Our Mission
We aim to bolster upward mobility and thriving communities by funding and supporting actionable, longitudinal research on programs, practices, and their effects. Better data will support evidence-informed funding and community efforts to strengthen and scale solutions for children, youth, and families.
CoLab is the research and evaluation arm of the Constellation Fund. Learn more about Constellation’s mission and values.
The Economic Mobility Challenge
Although philanthropic and government use of evidence-based interventions has increased modestly, we’re far short of where we need to be, which means we’re seeing little improvement in economic mobility at the population level across the United States.
Part of the problem is a lack of good evidence used at scale. That’s why CoLab has launched several initiatives designed to educate decision-makers and policymakers on how to use evidence more effectively.
We believe another key reason is that many programs produce promising short-term results that ultimately fade over time, yet funding for long-term follow-up assessment remains scarce compared to the resources devoted to near-term evaluation. This gap is consequential. CoLab is driven by the conviction that understanding what works over time requires a different approach. We emphasize longitudinal evaluation that tracks people across years, not just months. Some interventions show early effects that dissipate; others have “sleeper effects” that don’t appear in initial measurements but ultimately shape long-term economic mobility. CoLab’s focus is on identifying interventions with durable effects on people’s trajectories — the kind of evidence that can drive lasting change.
Evidence for Impact
CoLab invests in actionable evidence to inform public and philanthropic funding and community efforts. We do this by advancing data infrastructure, funding independent research, and translating evidence to policy. CoLab funds actionable research nationally while treating Minnesota as its center of gravity.
CoLab doesn’t advance a programmatic or partisan ideology; we focus on outcomes with curiosity and a commitment to population-level upward mobility. We identify potential solutions by listening to poverty-affected communities and policymakers across the political spectrum, we invest in independent research on those solutions, and we connect credible data to decision-making.
Research investment
We fund longitudinal impact evaluations of promising poverty-fighting solutions that measure outcomes for up to 20 years while sharing practical insights along the way using world-class research methodologies.
Policy Influence
We collaborate with local, state, and federal policy-makers to identify policy questions that need better data to maximize government effectiveness and efficiency in driving children and young people’s upward mobility. We also work to translate research findings into sensible, bipartisan policy action in Minnesota and beyond.
Data investment
We’re working alongside government and community partners to strengthen Minnesota’s data ecosystem to build a nation-leading linked data system that researchers and government agencies can use to understand program impacts across public systems while protecting privacy.
Investing in Impact: Our Life Course Framework
Economic mobility in America is moving in the wrong direction — and spending alone isn’t reversing the trend. What’s missing is rigorous, long-term evidence about which programs and policies actually produce lasting change, for whom, and at what scale. CoLab’s life course mobility framework, built on a synthesis of more than 230 peer-reviewed studies, maps the developmental milestones, boosters, and roadblocks that shape economic outcomes from birth through adulthood. It guides every research investment we make — and offers a common language for policymakers, philanthropic partners, and researchers who want to align around what the evidence says works.