Blog

In September, we invited grantees to learn about our five-year-old partnership with UpMetrics, a platform that helps organizations enhance storytelling and impact through data collection, analysis, and visualization. An information session featuring two existing users followed.

We recently held an orientation session with our 2025 cohort, a mixture of new and returning members: Breakthrough Urban Ministries, Chicagoland Lutheran Educational Foundation, Circle Urban Ministries, Jane Addams Resource Corporation, The Gray Matter Experience, Women Employed, and Women Initiating New Directions.

Participants will begin or continue a four-step process to Define, Collect, Analyze, and Leverage data. They will take advantage of individual and group sessions, tailored support and coaching, technical assistance, and Impact Learning Collectives through March 2026.

It is our pleasure to sponsor this cohort opportunity as it supports capacity building, marketing, and fundraising initiatives. We are using the platform ourselves to create our own dashboards and see the merits of making impacts visual and data more meaningful.

One user, in developing its first framework noted:

—Contributed by Monica Thorns, CFF Grants Manager