Southeast Michigan Community Impact Cohort Program

Sponsored by Ballmer Group

Thank you,
Southeast Michigan Nonprofits!

The application period for the Southeast Michigan Community Impact Cohort has now closed.

We appreciate the enthusiasm and dedication shown by all the nonprofits that applied, and are excited to begin supporting the selected grantees as they develop impact measurement programs! 

If you were unable to apply this round, please submit our interest form to stay connected for future opportunities. We will continue to update our website and send notifications about upcoming cohort programs and other initiatives.

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about future programs, please reach out to Maureen Rovas at maureen@upmetrics.com.

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Clearly define your approach to creating positive impact within an impact framework.

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Simplify reporting with insightful dashboards and visualizations.

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Improve program effectiveness through data-driven decision-making.

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Strengthen fundraising efforts by displaying clear evidence of your impact.

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Build long-term capacity around data collection, analysis, and management.

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Engage in peer-to-peer learning and inspiration sessions.

Selected cohort grantees will receive the following:

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UpMetrics IMM Platform Access

Many organizations collect data from disparate sources. UpMetrics funnels all data into a single place, allowing staff to analyze high-level trends and performance through customized dashboards.

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Professional Services & Support

Working in partnership with each grantee, the UpMetrics Client Success team helps grantees make the most of data while building data management capacity along the way.

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Peer-to-Peer Learning Sessions

All grantees will be invited to a series of professional development meetings throughout the year to learn from and share best practices with their peers.

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Invite to Participate in ILCs

All grantees will be invited to share, learn and co-create in one of our Impact Learning Collective groups with other client organizations that have an interest in similar topical areas.

About Ballmer Group

Ballmer Group is committed to improving economic mobility for children and families in the United States.

They fund leaders and organizations that have demonstrated the ability to reshape opportunity and reduce systemic inequities.

The Southeast Michigan team works across the tri-county area surrounding Steve Ballmer’s hometown, bringing philanthropy, government, and business together to tackle economic mobility, and focusing on education and community development.

Visit their website at www.ballmergroup.org.

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Interested in joining our SE Michigan Cohort as a grantee or co-sponsor?

Complete the form to share a little about your organization and what you're looking to accomplish around impact measurement.

Foundations and other grantmakers:

You can choose to either co-sponsor this Cohort, or start one of your own.

Nonprofits:

Reach out to log your interest in becoming a sponsored grantee as we expand this cohort in the future.

 

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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 the SE Michigan Community Impact Cohort program?

Feel free to reach out to Maureen Rovas at cohort@UpMetrics.com for more information.

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 sponsored grantees?

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

The program provides nonprofit grantees 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.

What is the benefit for Ballmer Group?

The Ballmer Group, who has generously decided to sponsor this particular cohort, will receive quarterly updates via an UpMetrics Cohort Overview dashboard, which details progress made by their nonprofit partners.

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. 

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
What topics are covered in the Professional Services sessions?

UpMetrics professional services empower cohort grantees with the knowledge and tools necessary to begin telling their organizational impact story. 

Throughout the 3-year program, the training sessions 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