Hi, I’m Priya Elangovan.
I work at all stages of the nonprofit program process. I like to say I sit at the intersection of strategy and execution: designing initiatives that can run and scale, building the systems that measure whether the work is having the intended impact, and going beyond program design and evaluation into operations and execution. My favorite thing is helping people with big ideas create plans to achieve them. I get to do this every month as the Capstone Coach for the New Leaders Council Fellows of NYC.
As Director of Programs and Research at All In Together, I lead national civics education programs that train women across the country in advocacy, organizing, and how government actually works — with a particular focus on places and people the political system tends to overlook. I also run the organization's research agenda, producing original polling on women voters, synthesizing research on political engagement and policy, and tracking the perception and harassment of women elected officials and candidates online. My work has appeared Politico, Ms. Magazine, and Gender on the Ballot, and used by organizations to shape national campaigns and advocacy strategy.
I'm based in Brooklyn. I write the All In Together Substack, but reserve my hottest takes and deepest opinions forWord I'm Looking For, where I think out loud about politics, women, civic life, technology, and everything in between. I have a Master’s in Public Service from the Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and Computer Science from Emory University.
My Approach
I take on select projects in program design, monitoring and evaluation, applied research, and curriculum development for nonprofits and mission-driven teams. I'm most useful to organizations that want to build something rigorous, are willing to measure honestly, and need a collaborator who can move between strategy and the work of actually getting it done.
When it comes to evaluation, I think a lot about how organizations measure their own impact and how we can illustrate the work of organizations doing work that is hardest to quantify and most important, empowerment, community building, and civic belonging. I am also hoping to shift people towards an iterative mindset on evaluation, where evaluation changes how a program runs while it's still running, not the kind that produces a report nobody reads.