Mapping Change: GIS Empowers Nonprofits

Nonprofit

Throughout my career, people have often asked me, “What can I do to help my community?” “What can I do to ease my anxiety about the state of the world?” “How can I utilize my GIS skills to advocate for justice?” Over ten years later, my answer remains the same: contribute your time or resources to help your community. One of the best ways we can all work toward improving the communities we live in is by connecting with local nonprofits and community-based organizations.

Before joining Esri, I worked with the nonprofit Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF) to create their GIS redistricting program. As someone who volunteers with nonprofit organizations during my free time, I know the power and influence of local nonprofit organizations and their ability to distill complex information to mobilize the community. Civic nonprofit organizations have been at the forefront of equity, social justice, and transformative change for decades. To further their reach and impact many organizations are beginning to utilize geospatial thinking and technology to pursue social justice in their communities. For example, the Cesar Chavez Foundation, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and Planned Parenthood all leverage GIS tools to advance their work.

Nonprofits and civic organizations are mission-driven by nature, and many of these organizations are at the forefront in addressing inequities. As the National Council for Nonprofits says, “Nonprofits play a fundamental role in creating more equitable and thriving communities.” Nonprofit organizations are not dedicated to private or financial gain, but to the advancement of public interest.

This year, we are launching a blog series focusing on civic nonprofit work that advances equity and social justice by leveraging GIS tools. Highlighting four steps nonprofits can take to utilize GIS to enhance their advocacy work:

1. Communicate Your Cause: GIS allows organizations to visualize and analyze spatial data, which can be used to create compelling maps and visualizations that convey their mission, impact, and the issues they are addressing.

IFF—a nonprofit lender, developer, and consultant partnered with the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, to create an ArcGIS StoryMap to communicate the need for children in BIPOC families to receive high-quality ECE. Public transparency is a key driver of using GIS technology, because stories, themes, and trends are conveyed to the public with the information being accessible to anyone who wants to see it.

2. Understand Your Community: Communities are complex, with social, economic, and environmental factors interconnecting in unique ways. Seeing and understanding communities through the lens of where they are located can reveal patterns and relationships.

trubel&co, a tech-justice nonprofit, seeks to create opportunities for marginalized students with geospatial analytics as the primary technical tool for liberatory innovation. With GIS technology, students amplified the undeniable environmental injustices that are impacting vulnerable and low-income communities. Their research shows that hundreds of farms are at risk in southwest Florida and could become nonarable, causing devastating impacts to local agricultural communities

3. Act On Your Mission: Nonprofits are operating at many levels to solve complex world challenges and GIS is providing the framework and tools for tackling them at every level, as well as ensuring positive practice when it comes to incorporating equity into decision making.

The Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF), a nonprofit that has a mission to inspire and organize communities in the pursuit of social justice, recognized the imperative need for innovation to address social inequalities, DHF harnessed the capabilities of GIS technology to empower community leaders and reshape the landscape of California’s San Joaquin Valley. DHF partnered with over a dozen organizations to form the Equitable Maps Coalition, whose proposed redistricting maps increased effective majority minority districts by 200 percent.

4. Measure Your Impact: Achieving equity takes time—especially when you consider demographic and socioeconomic factors. Use location-based data to measure your success and uncover opportunities to redirect efforts. Organizations that achieve equity monitor decisions and policies with real-time GIS, make necessary adjustments to their strategy, and apply appropriate resources where they’re needed.

The Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina has worked to support people experiencing hunger within the organization’s 34-county service area. By applying a geographic approach, the organization identified where residents were not within accessible proximity to a food resource. Once the locations were identified, the food bank created a pop-up market initiative to give residents access to food, especially fresh produce, and fill service gaps across more neighborhoods. The organization took it a step further and leveraged ArcGIS Survey123 to survey people picking up food at the pop-up markets. By collecting this data, the food bank can determine the average number of meals individuals took home, allowing staff to see if there is a greater need in certain communities and to prepare for the next pop-up event.

Nonprofit organizations are becoming bigger users of GIS technology, and their work is more vital than ever. Keep an eye out for our next blog and sign up for our equity newsletter to receive GIS for Equity updates https://go.esri.com/EquityNonprofit

About the author

Sophia Garcia

Sophia Garcia is Esri’s Lead Equity and Civic Nonprofits lead. Her work at the Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF), a social justice nonprofit in California’s Central Valley, laid the groundwork for institutionalizing Esri’s Equity and mapping work. At DHF, Sophia worked with community organizations across California to pass legislation for more fair and equitable redistricting codified in AB 849 the Fair Maps Act. Sophia subsequently worked as a consultant with over one-hundred municipalities, including five of California’s 10 largest cities, to implement the Fair Maps Act. Sophia’s GIS career has been focused on participatory community GIS and implementing GIS with an equity lens. She is excited to continue working with users to understand and apply GIS and geospatial thinking to equity issues.