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At the Christopher Family Foundation, we primarily support organizations through grants. There is, however, another way we partner: sponsorship of select organizations to build knowledge in data collection and visualization to better communicate your impact.

Four years ago, we began a partnership with UpMetrics. UpMetrics is a data analysis and visualization tool designed for nonprofit use. Originally built for schools, it has expanded its application in recent years to allow many different types of program operations to benefit from the clear insight that consistent data collection and a solid visualization dashboard can provide.

Now that we’ve piloted the tool with several grantees over four years, we think we have some insight into the best partners for it. As with Goldilocks, they can be neither too big nor too small. The “just right” partner is an organization that can benefit from greater insight from data–thus, small enough not to have a dashboard/analytics tool already in place, yet big enough to have someone other than the CEO/Executive Director devoted to making use of the tool.

Next year we intend to sponsor at least two more current grantees to use the tool. Participation means that the tool will be available at Foundation expense. Participants are asked to share their learning with each other and with the Foundation in three to four one-hour check-in calls annually. We’d also really like to see your data dashboards when they’re ready. We like data.

To help new cohort members identify themselves, an information session will be offered on Zoom, on Thursday, October 3 at 10:00am Central Time. During the info session, you will hear from the UpMetrics team and two existing users: Jane Addams Resource Corporation and Chicagoland Lutheran Educational Foundation. If you’d like to take part, please register here.

We’ll ask our grantee partners to self-nominate for the two available slots by emailing us directly after that meeting. Interested partners who are not selected for this year will be added to the list for the future.