Our Mission
Enhancing mission-driven, data informed leadership and governance of organizations that make the world a better place.
Dr. Ari Betof
Dr. Ari Betof is the co-founder and partner of Mission & Data and chief advancement officer at Minerva Institute for Research & Scholarship. He is a nationally recognized expert in the area of nonprofit organizational stewardship and sustainability.
Ari’s consulting work draws upon fifteen years of leadership and governance experience building thriving organizations and maximizing mission-aligned revenue growth. His facility with organizational effectiveness, group dynamics, and strategic planning is paired with his proven track record of cultivating high-impact change. Ari brings together skills in strategy, analysis, and organizational transformation with a nuanced understanding of fundraising, enrollment management and branding in support of his clients. He leverages expertise facilitating group process with diverse sets of stakeholders. Ari is an agile, savvy, and emotionally intelligent partner who builds trusting relationships, achieves results, develops others, and creates scalable systems.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Ari has been a facilitator on more than a dozen webinars as well as a panelist for Independent Schools on the Brink, a collaborative webinar co-hosted by 33-member associations across the country. Ari was also a recent guest on EMA’s Enrollment Spectrum podcast and is the author of the blog Org Sustainability — Insight and Advice for Leaders that Change the World.
Betof was president and co-founded the successful firm Organizational Sustainability Consulting, which merged with Actionable Institutional Research and Data to form Mission & Data in 2020. His clients include independent schools, colleges, membership associations, educational nonprofits, and private sector companies. Ari has recently consulted to firms such as Noodle Partners and Educational Directions, membership organizations like the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) and Southern Association of Independent Schools (SAIS), and more than twenty independent schools including Elisabeth-Morrow School (NJ), Austin Walldorf School (TX), Walker School (GA), and American-British Academy (Muscat, Oman).
Ari has been an instructor in University of Pennsylvania’s PennGSE Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership and Leadership Master’s Program. He has served as a mentor in Harvard University’s School Leadership Program, faculty member in the NAIS School Leadership Institute, and judge for the CASE Circle of Excellence Awards.
Ari has served as an independent school trustee, head of school, administrator, and teacher. He began his career as a physics and mathematics teacher and coach. Ari understands all facets of independent school management, having held the administrative roles of Head of School. Director of Institutional Advancement, Director of Enrollment Management, and Director of Strategic Planning. His experience includes working at day and boarding schools; schools as small as 170 students and as large as 1,100 students; single campus and multi-campus schools; single and multi-division schools; and religiously affiliated and nonsectarian schools.
Ari's governance experience includes serving two terms on the Board of Directors of the Friends Council on Education (FCE) and as a member of FCE’s Development Committee and the National Friends Education Fund Working Group. He has also been a trustee of Newtown Friends School (Newtown, PA) and Cambridge Friends School (Cambridge, MA).
Ari graduated with a B.S. in physics and mathematics from the Guilford College honors program. He earned his doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Pennsylvania with a focus on financial and organizational sustainability. His doctoral dissertation, “Leading in the Light: A Study of Financial and Organizational Sustainability of Friends Schools,” was awarded with distinction. Ari graduated with his MBA from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management where he was an Emerging Markets Institute Fellow. Ari, his wife, and two daughters live in Bucks County, PA.
Ari’s consulting work draws upon fifteen years of leadership and governance experience building thriving organizations and maximizing mission-aligned revenue growth. His facility with organizational effectiveness, group dynamics, and strategic planning is paired with his proven track record of cultivating high-impact change. Ari brings together skills in strategy, analysis, and organizational transformation with a nuanced understanding of fundraising, enrollment management and branding in support of his clients. He leverages expertise facilitating group process with diverse sets of stakeholders. Ari is an agile, savvy, and emotionally intelligent partner who builds trusting relationships, achieves results, develops others, and creates scalable systems.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Ari has been a facilitator on more than a dozen webinars as well as a panelist for Independent Schools on the Brink, a collaborative webinar co-hosted by 33-member associations across the country. Ari was also a recent guest on EMA’s Enrollment Spectrum podcast and is the author of the blog Org Sustainability — Insight and Advice for Leaders that Change the World.
Betof was president and co-founded the successful firm Organizational Sustainability Consulting, which merged with Actionable Institutional Research and Data to form Mission & Data in 2020. His clients include independent schools, colleges, membership associations, educational nonprofits, and private sector companies. Ari has recently consulted to firms such as Noodle Partners and Educational Directions, membership organizations like the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) and Southern Association of Independent Schools (SAIS), and more than twenty independent schools including Elisabeth-Morrow School (NJ), Austin Walldorf School (TX), Walker School (GA), and American-British Academy (Muscat, Oman).
Ari has been an instructor in University of Pennsylvania’s PennGSE Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership and Leadership Master’s Program. He has served as a mentor in Harvard University’s School Leadership Program, faculty member in the NAIS School Leadership Institute, and judge for the CASE Circle of Excellence Awards.
Ari has served as an independent school trustee, head of school, administrator, and teacher. He began his career as a physics and mathematics teacher and coach. Ari understands all facets of independent school management, having held the administrative roles of Head of School. Director of Institutional Advancement, Director of Enrollment Management, and Director of Strategic Planning. His experience includes working at day and boarding schools; schools as small as 170 students and as large as 1,100 students; single campus and multi-campus schools; single and multi-division schools; and religiously affiliated and nonsectarian schools.
Ari's governance experience includes serving two terms on the Board of Directors of the Friends Council on Education (FCE) and as a member of FCE’s Development Committee and the National Friends Education Fund Working Group. He has also been a trustee of Newtown Friends School (Newtown, PA) and Cambridge Friends School (Cambridge, MA).
Ari graduated with a B.S. in physics and mathematics from the Guilford College honors program. He earned his doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Pennsylvania with a focus on financial and organizational sustainability. His doctoral dissertation, “Leading in the Light: A Study of Financial and Organizational Sustainability of Friends Schools,” was awarded with distinction. Ari graduated with his MBA from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management where he was an Emerging Markets Institute Fellow. Ari, his wife, and two daughters live in Bucks County, PA.
