Futures Group

Forty Years of Thought Leadership

The year was 1971, the dawn of an era revolutionized by the first microprocessor and consumer computer, when renowned Futurist Ted Gordon, along with colleagues Hal Becker and Wayne Boucher, successfully uncovered and applied the process of systems analysis. Systems analysis examines how different factors and variables can impact future outcomes.

Building upon their success, in 1971 Ted Gordon brought together individuals with business acumen, technical capabilities, and administrative experience to further develop the structure and method of Futures Group.  The very name Futures Group derives from the fact that there are many future possibilities. Utilizing the right tools, we can select the most advantageous route by analyzing and understanding key information.

Early on, Futures Group focused on helping the corporate world use the computer-based modeling programs developed in conjunction with MIT scientists. Highly innovative, these methods quickly gained recognition for the company.

In 1977 the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded Futures Group the RAPID (Resources for the Awareness of Population Impacts on Development) project, which focused on the impact of population factors in social and economic development.

Utilizing Futures Group’s analytic tools, for the first time, developing countries received  personalized population data and projected impacts of population growth, giving national teams  knowledge and insight  to “make the data their own.” This work established Futures Group’s reputation in global population programs.

In the 1980s, Futures Group expanded into social marketing with the USAID-sponsored Social Marketing for Change (SOMARC) project, cementing its hallmark as an organization well known in government circles for its policy analysis and social marketing.

By the mid-1990s, Futures Group’s projects included RAPID IV, SOMARC III, MEASURE Evaluation, OPTIONS for Population Policy II, and the USAID |Health Policy Initiative (HPI), which provided Futures Group a rich, deep base in population planning with added focus on issues such as HIV/AIDS and gender.

Four decades later, Futures Group continues to follow the footsteps of its founders. We discover innovative solutions for a better world and provide meaningful insight in policy work, health systems strengthening, private sector engagement and family planning, while also broadening our technical expertise to include health informatics, efficient and effective approaches to HIV/AIDS prevention and gender.