Metro Chicago Information Center

Metro Chicago Information Center
Motto Better data for better decisions.
Founded 1990 (1990)
Dissolved February 29, 2012 (2012-02-29)
Type Non-profit
Location
Services Research and Information Resources

Metro Chicago Information Center (MCIC) was an independent nonprofit research and consulting resource based in Chicago, Illinois. MCIC was founded in 1990 by a consortium of business and philanthropic leaders at the Commercial Club of Chicago to regularly collect demographics and baseline data on social policy and human needs for the 6-county metropolitan Chicago region.[1] MCIC provided the data necessary to support public policy and social program development but did not advocate specific policy choices. Faced with a $650,000 defined benefit pension liability for staff hired before 2005,[2] MCIC closed on February 29, 2012.[3]

Research

MCIC conducted demographic research for both local nonprofits and larger foundations such as the MacArthur Foundation and the Sprague Foundation,[1] whose findings typically went towards fundraising, advocacy, and policy making. MCIC specialized in difficult to reach and underserved populations.[4]

MCIC provided a variety of research and consulting services for branch site analysis, and strategic market planning. GIS/mapping technology, merged with unique databases like HMDA or U.S. Census information, provides in-depth analysis of delineated market areas, individual branch markets, or new site locations.[5]

MCIC was part of a group of national and community-based organizations that served as auxiliary census data distribution centers.[6]

Affiliations

MCIC was a founding member of the Illinois Data Exchange Affiliates (IDEA), a voluntary coalition of government agencies and nonprofit organizations working to improve and facilitate public access to public data through web-based XML data transfer.[7]

MCIC was the only National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) partner in the metropolitan Chicago region. The NNIP is a collaborative effort by the Urban Institute in Washington D.C. and 28 local partners around the country who work to further the development and use of neighborhood-level information systems in local policymaking and community building.[8]

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/9/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.