Heads up, mission-based organizations in Massachusetts! Powerful data visualization tools (and the skills to use them) are within your reach.
For free.
Thanks to the MetroBoston DataCommon, all you need to get started is to sign up for one of their trainings. The DataCommon is a joint project of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and the Boston Indicators Project; if you’ve been admiring not only the insights but the great graphics that you find on the latter’s web site, then you’ll have no trouble seeing the value of the free training.
An enormous added value of taking the MetroBoston DataCommon training is that they walk you through the process of creating a free Weave account. This means that the version of Weave that you will be using is already loaded with crucial data sets from sources such as the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. You will be able to analyze, understand, and communicate your organization’s mission and impact, while using hard data about regional conditions to provide a context.
Of course, this opportunity is going to be less helpful to those who are not within an easy traveling distance of the MetroBoston DataCommon headquarters at MAPC. What I would like to see is regional planning agencies and nonprofit associations in other states offer similar resources and trainings.
Tagged: analysis, baseline, bay state, boston indicators project, capacity building, census bureau, context, data, data analysis, data visualization, free, graphics, infographics, labor statistics, mapc, massachusetts, metroboston datacommon, metropolitan area planning council, mission-based, nonprofit, nonprofit association, nonprofit technology, nptech, regional planning agency, regional trends, skills, statewide, storytelling, training, user account, value, weave
Many thanks are due to the Metropolitan Area Planning Council for republishing this article on their Planning 101 blog!