- Do you know how many children under the age of 18 lack health insurance in the Twin Cities region?
- How about which specific lakes in our area meet basic water quality standards?
- What about violent crime? Has it increased or decreased in the Twin Cities in recent years?
Looking for guidance on grantmaking decisions? Twin Cities Compass has community data that may help.
No, these aren’t just trivia questions. (You can find answers, below.) They’re some of the many data points you can find on Twin Cities Compass, a partnership between Wilder Research and over 400 community leaders, to develop a set of indicators measuring the quality of life in the Twin Cities region.
I recently attended a seminar at Wilder called Fact-Based Fundraising, for grant writers, marketing staff, and others searching for data on community needs. Carolyn Roby, Vice President, Wells Fargo’s Corporate Social Responsibility Group in Minnesota, and an MCF board member, spoke about the importance of the data available on the site. Grantmakers in the area, many of whom participated in the development of the Twin Cities Compass indicators, rely on the data as a guide for understanding and prioritizing community needs, she said.
The site offers a wealth of statistics organized by topic – 9 topics in total, ranging from civic engagement to the economy and workforce to transportation. “Key measures” (pdf) for each topic – selected by an advisory team of research experts from the academic, government, nonprofit, and business sectors - are designed to show where the community stands currently and what the important trends are in each topic area. Many of these can be examined by race, place, income, age, and gender. ”More measures” provide additional data and research on the topics, and are meant to foster deeper understanding of the issue.
Other information available on the site? Each topic area has an “Ideas at Work” section, with information about current initiatives and research-based strategies for tackling the challenges facing our community. There is an online library for each section that is regularly updated with new, relevant research reports, and an RSS feed for each to keep you informed on the latest resources. A monthly “For Discussion” column highlights the thoughts of community leaders who create and rely on the research found on Twin Cities Compass to do their work.
Funders are more likely to give both their money and their time to a nonprofit if they trust that organization, according to Carolyn Roby. Demonstrating a community need or problem with relevant, timely data from trusted sources, she said, is one of the best ways to gain that trust.
Twin Cities Compass is a one-stop shop for much of that information. And coming this fall? Minnesota Compass – a resource with indicators measuring the well-being of the state.
-Juliana Tillema, MCF research manager
- 37,000 children in the Twin Cities region under age 18 lack health insurance.
- 86% of lakes in our region do not meet basic water quality standards. A complete list, by lake, found here.
- Violent crime increased in the Twin Cities in 2006 and 2007.
Thanks for your comment, Shawn. I spoke to Susan Brower, a researcher at TC Compass, just this morning about what kinds of additional services TC Compass might be able to provide to the community of data users. She mentioned that TC Compass does occasionally do special data runs (if they have the data available) on specific topics – including race and gender together. She recommended getting in touch about the specific info you are looking for; if she doesn’t have data available, she may be able to point you to some other sources.
Good luck. -Juliana
I’m tracking national efforts to focus on the outcomes of Black Men and Boys. However, getting that type of data in Minnesota has been a challenge. We do a good job of breaking data down by race/ethnicity, however, we need race/ethnicity and gender.