important research on structural racism in medicine and America’s healthcare system, and expanded services that prevent families from entering the U.S. child welfare system. We worked with Latin American governments to integrate migrants into existing health systems—protecting, and planning for, refugees’ right to health care.

We delivered on these and so many other commitments in a disrupted world. COVID-19 exacerbated inequities everywhere. It has also created opportunities and fundamentally changed how we operate and serve our clients. We’re equipping the CDC with critical COVID-19 data and analyses to guide decision-makers and the American public, while never letting up on other project goals—like successfully reaching 35 million people with life-saving malaria services. We also seized opportunities for meaningful, systemic change. In Timor-Leste, for example, we used Abt’s approach for distributing pandemic funds as a model to reform other social assistance programs.

The greatest challenge we all face, threatening decades of social progress, is climate change. We’ve set and exceeded ambitious goals for cutting Abt’s carbon footprint and we aim to decarbonize fully by 2050. We’re integrating climate mitigation and adaptation strategies into our programs around the world, too. This year, we protected Tribal lands and livelihoods in North America, catalyzed nearly $8 billion in clean energy investment in the Mekong Delta, helped Massachusetts reform industrial emissions-permitting, and we were selected to modernize Mongolia’s electricity sector.

Abt’s mission has never been more important, the issues we face as a society more urgent. We are deeply proud of our work and impact. We are equally proud of how we got here and the organization we strive to be, inside and out.