Appendix C - LTO Outreach Email

Date:  

Subject: Request for an Interview about <project(s)> 

Dear <first name> <last name>, 

On behalf of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, MDRC is gathering information on prior and on-going federally-funded evaluations to assess whether they can be linked to administrative records to estimate long-term impacts. This work is part of the Assessing Options to Evaluate Long-Term Outcomes (LTO) Using Administrative Data study, which is funded by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In the first stage of the project, evaluations and administrative data sources were selected and reviewed with the goal of assessing the practical, legal, and ethical feasibilities for accomplishing the linkages. We are conducting additional interviews in this second stage of the project to learn more about the steps and resources that may be required to conduct long-term follow-up research for the [insert evaluation].

IF WAVE 1 or talking to a WAVE 1 respondent for WAVE 2: We are reaching out to you today because, [insert abbreviated study name here], was one of 8 studies we are still reviewing,

and you assisted with a previous information request in [insert date here].

IF WAVE 2: We are reaching out to you today because, [insert abbreviated study name here], was one of 8 studies we are still reviewing, and we are connecting with additional study stakeholders to gather more information that could inform plans for conducting long-term follow-up research for this study. [Name of Wave 1 informant] identified you as an additional stakeholder.

This information will be used to prepare an internal long-term outcome feasibility report for each study in our sample for ACF.

We’d like to speak with you about [insert topic based on informant type here] as it relates to [insert evaluation here]. The interview will take no more than 60 minutes and includes time for you to ask us any questions afterwards. We would like to conduct the interview by [insert date here]. Would you like to be interviewed?

The attached memo includes more information about our interview request including a FAQ about the LTO project. Please note that your participation in this data collection is voluntary and your information will be kept private. 

We appreciate your help in this matter and believe this review of evaluations will contribute to a greater understanding of the opportunities and limitations of pursuing long-term outcomes in possible future work. If there is someone else from your evaluation team who can help answer some of our questions, we would greatly appreciate your providing their name and contact information. Otherwise, please feel free to contact me at Alexandra.Pennington@mdrc.org and/or LTO@mdrc.org if you have any questions about this request.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

We will also plan to follow up on this initial communication with a phone call in a few days to confirm it was received and to respond to any immediate questions you may have.  

Sincerely, 

Alexandra Pennington and the LTO Project Team, MDRC 

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB number for the described information collection is 0970-0356 and the expiration date is 6/30/2021.