Visualizing Community Vibrancy and Fiscal Sponsorship Impact

Background

New Sun Rising (NSR) empowers vibrant communities by strategically supporting grassroots initiatives that drive cultural enrichment, sustainability, and socioeconomic opportunities. Through its fiscal sponsorship program, NSR provides essential resources to grassroots organizations. To amplify their impact, NSR partnered with SUDS to develop comprehensive data-driven insights into their geographic reach and effectiveness.

Project Details

Building upon NSR’s previous GIS efforts, the SUDS team worked to enhance visibility into NSR’s fiscal sponsorship initiatives and broader community conditions. The project encompassed:

• Mapping NSR’s fiscal sponsorship projects to assess geographic coverage, concentration, and community impact.
• Integrating diverse community indicators, such as Census data, EPA environmental metrics, and NSR’s proprietary Vibrancy Index to evaluate community strengths and areas needing support.
• Developing visualizations of key community indicators alongside existing community assets, providing clarity and actionable insights to NSR stakeholders.
• Identifying “vibrancy deserts”—areas lacking robust cultural, sustainable, and economic opportunities—to facilitate targeted strategic interventions.
• Producing recommendations for targeted outreach strategies based on in-depth spatial analyses and visualization.

Deliverables

• Interactive GIS Mapping: Detailed maps visualizing the geographic distribution and impact of NSR’s fiscal sponsorship initiatives.
• Comprehensive Data Dashboard: A user-friendly, interactive platform allowing stakeholders to explore community indicators, project impacts, and strategic opportunities.
• “Vibrancy Desert” Identification: Clearly defined methodologies for pinpointing underserved communities, accompanied by strategic recommendations for targeted community development efforts.
• Best Practices Report: Documentation outlining effective methods for leveraging data to inform community development and resource allocation strategies.

Outcomes

The Vibrant Communities Dashboard significantly strengthened NSR’s strategic planning and resource allocation capabilities, ensuring support reached the communities most in need. Clear visualizations and rigorous data analysis enabled NSR to better communicate their impact to stakeholders, attract new funding opportunities, and implement equitable community development strategies. This collaboration ultimately contributed to NSR’s mission of cultivating vibrant, sustainable, and culturally-rich communities throughout the Pittsburgh region.