Program Participants Archives - Nicole Clark Consulting

Participant Retention: Rethinking It for Stronger Program Impact

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2025-03-12T10:38:15-04:00March 12th, 2025|Categories: Workshop, Program, & Curriculum Design|Tags: program design, Program Outreach, Program Participants, program retention|0 Comments

A thoughtful young woman wearing an orange shirt with hand on chin, next to the text "Participant Retention: Rethinking It for Stronger Program Impact", a blog post by Nicole Clark Consulting. — ***Retention isn’t the whole story.***

Participant retention is often one of the first metrics that comes to mind when we think of a program or service’s success.

A high participant retention rate can signal program success, but is it the best indicator of program impact?

What if we looked at retention differently?

Instead of focusing on how many participants drop out or stay, what if we looked at why they drop out OR stay—and whether they’re the right participants at all?

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Ask Nicole: Participant Dropout (and What Your Program Can Learn From It)

Ask Nicole blog post image featuring Nicole Clark with the title 'Participant Dropout (and What Your Program Can Learn from It)'. This post explores the three most common reasons for participant dropout. — Have a question you’d like to be featured? Let me know.

Participant dropout from your program (or service, training, or campaign) sucks.

We design and launch a program, hoping to reach those who will benefit most. And yet—despite our best efforts, participant dropout happens.

While it’s frustrating, participant dropout is normal. Instead of seeing it as a problem to fix, it’s a natural part of programming, and something you can learn from.

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Participant Retention: Rethinking It for Stronger Program Impact

Ask Nicole: Participant Dropout (and What Your Program Can Learn From It)

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