When launching a new intervention, college leaders and researchers often ask, “Can we afford this initiative now? Can we sustain it later?” Understanding the costs and revenues associated with implementing an intervention can help individuals answer these questions and plan better.

MDRC’s Intervention Return on Investment Tool for Community Colleges was developed to help with this task. It allows a user to estimate the cost and revenue of adopting a specific intervention—such as enhanced advising—either at a particular college or at the average college in a given state.

There are two ways to get started:

1. Select 1 of 21 preloaded interventions. These are interventions that have been evaluated in randomized controlled trials. The tool contains data on their costs and effects on student outcomes.
2. Enter information from a new intervention. Users can enter details about an intervention to generate customized cost and revenue estimates. To use this option, users must come prepared with an estimate of the intervention’s cost and its expected effects on specific outcomes such as credits attempted, credits earned, and degree completion.

The tool then draws on regional pricing and college expenditure data to estimate how much the intervention would cost to implement. It also calculates how much revenue the intervention might generate from tuition (for example, if the intervention increases enrollment rates) and state funding formulas (for example, if the intervention increases graduation rates in a state with outcomes-based funding).

Importantly, the tool presents costs from the college’s perspective. It does not capture broader societal or student-level benefits—such as increased lifetime earnings or reduced student debt—that may still justify implementing a program even if the college’s revenue does not fully cover its costs. Nonetheless, for a college that is considering whether to adopt an intervention, it is important to understand its estimated cost to the institution and its potential to generate revenue.