Hundreds of millions of dollars flow into Ohio’s nonprofit sector every year, but who is receiving the funding, and is it being distributed equitably? Let's use Candid data to map where those dollars go, who receives them, and what trends are shaping the landscape. We’ll explore funding by sector, recipient demographics, and geography, comparing Ohio to national benchmarks. Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of how to assess equity in funding and practical tools to use data.
In this talk we will describe a method, the Spatial Video Geonarrative (SVG), which has proven successful in the public health realm at capturing dynamic neighborhood detail and context. It is also a tool that can give voice to a community as they describe their problems as they perceive them, while also helping inform operational support design suitable interventions.
Public opinion is often clear—but still ignored or distorted. This panel explores the gap between what people want and what policymakers do, and how misinformation, data blind spots, and equity issues contribute. Drawing on work with the Ohio Pulse Poll, Children’s Defense Fund, ACLU, and Cleveland Heights-University Heights Libraries, we’ll share strategies for inclusive data collection, equitable framing, and reclaiming public voice in civic data.
The value and difficulty of identifying a random research sample is well known. This lightening session will provide a very practical overview of how to use Ohio voting records to build a "random" mailing sample for your research, as well as discuss the short-comings of this method.
Research Fellow, The Center for Community Solutions
Alex Dorman works as a Research Fellow at The Center for Community Solutions, a nonpartisan non-profit think tank in Cleveland, OH. In this capacity, Alex has conducted research and written on a wide array of topics including the changing demographics of Ohio, access to prenatal care... Read More →
Wednesday August 19, 2026 10:20am - 10:30am EDT Legacy Room (1st Floor)525 Superior Ave, Cleveland, OH 44114, USA
This collaboration between a land trust, health, and academic institutions focuses on re-greening vacant lots in Cleveland to improve neighborhood health. We've created a data-driven tool that generates neighborhood "personas," combining demographic, health, and behavioral data. This supports WRLC’s mission by identifying priority areas for greening using multi-dimensional insights about both the environment and its residents.
Despite working hard, many working families in Cuyahoga County still can't afford basic needs. This session explores United Way’s latest ALICE data to reveal hidden financial hardship and its impact by race, age, and geography. Learn how civic data like ALICE informs equitable policy, nonprofit strategy, and funding—empowering communities to act.
College closures have swept the country over the past decade 44 colleges closing since 2020. Researchers use federally available data (IPEDS) to predict which colleges will close, to warn small college towns of the impending economic upheaval. This session will examine the importance of data on higher education, and the overall impact of the vanishing data, and quantify the loss of educational institutions throughout the country by examining the loss of small liberal arts colleges to college towns.
Most people think hospitals already share data—but they often don’t. We brought together records from every trauma center and the coroner’s office to uncover repeat gun injuries that would have gone unseen. This talk shows how cross-system collaboration can reveal who’s at greatest risk, give communities a clearer picture of violence, and help civic data work for prevention—not just reporting.
This session will focus on the key takeaways from the FY26 Ohio Housing Needs Assessment, a biennial report developed by the Ohio Housing Finance Agency to identify the scope and scale of Ohio’s housing challenges and provide baseline information to help determine the Agency’s strategic priorities. It will provide a high-level overview of the report and offer a brief demonstration of how the information can be accessed from OHFA’s interactive online platform.
Senior Research and Data Analyst, Ohio Housing Finance Agency
Prior to joining OHFA in September 2017, Devin served as a Senior Research Associate with Community Research Partners. His role at OHFA is to monitor the agency's data systems for quality and accuracy, develop and maintain agency dashboards for strategic planning purposes and assist... Read More →
Wednesday August 19, 2026 2:30pm - 3:20pm EDT Auditorium (Basement)525 Superior Ave, Cleveland, OH 44114, USA
How much of Cleveland's vacant land is needed for new housing? This session demos an interactive Monte Carlo simulation that models 10,000 futures for any neighborhood. Participants will use an AI-created web app to input population growth scenarios and see the acreage required. The results challenge common narratives by showing a likely land surplus even with optimistic growth, sparking new conversations about how we manage this community asset. This session will also demonstrate how to use free AI tools to create simple web apps for more powerful storytelling experiences with publicly available data.
Using a local case study, this session shows how nonprofits can combine donor data and community voice to drive meaningful fundraising. Learn how one organization paired giving trends with qualitative input from staff and participants to design a “Fund-A-Need” wall rooted in real needs. Attendees will explore how to blend numbers and narratives to inspire giving, build buy-in, and create campaigns that reflect what matters most.
