Responding to Local Needs: Boston Indicators' Transition From Data Repository to Local Think Tank

Boston Indicators was founded, in part, to make data useful to policymakers, practitioners, and the general public. In Boston twenty years ago, this meant collecting, publishing, and disseminating data on a wide range of issues. Technological advances and Boston's dynamic civic atmosphere have made that particular method of achieving our mission less impactful than in years past. Over the last two years, we have shifted from being a data repository to a think tank that relies on data to tell Boston's most pressing stories. In doing so, we continue to fulfill our mission -- just in a very different way.