LiA Reflection Week 3  

During week 3, I worked on a lot of small projects—conducting landscape research on various organizations and people in the nonprofit sector in Chicago, writing briefs and reports on my findings, chatting with various people here at A Better Chicago, and starting a new data project.  

What went well:  

Overall, this was a pretty good week. I think the projects that I was working on were meaningful and impactful and I’m proud of the work I have done so far. I’ve especially enjoyed the coffee chats that I’ve had so far. Because the nonprofit I’m working with has less than 15 employees, I’ve been able to meet almost everyone and hear about all the different parts of ABC—including the portfolio team that works directly with nonprofit grantees, the data and impact team that does the more technical work, and the marketing and external affairs branch.  

What do I plan to do next:  

I’m excited to work closely with the data team next week. They use these huge databases that they call “vitals trackers” that record data from all the nonprofits that the company invests in to record their impact, from the number and demographics of students served, revenue and expense tracking, and performance on key outcomes. For example, if a given nonprofit works in high schools with the goal of keeping students in school, the vitals tracker records program enrollment and graduation rates year over year. I find it interesting how A Better Chicago makes data-driven investments, particularly when it's more difficult to collect and analyze data within the education nonprofit sector. This week I will be working on revamping and standardizing the vitals tracker system which might be a project that takes a few weeks.