Cohorts and
Impact Learning Collectives

UpMetrics' Cohort and Impact Learning Collective programs provide a new approach to philanthropy that works more effectively for nonprofits and funders alike. By leveraging technology and community, participants can collaboratively learn and measure towards meaningful and accelerated social change.

community building

Collaboration

Cultivate data-driven communities that collaborate and learn together towards success across geographies, issue areas, and key stakeholders.

quant + qual data

Capacity-Building

Leverage both quantitative and qualitative data to learn, improve, and effectively tell your story of impact.

success metrics

Technology

Enable multi-level goal tracking by measuring success metrics and KPIs across nonprofit, funder, and community levels.

Let's Unlock
Collective Impact

Data has the power to create lasting and impactful social change only when impact-seekers have access to it, know how to draw insights from it, and are empowered to use it to make effective decisions and tell their stories.

But we need more data talent and more data collaboration within mission-driven organizations for the social sector to fully benefit from today's data revolution.

Our Cohorts and Impact Learning Collectives help foundations and nonprofits to develop critical data skills while strengthening relationships with other mission-driven organizations through shared learning.

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Meet changemakers where they are today, for a better tomorrow.
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Build data-driven ecosystems that accelerate learning and impact.
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Measure impact metrics across nonprofit, funder, and community levels.
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Empower organizations to define and communicate their story of impact.
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Help nonprofits build long-term capacity around data collection, analysis, and management.
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Reimagine burdensome reporting across multiple stakeholder groups.
Cohort

About our Cohort Programs

Our cohort model is an innovative way for foundations and grantees to leverage data, technology and community to learn, measure and evaluate towards effective systems-level change.

So, how does it work?

A foundation, or group of foundations, motivated to drive outcomes within a specific region or issue area can create a cohort, or join an existing cohort, by sponsoring 5 or more nonprofit grantees that have a strong desire to accelerate their impact by leveraging data more effectively.

The program provides nonprofit grantees and funders with access to the UpMetrics platform, as well as capacity-building training sessions, professional services to get up and running quickly, and UpMetrics-hosted shared learning sessions for 3 years.

How We Do It

What's Included in a Cohort Program

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UpMetrics Technology

Funders and grantees both receive access to the UpMetrics platform, while funders also receive select roll-up data from grantees.

Learn More

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Professional Services

Guided development of impact frameworks and KPIs, data collection templates, dashboard building, and more.

Learn More

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UpAcademy Sessions

Learn fundamentals and best practices for data collection and analysis, well as how to best leveraging data to tell your story

Learn More

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Community Learning Sessions

Quarterly shared insight sessions between funders and grantees to discuss collective impact, facilitated by UpMetrics.

Learn More

25+

Funder-Grantee Cohorts
Activated in 2022

120+

Grantee NPOs
Enabled via Cohorts

500K+

Community Members Served
via Grantee NPOs

20944372

About our Impact
Learning Collectives

Our national, theme-based Impact Learning Collectives are an innovative way for mission-driven organizations to collaboratively learn, measure and evaluate towards effective systems-level change.

These theme-based Learning Collectives operate nation-wide and enable organizations that are focused on the same impact areas, but may not be geographically close to one another, to connect and share their learnings to more collaboratively and effectively drive positive outcomes in their specific impact areas.

Impact Learning Collective Themes for 2023

Theme - BiPOC Entrepreneurship

Empowering BIPOC
Communities & Entrepreneurs

This Learning Collective looks to connect and empower funders and grantees that are focused on helping BIPOC entrepreneurs to build sustainable wealth in their communities through entrepreneurial opportunities, or through access to investments, resources, and knowledge.

Start Date: Fall 2023

Theme - Healthy Communities

Fostering Healthy
Communities

This Learning Collective connects funders and grantees that are focused on helping communities to create more vibrant, active places through their built environments or to provide resources and programs that encourage healthier, happier lifestyles.

Start Date: Fall 2023

Theme - Education-1

Education &
Youth Development

This Learning Collective connects funders and grantees that are focused on helping youth reach their full potential by providing academic, financial, social, or one-on-one supports that help youth access education or engage in intentional, productive, and constructive ways.

Start Date: Fall 2023

Theme - Workforce Development

Workforce Development
& Sustainable Employment

This Learning Collective connects funders and grantees that are focused on providing individuals with resources and training to develop skills for employment, connecting individuals with employers, and properly preparing them for the future of work.

Start Date: Fall 2023

What's the difference?

Impact Learning Collectives vs Cohorts

Theme

Impact Learning Collectives

Our theme-based Impact Learning Collectives operate nation-wide and enable organizations that are focused on the same impact areas, but may not be geographically close, to connect and share learning to collaboratively drive impact. 

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Cohorts

Our Cohorts are location-based learning collectives that are sponsored by a funder or group of funders. Providing access and training on the UpMetrics platform, Cohorts enable funders and their selected nonprofit grantees to connect, share impact data, and collaboratively measure towards systems-level change.

Cohort Program Overview

Download our one-pager to understand how you can get involved in one of our upcoming Cohort Programs.

Cohort one-pager graphic
ICU baby is doing critical work for the community. I am going to be able to do so much more for our community with access to these numbers. The dashboards and ease of accessibility to the data is so impressive.
Beth Simon
CEO, ICU Baby (Miami cohort)
beth-icu

Want to join one of our Cohorts or themed Impact Learning Collectives?

Complete the form to share a little about your organization and what you're looking to accomplish this year.

Foundations and other grantmakers:

You can choose to either sponsor a Cohort or to join a national Impact Learning Collective.

Nonprofits:

Reach out to see how you can become a participating grantee in one of our sponsored Cohorts, or choose to join one of Impact learning Collectives!

 

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FUN FACT:
Nonprofits that participated in one of our cohorts and learned how to measure and communicate the impact of their programs using UpMetrics increased their funding by 55.8% year over year.

Cohort Program FAQs

Still have questions about our cohort programs? Feel free to reach out - we'd love to discuss how we can work together to drive collective impact!

 

What topics are covered in the UpAcademy sessions?

The UpMetrics Academy is a 3 year program that empowers Nonprofits with the knowledge and tools necessary to begin telling their organizational impact story. The program brings together Nonprofits and Funders to learn and grow in a community of peers. After each participant successfully completes Year 3, they will receive an UpMetrics digital certificate that can be shared via LinkedIn. The Foundation/Funder who sponsors the grantees will receive quarterly updates via an UpMetrics Cohort Overview dashboard, which details progress made by their nonprofit partners. 

Throughout the 3-year program built into the Build-Operate-Transfer phases, Thematic-based and Place-based Cohorts will explore different subject areas and class topics such as:

  • In-Person Workshops
  • Kickoff & Data Landscape Analysis
  • Impact Goal-Setting
  • Data Best Practices
  • Surveys & Qualitative Data
  • Building Metrics Dashboards
  • Building Advanced Metrics Dashboards
  • Community Indexing
  • Sharing Insights & Storytelling
  • Thematic Area Guest Speaking Events

 

What resources are available to grantees throughout the program?

The program provides grantees access to the UpMetrics platform, assignments to guide them through their data journey, 1:1 sessions with UpMetrics staff, community events to get to know their fellow grantees, as well as the full UpMetrics resource library. 

What makes a great grantee partner?
  1. Excitement and a commitment to leverage data to move your mission forward through learning, data driven decision making and storytelling

  2. Strong senior leadership that supports the partnership with UpMetrics

  3. An internal champion that's willing to lead the engagement - both internally across teams and externally with UpMetrics. Typically the internal champion works within one of the following focus areas: 
    1. Program Operations
    2. Monitoring, Learning, and Evaluation
    3. Data & Analysis
    4. Development
What is the benefit for sponsoring foundations?
The Foundation/Funder who sponsors the grantees will receive quarterly updates via an UpMetrics Cohort Overview dashboard, which details progress made by their nonprofit partner. Sponsoring a Cohort program is a unique way for foundations to provide their grantees with capacity-building tech services and connect them with a community of like-minded peers, guaranteeing the long-term impact of their financial support. Not only can they measure their own impact using the UpMetrics platform, their grantees will also be able to do the same, and build impact measurement and data analytics systems that will only benefit them in the future. 
What is the benefit for sponsored grantees?

Our Cohorts help foundations and nonprofit grantees to develop critical data skills that enable them to understand, maximize, and communicate outcomes in real-time, while strengthening relationships with other mission-driven organizations through shared learning.

The program provides nonprofit grantees and funders with access to the UpMetrics platform, as well as capacity-building training sessions, professional services to get up and running quickly, and UpMetrics-hosted shared learning sessions for 3 years.

How long does a typical Cohort run for?

A typical Cohort will run for 3 years to align with our services-supported Build, Operate, Transfer model.

Year 1 - Build
  • Strategic KPI development
  • Data structuring and gathering
  • Dashboard builds and data visualization
  • Qualitative data gathering
  • Historic data alignment
Year 2 - Operate
  • Regular dashboard updates, data gathering & transformation of new data
  • Regular updates to data collection and ingestion tools
  • Interface with IT teams for technology alignment
Year 3 - Transfer
  • Transition of dashboard creation and maintenance
  • Transition of data gathering and maintenance operations
  • Transition of platform administration
Do nonprofit grantees get access to the full UpMetrics platform functionality?

Sponsored nonprofit grantees will receive access to the UpMetrics features that are critical for measuring the impact of their programs and communicating that impact to their grantors and community stakeholders.

  • Data Collection and Management
  • Integrated Community Indexing Data
  • Data Analysis & Dashboards
  • Simplified Reporting

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