CT Data Collaborative Selected to Participate in Accelerator

The Connecticut Data Collaborative has been selected to participate in the Social Enterprise Accelerator program of the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, one of six nonprofit organizations chosen for the 30-month process to strengthen entrepreneurial capacity by launching or growing revenue generating ventures that are mission-aligned.

The six organizations will learn from one another as they build and execute their business plans and launch or grow their ventures. Joining the Connecticut Data Collaborative (CT Data) will be End Hunger CT!, Hartford Food System, Health Equity Solutions, Noah Webster House & West Hartford Historical Society and YWCA Hartford Region.

The Connecticut Data Collaborative joined these organizations in attending a series of learning labs and consultations with No Margin, No Mission during this past summer, after which they formally applied to be part of this cohort.

“We are grateful for this opportunity, and appreciate the support provided by the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving to nonprofits all across the region, particularly throughout the pandemic,” said Michelle Riordan-Nold, Executive Director of CT Data. “We’re looking forward to this 30-month accelerator journey and sharing more from this initiative to help organizations in Connecticut better collect, analyze, interpret and visualize data.”

The Connecticut Data Collaborative is a statewide public-private partnership that focuses on ensuring public data is open and accessible. As an advocate for accessible data, CTData runs the CTData Academy, offering an array of workshops and training for people interested in improving their data literacy, providing opportunities for individuals, businesses and organizations to become more informed data users and critical data consumers.

In addition, CTData provides customized data training, hosts easy-to-use, downloadable data, creates customized data visualizations and interactive data tools, provides data consulting services, and supports a community of data users through events and conferences.

“The Social Enterprise Accelerator has served as a platform for nonprofits to learn and take the evolutionary steps necessary to become thrivable, sustainable organizations with greater impact in our region,” said Melanie Tavares, Director of Capacity Building and Nonprofit Support for the Hartford Foundation.

“The leadership, willingness, readiness, capacity and culture demonstrated by this cohort will facilitate their efforts to strengthen their entrepreneurial capacity through this exciting and intensive 30-month process,” Tavares added.

In 2019, ten local nonprofit organizations participated in the first class of the Social Enterprise Accelerator; the group of six organizations including the Connecticut Data Collaborative will be the second class. The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving is the community foundation for Hartford and 28 surrounding towns.

More than 200 data sets are now accessible to the public on the CTData website, including a wide array of subjects and policy categories. Recent projects include development of the Connecticut Zoning Atlas, in partnership with Desegregate CT; New Business Registrations and Business Starts & Stops in Connecticut; a Statewide Nursing Data Portal; Housing Data Profiles, in partnership with the Partnership for Strong Communities; and an array of U.S. Census Data Tools. CTData serves as the lead organization in the U.S. Census Bureau’s State Data Center Program for Connecticut and is the state’s official source for census data.

CT Data has also recently developed two-page profiles of demographic and economic information for each of Connecticut’s 169 cities and towns, in partnership with AdvanceCT. In addition, CT Data coordinates the data work of The Hartford Data Collaborative, a shared data infrastructure that facilitates data sharing, integration and analysis to optimize services and outcomes for Hartford residents.

“We are striving for informed decision-making across Connecticut, and to achieve that we empower an ecosystem of data users by democratizing access to public data and building data literacy,” said Riordan-Nold. “Our work with nonprofit organizations is an essential element in that effort, and our participation in this accelerator program with provide new opportunities to further extend that work.”

CTData was recognized last year by the Connecticut Entrepreneur Awards in the Education category. More information is available at www.ctdata.org.