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“Can I Have a Moment of Your Time?” Overcoming Survey Burn Out by Showing Value

Posted on August 2, 2018

by Dave Hatem

“Please be sure to go to the website on the bottom of the receipt to fill out our survey!” If you’ve ever gone grocery shopping, eaten fast food, or shopped at a major retailer, you’ve heard these words spoken by a cashier at some point. In the age of big data, seemingly no venue is immune from solicitations to take a survey of some sort, be it online or in-person. With this oversaturation of survey propositions, the question for the consumer then becomes: what’s the value of actually completing this survey – is it really worth my time? And as evaluators faced with this situation, in which our potential survey respondents are already feeling burnt out (and even more so if they’re part of an over-researched community) the question is...

We Need a Data Nerd

Posted on July 24, 2018

by Taj Carson

Do you love colored pens? Making to do lists? Do you like the idea of working with social service programs that help make people’s lives better? Do you have a killer work ethic, but seek a relaxed work environment?Inciter could be for you, if. . . You are described by friends and co-workers as "kick ass," in the nicest possible way. You are competent, creative, trustworthy, engaging, organized, and an all around people person. You love numbers and data, but you understand that people who provide social services don’t, and often make a mess of them. And you’d like to be the one who helps them sort it out. You are a fiend for details, enjoy entering and analyzing data, organizing minutiae and making order out of chaos. You are a juggling genius and master of...

HIRING: DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH AND EVALUATION

Posted on July 15, 2018

by Taj Carson

At Inciter, we help clients measure impact, communicate, and fundraise through research, visualization, and data systems. We’re proud of our exceptional research and evaluation expertise (to say nothing of our enthusiasm for color coding), and we use all of that to make research productive and even (dare we say) 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. We love what we do. We have a passion for data, and for making a difference. As a consulting firm, we work with clients large and small, including foundations and nonprofits. We we work with clients in many areas, including public health, education, housing, workforce development, and many others. Most (but not all) of our clients are located...

Dispatched to China

Posted on June 21, 2018

by Jill Scheibler

Over the past several years I've had the privilege of splitting my time between Inciter (until recently, CRC) -- approximately half time each as an evaluator and as program staff at an arts and human services nonprofit, Make Studio. Throughout this time, I've found that wearing two hats and having two sets of experiences to draw from has helped me to work smarter and better (only sometimes harder), for the benefit of my evaluation clients and program recipients. On the occasion of the recent launch of our new name, Inciter, I wanted to share an experience that I had this spring that reflects how my two working worlds can collide. And, gives an idea of how we at Inciter pride ourselves on applying our "evaluation-in-the-real-world" lens wherever we are. Putting this...

Find Us at Inciter.io

Posted on June 12, 2018

by Taj Carson

Looking to measure your impact, communicate about it, and bolster your fundraising? We at Inciter can help you through research, visualization, and our new custom software, Incite. Inciter’s mission is to make it easy for nonprofit organizations and government agencies to harness data and use it to communicate findings to funders, stakeholders and staff. 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 you collect the right information, at the right time, using the right tools, and turning it into powerful products that you can use to communicate about your impact, advocate for your cause, and raise funds. Enter, InciteIncite is our new cloud-based, software-as-a-service platform designed to enter, store, and create reports...

Data. Driven.

Posted on June 6, 2018

by Taj Carson

Those are two words you may not hear together a lot. And they are two words that are the underpinning of everything we do at Inciter. What do we do? We help clients thrive by measuring your impact, which helps you better communicate your value that in turn, bolsters your fundraising. 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 know where to make improvements, show others what you’ve accomplished, and be accountable to funders. Communicate. If you want to move people, you need stories. And if you want to move skeptics, you need data....

Enter, Inciter.

Posted on June 5, 2018

by Taj Carson

Have you ever known just what to do to make a project work, but you couldn’t find the right tools to make it happen? 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 - named Incite - to gather, manage, and report on data. Enter our company, Inciter. Inciter’s mission is to make it easy for nonprofit organizations, foundations, and government agencies to harness data and use it to communicate findings to funders, stakeholders and staff. Inciter helps clients measure impact, communicate, and fundraise through research, visualization, and data systems. 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...

We’ve Changed Our Name! We Are Now Doing Business as Inciter

Posted on May 31, 2018

by Taj Carson

We have exciting news to share with you - we’ve changed our name! We are now doing business as Inciter. We are undertaking the same quality work, with the same great staff, and a fun new product – Incite - which means expanded opportunities for all.< Established in 2003 as Carson Research Consulting, Inciter is still a small, woman-owned firm located in Baltimore, MD. When you work with Inciter, you continue to get a team of experienced researchers, evaluators, and custom software designers. While we are located on the East Coast, we work across the country. Inciter’s mission is to make it easy for nonprofit organizations, foundations, and government agencies to harness data and use it to communicate findings to funders, stakeholders, and staff. Inciter has the knowledge and experience to help clients do...

How Your Data Can Tell a (True) Story

Posted on April 19, 2018

by CRC

by Jill & MandiInformation graphics and visualization expert Alberto Cairo caused a bit of a stir last fall when he bluntly tweeted his opinion that data journalism and visualization should stop using the term “storytelling”. "Storytelling" is a term that ought to be abandoned in journalism, #dataviz, data, etc. It has no meaning and leads to the wrong mindset https://t.co/5cEv184UsD— Alberto Cairo (@albertocairo) September 11, 2017 In the replies, he subsequently clarified that the word need not be abandoned if used properly, but should be considered problematic and approached with caution. However, he later went on to double-down on his initial sentiments earlier this year in another tweet, again eliciting much consternation and gnashing of teeth from his followers. An argument based on evidence and careful reasoning is not a...

Evaluating Advocacy Efforts: How Do You Measure Social Change?

Posted on February 15, 2018

by Taj Carson

Here at CRC, we're always fans of measuring the right thing, at the right time, for the right reasons. And that includes measuring advocacy efforts. You may think that measuring advocacy efforts and social change movements is impossible. It's definitely true that it can be challenging to do because evaluating advocacy is very different from evaluating direct service work. The theory of change is going to be more complex, and it's harder to identify the direct links from your advocacy activities to people's responses. Collecting information about your campaigns and activities often involves tracking web analytics and responses to mail and other campaigns directly. But before you start putting together a dashboard of your Google Analytics data, start by thinking about what you want to know and why. To really...