Nikki Ortolani
Nikki
Ortolani
Research Associate, Finance

Ortolani currently serves as the resource manager on the Social Innovation Fund’s Jobs-Plus and Family Rewards studies, as well as MDRC’s Opportunity NYC-Work Rewards and Family Rewards demonstrations, the Paycheck Plus evaluation (testing an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit for single workers without dependent children in New York City), the evaluation of the Chicago’s New Communities Program (an innovative community development initiative in Chicago), and a microlending study. In this role, she works with project directors and task leaders to manage their projects’ budgets and staffing plans, and serves as a liaison to the relevant funding agencies, subcontractors, and other outside partners. Ortolani has also assisted with random assignment processes, and has helped provide technical assistance to program providers. Before joining MDRC, she was a project coordinator for the Center for Sustainable Urban Development at the Earth Institute at Columbia University, helping to coordinate the Innovations for an Urban World, Rockefeller Foundation Global Urban Summit. She has over 15 years of nonprofit experience, including work for the Foundation Center, a leading source of information about philanthropy. She received a master’s degree in public administration from Baruch College’s School of Public Affairs and a BA in metropolitan studies from New York University.