We partnered with Chicago’s Department of Water Management (DWM) through What Works Cities Certification program—launched by Bloomberg Philanthropies—to increase uptake of the city’s lead testing program.
In 2022, we helped the city achieve a 52.8% lead testing kit return rate, which may be the highest in the nation (to the best of our knowledge).
This report details how we did it—by using insights gained from qualitative research and a behavioral map to redesign the kit itself, which resulted in a 20 percentage point increase in return rates (from an average of 23.5% to 44.9%), and send SMS reminders, which further increased the likelihood of residents returning their kits by a 3.8 percentage points.
