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By Madeline McClure, Founder and CEO, TexProtects

Yesterday, Alliance Data’s Dana Beckman looked at the evolving role of data for non-profit organizations. TexProtects is one non-profit organization that Alliance Data and Epsilon proudly support, and whose mission is to reduce and prevent child abuse. We asked Madeline McClure, Founder and CEO of TexProtects, to be a guest blogger for On The Contrary to share the impact data has on her organization’s advocacy and education efforts. 

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As an organization that reaches out to elected officials for changes in policy and code, accurate data is essential to our success. Good law doesn’t come from anecdotes – lawmakers need hard data so they can foresee the consequences of their actions, especially if the data shows that other states have had success with similar programs.

Tex Protects is working hard to expand voluntary home visiting programs, which serve low-income, high-risk parents and their children through home visits by specially trained nurses or other professionals starting during Mom’s pregnancy and lasting 2-3 years. A number of rigorous research trials documented reductions of as much as 48% in child maltreatment, 35% in ER visits, decreases in foster care and other out-of-home placements by 44%, and 69% fewer child abuse and neglect-related fatalities compared to the control group.

Our Texas Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) program has demonstrated 28% fewer Texas mothers smoking while pregnant, 90% of births brought to term (reducing costly NICU care) and high immunization rates leading to only 1% of these families requiring Medicaid-funded ER care. Also, 71% of mothers in the program without a high school degree subsequently earned their diploma or GED.

These outcomes have been monetized by economists: For every one dollar invested in NFP, $5.70 is returned back to taxpayers – especially savings to Medicaid. Data like that is a powerful tool in a state as fiscally conservative as Texas.

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