About Us
Mission
The Social Research and Demonstration Corporation (SRDC) is a non-profit research organization, created specifically to develop, field test, and rigorously evaluate new programs. SRDC's two-part mission is to help policy-makers and practitioners identify policies and programs that improve the well-being of all Canadians, with a special concern for the effects on the disadvantaged, and to raise the standards of evidence that are used in assessing these policies.
Innovation, experimentation, and evaluation since 1991
In SRDC’s early years, our mission was addressed mainly through large-scale policy experiments. These projects gave us unique insights into program delivery and innovation, as well as experience in a wide range of research and evaluation methodologies.
Today the lessons learned from those large-scale projects are applied to a full range of research and evaluation services (see Our Capabilities). Practitioners value our hands-on approach to the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of interventions that work. Program managers appreciate our expertise in performance measurement and our ability to exploit program data for research and evaluation purposes. Governments rely on our evidence-based reviews to guide system-level renewal of programs. Foundations and other non-profits prize our ability to bring methodological rigour to any scale of project.
What truly sets SRDC apart, however, is our history of innovation. We have been running randomized controlled trials and policy experiments for 25 years. We have 15 years of experience in the development and testing of behaviour-based interventions. We have been studying and evaluating social finance initiatives, including social impact bonds, for half a decade. Applied econometrics, pay-for-performance, and lab experiments also figure prominently in our portfolio of over 300 completed projects.
Exceptional staff
Whether a client is interested in technical assistance, a literature review, or a program experiment, they can be confident that SRDC has the knowledge and experience to apply state-of-the-art methodologies to their project. We have assembled a multidisciplinary staff with a broad range of skills and experience, including project management, program administration and field operations, quantitative and qualitative research, systems design and implementation, collective impact evaluation, survey design, data analytics, and policy analysis.
Independent, non-profit organization
SRDC is a non-profit corporation and registered charitable organization. We are independent, non-partisan, and do not receive core funding from any governments. Our operations are overseen by a distinguished Board of Directors. To learn more about our values, see our Code of Practice.
