The American Evaluation Association is celebrating Getting Great Data Week. All posts on AEA365 this week are contributed by evaluators who came together to write about the theme of getting data that is accurate, timely and, most of all, useful. Our own Taj Carson contributed this timely post: https://aea365.org/blog/getting-great-data-week-how-to-have-great-data-when-people-and-technology-both-do-their-part-by-taj-carson/ We hope you’ll check it out and let us know what you think!...
Inciter helps clients change the world by using data to tell the story of their impact, raise funds, and advocate for social change. We do this by helping them collect the right information, at the right time, using the right tools, and turning it into powerful products that they can use to communicate about their impact, to advocate for their cause, and to raise funds.
Established in 2003 as Carson Research Consulting, Inciter is a small, woman-owned firm located in Baltimore, MD. When you work with Inciter, you get a team of experienced researchers, evaluators, and custom software designers. While we are located on the East Coast, we work across the country.
We’re proud of our exceptional research and evaluation expertise, and even prouder of our easy to use data system that pulls it all together. And we use all of it to make research productive and—dare we say it—fun. We’re not just a bunch of number crunchers sitting behind computers ready to throw data at people and send them on their way.
What We Do
MEASURE IMPACT
Maybe you have to conduct an evaluation as part of a grant that you received. Or, perhaps your Board has been asking about results, or your staff is starting to wonder how effective a program is. No matter the reason, assessing your programs and activities can help you get more bang for your buck.
COMMUNICATE
If you want to move people, you need stories. And if you want to move skeptics, you need data. CRC specializes in storytelling with data. It’s something we pride ourselves on. And by storytelling, we DON’T mean fudging the numbers or spinning the facts. We help you tell your organization’s stories with real data, so that you can share and act upon the findings of our research and evaluation. This means we present findings in clear, digestible, and visually interesting ways and make sure you and your team know how to access the data whenever you need it.
FUNDRAISE
Fundraising is one of the toughest responsibilities of any organization. It’s a lot of work, and it’s disheartening if you’re not seeing results. Well, we can help with that. We’ll identify the right data, so you can target your communications, figure out what works and what doesn’t, and personalize your fundraising efforts to raise more money with less effort. Then, whether you have a whole department or a single person doing the job, we can help you set and track your fundraising goals, saving you time and raising you money.
How We Do It
RESEARCH AND DATA ANALYSIS
Our team of researchers and evaluators put their love for numbers and data to work to help our clients improve their projects and programs. We have the expertise to tackle the evaluation and research projects that strike fear into the hearts of your most industrious staff members. No matter how large or small your project is, we will help your program be as effective as possible. From program evaluation design, to support for grants and proposals, surveys, focus groups, quantitative and qualitative data analysis, and more, we make sure you have the data you need and know how to use it. It may seem like there’s an ocean between where you are and where you want to be, but we make the trip easy and we make the trip fun.
DATA VISUALIZATION AND MAPPING
Numbers matter, but what good are they if they can’t be easily interpreted and shared? That’s why data visualization is so important. Did you know that the brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster, and approximately 65% of the population are visual learners? (Of course we have the numbers to back us up!) Yet, we live in a data-centric world. Staff, board member, funders and more use data to make informed decisions every day. So what do we do? We make them pretty; we make them digestible; we make them make sense. We’re two parts data nerd and one part designer, using size, color and perception to create charts, dashboards, infographics and maps that are as visually appealing as they are accurate. And we make sure our clients know how to interpret their data and use it to further the goals of their organizations.
DATA SYSTEMS
We've been there – frustrated by data management software options because we didn't love what we saw, so we built our own custom software, called Incite. Incite is a cloud-based, software-as-a-service platform designed to enter and store data, and create reports for nonprofits, foundations, social service agencies, and K-12 education. Incite provides a portal accessible via desktop or mobile devices. We understand the work you do because we’ve been helping you wrangle data for over 15 years. We built Incite after extensive user testing to make sure it was easy for our clients, and because we are data geeks you know we made sure that the data stored there is as accurate as it can be, and that especially includes the reports that come out of Incite.
Get Visual with Us
Baltimore DataMind
Visualizing Program Capacity
Transportation Report Card
Fundraising Infographic
Graduate NYC! Map
Breastfeeding Infographic
Ratfographic
After School Dashboard
6
Dogs We've Co-Worked With
12
Costumes We've Worn
182
Muffins Eaten (Unknown Time Period)
28
Number of Whole Foods Stores We've Visited
Why Inciter?
If you love what you do, but not necessarily numbers, we’re here for you. We’re the data nerds you need to get you where you want to go. We’re here to help.
If you want to use data to make your organization stronger and go to the next level, we’ll get you there. Because, after all, trying to communicate the value of your work without data is like trying to row a boat without oars. Yes, you’ll stay afloat, but you’ll drift aimlessly with no way to get to your destination.
Our Skills
Meet the Team
When you work with CRC, you get a team of experienced evaluators and researchers with a killer work ethic who are ready to collect, organize, analyze, and report the data you need to improve your program. And if we really like you, we’ll even add infographics.
Kirk Knestis, Ph.D.
Senior Consultantand Conjuror of Causality
Jill Scheibler, Ph.D.
Senior Research Analystand Jill-of-all-Trades
Dave Hatem
Research Assistantand Preacher of P Values
Dana Ansari
Research Analystand Data and Tech Genie
Kevin Majoros, CPA
Controllerand Bulldozer
Ilse
Chief Wellness Officerand Enforcer
What We’re Saying
Our Blog
So you read the last blog post in this series, about asking the right questions of your social change efforts, right? (You did, right? We know it’s been a minute.) If you did, you know that there is just as much strategy involved in deciding what data you need to collect as there is in carrying out the strategy itself! It’s one thing (and a very important thing) to know what you want to collect and why. But the next big question is. . .HOW? Engaging hearts and minds to actually care about something, breaking through the social media din to get people to actually act — that’s hard enough. Once you think you’d done that, how do you go about measuring the indicators that those actions led to......
Our Tweets
Check out this post by our own @TajCarson and learn some simple ways to have great(er) data.
Getting Great #Data Week: How to Have Great Data: When People and Technology Both Do Their Part by Taj Carson https://t.co/Qd0LmtwDt8
Contact Us
Have a question? Want to know more about us? On your death bed in Nigeria and need to send your funds to someone? (Wait, scratch that last one.) Reach out to us however you want. Email or Twitter is probably best, though.