Keith Ives and Betsy Bassan (front) sign the MPA with Julie Mandolini-Trummel, Kristen Schubert, Brian Shelton, and Fernando Barragan
We are proud to announce that we have entered into an SBA-approved Mentor-Protégé Agreement with Causal Design—a service-disabled veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB) providing international development clients with rigorous independent program evaluation, cost-effectiveness analysis, and economic research services. With a shared passion for helping turn evidence into action, Panagora and Causal Design will work together to offer USAID and other clients greater impact through improved development outcomes. We are proud to call this new alliance CausAgora.
Panagora Group, a woman-owned small business (WOSB), was itself launched in 2011 with the support of a mentor-protégé agreement and an explicit intention of responding to USAID’s call for an expanded partner base. “It’s a fantastic program,” says Betsy Bassan, Panagora founder and CEO. “It effectively reduces the barriers to entry for new or existing companies that want to support the U.S. government’s foreign aid goals and objectives.”
Through this agreement, Panagora will support Causal Design’s growth through management and technical assistance, contract compliance, and business development. As Panagora COO Ben Feit explains, “this MPA with Causal Design is one way we are both giving back as well as advancing our shared commitment and passion to international development. By supporting Causal Design and helping it grow, we can also help USAID meet its small business utilization targets by ensuring that another small business can be successful in the USAID market like we have been.”
In addition to being a WOSB, Panagora is proud to be employee-owned since 2021. “Our transition to employee ownership is a reflection of my long-standing commitment to ethical capitalism and directly share financial benefits of our growth with our employees,” says Bassan. In the last 13 years, Panagora has solidified our role as a strategic new partner for U.S. government agencies in international development. We have implemented 12 complex, multi-year prime contracts for USAID and 47 multi-year subcontracts under USAID activities, with employees currently operating in 23 countries across Latin America, Africa, and Asia. In 2018, we achieved parity in revenue from prime and an increasingly diverse set of subcontracts, and were named USAID Small Business of the Year for FY2018 for outstanding delivery on our contracts.
Causal Design was founded by Keith B. Ives, a Marine veteran who saw extreme poverty up close for the first time in Iraq in 2005. “I realized that the real challenge isn’t terrorism; it’s economic poverty,” observed Ives. A decade later, Keith alongside Reimar Macaranas, co-founded Causal Design to expand cultures of evidence within organizations tackling poverty. Since 2014, Causal Design has established itself a niche partner providing rigorous research and evaluations in fragile contexts. They have significant experience supporting partners, including USAID/BHA, to optimize their programs in post-disaster and post-conflict environments. Keith hopes that through this partnership, Causal Design can have an even bigger impact.
From very early on, Panagora has been a strong advocate for small businesses utilization. Betsy served as chair of the Small Business Association for International Companies (SBAIC) for three pivotal years from 2013, formalizing the organization with registration, a board, and articulated strategy and workplan. We also helped form the Global Small Business Sustainability Coalition to emphasize the need for opportunities for growing small businesses and mid-size companies to help USAID maintain a diverse partner base. “CauseAgora reflects this commitment, continuing to help USAID meet its small business goals, in this case in an area that has proved difficult for them: SDVOSBs. This is truly a win-win-win for all three parties,” says Bassan.