FAQ

The Community Platform combines a unique mix of sophisticated mapping and data analysis tools with a "friendly" interface designed to make it easy for community members and civic leaders to find the information they need, whether they are looking for services for their family, wanting to volunteer, or planning to build a cross-sector nonprofit coalition to meet a community need. Check out our list of features to learn more.

Every community in the country with a diverse mix of income levels faces challenges and, arguably, even the most affluent communities have both serious underlying issues and could do much more to become thriving, sustainable and equitable communities for all -- and maybe expand their definition of community to be less exclusive!

• Integrate into the mission and vision of your organization or coalition.
• Build a team of champions, starting with the leaders of your organization.
• Plan on patient but persistent outreach.
• Know your Elevator speech.
• Be opportunistic.
• Work with coalitions.
• Use social media.
• Look for opportunities to give presentations.
• Follow up

We recommend regular email to your organization or coalition's supporters. Social media can be useful for both keeping current supporters up-to-date and interested as well as for attracting new people to your work.

It's a tool. Often hard to separate impact of a tool from the integrated effort of which it's a part. Depends on organizational goals: Foundation: Use by donors

Key indicators:

• Use by "people who influence how resources are used or who control community resources.
• Number of registered users
• Number of sessions

The Platform connects to Google Analytics... You can review the number of registered users you have.

The data on the site can come from YOU and YOUR community -- if you want. But the Platform comes pre-loaded with data from a number of national sources:

• IRS data on nonprofit organizations.
• Public school data from the National Center for Educational Statistics - This includes charter schools.
• U.S. Census Bureau data on community needs and indicators. (Specifically, we use 1-year data from the ACS data by state and county and 5-year cumulative data on census tracts and zip codes.