Mdrc

Mdrc, a New York-based nonprofit research organization, delivers rigorous program evaluation, impact studies, and evidence-based technical assistance to federal social policy and education agencies as a prime contractor (91% of recent awards) and grant recipient, competing exclusively in full-and-open procurements with no set-asides across its federal footprint.

Mdrc operates across five distinct capability domains anchored in federal social policy research. The organization conducts randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental impact evaluations of employment, welfare, housing, and family support programs; designs and executes data transformation, analysis, and technical assistance for federal program administration (particularly TANF and SNAP policy support); leads education research and evaluation across K–12 instruction, career pathways, and postsecondary outcomes; performs criminal justice research including violence intervention program evaluation and mental health diversion system analysis; and provides workforce development research and economic mobility strategy assessment. Customer concentration is pronounced: the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration (primarily through the HHS Program Support Center vehicle) anchors 28 awards worth $1.02 billion combined potential value—65% of total portfolio dollars—while the Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences accounts for 53 awards at $196.4 million potential value. The Administration for Children and Families, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Department of Labor round out the top five customers covering 91% of dollars. This concentration reflects Mdrc's embedded role in federal social policy evaluation infrastructure: the organization holds a $99 million single-award Blanket Purchase Agreement from HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy through September 2028, sits on a multiple-award Indefinite Delivery Contract (HHSP23320095644WC) worth $120.8 million in task orders, and maintains a GSA Multiple Award Schedule position with 28 task orders generating $198.8 million in combined potential value. Recent representative work includes a $9.66 million delivery order from the Administration for Children and Families for applying behavioral science to improve program efficiency (awarded September 2026, completing September 2031), an $11.9 million firm fixed-price contract from ACF for the Building Evidence on Employment Strategies Project 2.0 (September 2023 through September 2028), a $4.7 million Department of Housing and Urban Development order for Phase 2 of the Stepped and Tiered Rent Demonstration (September 2024 through September 2029), and a $3.86 million time-and-materials ACF order for TANF Data Collaborative 2.0 training and technical assistance (running through September 2028 with 91% subcontracted labor in FY2025).

Mdrc's activity trajectory shows maturity with volatility: twelve awards in 2022 and 2023, nineteen in 2024, and three recorded in both 2025 and 2026 (reflecting the source's capture lag). Fourteen awards with combined potential value $46.6 million reach ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months, presenting recompete exposure on contracts such as an impact study of math learning strategies with the Institute of Education Sciences and data analysis work supporting employment program evaluations with ACF. SCI-reported invoiced revenue totaled $82.3 million across FY2022–FY2025, with substantial year-to-year volatility—$26.7 million in FY2022 on 125 FTEs, declining to $15.6 million in FY2024 on 38.7 FTEs, then rebounding to $20.8 million in FY2025 on 142 FTEs. Government-paid hourly rates on SCI-reportable prime contracts median around $151/hr, with senior research and policy roles spanning upward to $306/hr at the 90th percentile and entry roles near $25/hr.

Mdrc operates as a prime performer, self-delivering approximately 85% of contractor hours on SCI-reportable contracts while engaging an average of 15% subcontracted labor across prime contracts; 156 named subcontractors appear across the SCI dataset, including Mathematica Inc., Westat Inc., Public Strategies Inc., Decision Information Resources Inc., National Opinion Research Center (NORC), and MEF Associates for specialized research, evaluation, and data collection services. In its subcontractor role—9% of total award count—Mdrc provides survey administration, implementation research, data collection unit services, and co-principal investigator and research lead support to university research teams (The Trustees of Columbia University, University of California Irvine, Regents of the University of Michigan, New York University) and government agencies (ABT Global, Digital Promise Global) on NIJ criminal justice studies and IES education research initiatives. The GSA Schedule labor portfolio spans eight categories from Assistant II ($173.62/hr) through Senior Associate II ($467.16/hr), with master's degree holders at mid-to-senior ranks and no security-cleared positions offered, positioning Mdrc for research analyst, policy planning, and senior technical roles rather than classified defense work. Mdrc's federal grant footprint includes prime recipient awards from the Institute of Education Sciences (spanning impact studies, methodological research, career pathway evaluation, and machine-learning approaches to RCT analysis) and the National Institute of Justice (criminal justice research on hospital-based violence intervention and mental health diversion) across recent years, supplemented by sub-recipient roles on Columbia University and UC Irvine education research teams. The organization competes in full-and-open procurement without reliance on small-business set-asides, reflecting its nonprofit status and established market position as the federal government's research and evaluation partner across social policy, education, employment, and workforce development domains.