History
Mockingbird Analytics was launched in 2015 by Jessica Payne after a decade of experience with educational research, nonprofit evaluation, government social programs. During that time, it became clear that there was a need for smaller nonprofits to successfully measure and demonstrate the effectiveness of their services.
Throughout our time working with nonprofits we’ve added more services to support the infrastructure that organizations need for assessing their impact. Strategic Planning, Development Planning and support, and Database Administration are key services to building the success story of an organization. To help deliver those services, we’ve been joined by a robust board and consultant pool of researchers, grantwriters, marketing and IT professionals. All of our team adds to the collective knowledge of 70+ years of experience covered by Mockingbird Analytics as we work with many different nonprofit causes and social justice work.
If you’re interested in joining our team, introduce yourself and tell us about your nonprofit skill set.
BENEFITS CORPORATION STATUS
We are proud to be a certified Benefits Corporation, sometimes known as B-Corp. For us as a company this means we strive to:
Create transparent practices;
Make ethical decisions;
Have a workplace that brings out the best in everyone;
Practice inter-sectional feminists;
Build pro-worker and fair labor practices;
Close the gender wage gap for all employees;
Innovate pro-climate business practices for environmental justice;
Support transformative justice, abolition, and harm reduction services.
As a benefits corporation we believe that “social good” means telling stories that will benefit people and providing reasonable project-based services that allow all non-profits to participate in evidence-based practices. This includes sharing the tools we create and our knowledge-base with as many wonderful, hard-working organizations as we can.
We do not provide services to organizations who do not practice, justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in their work. We support organizations with progressive values. We do not work with organizations who support anti-science causes, those doing religious missionary and conversion work, organizations not supporting the LGBTQ+ community, and pro-policing organizations or those who seek to suppress voter and protest rights.
“We are on a mission to help nonprofit organizations
tell their story.”
Years of experience have shown us that it is often difficult for under-resourced organizations to build their internal infrastructure and translate impact into numbers. These challenges become a barrier to serving more people.
Oftentimes, it is the already well-funded and well-known nonprofits who receive grants because of their ability to bring in administrative and development staff or outsource services.
We want to fill that gap and help every nonprofit better plan, evaluate, fundraise and ultimately, tell the story of their impact.
Vision Statement
We envision social good sector where nonprofits have access to affordable evaluation, development and planning services.
We see a future where nonprofits regularly receive acknowledgement for their service to their communities and have easy access to the information they need to help tell the story of their impact.
We look to a future where donors can clearly see positive community change. Most importantly, we are striving for a future where nonprofits can expand their impact on the communities they serve.
How We Practice Diversity
At Mockingbird, we've been intensely focused on how to further deepen our strategic plan to be a part of the changes that dismantle white supremacy. We practice diversity by:
First and foremost, we support our team. All Mockingbird employees are encouraged to take the time to protest and do whatever self-care or un-learning work they feel is needed for them personally. We have also added a wellness stipend for all employees every month to support their health and well-being in whatever ways they find meaningful. Relatedly, Juneteenth is now a paid holiday for all staff. The work will still be here as the revolution continues.
We know that you vote with your dollar. Mockingbird Analytics made donations to the NAACP, ACLU and both the Minnesota and Los Angeles Bail Funds. We will continue to explore how we can financially support organizations making meaningful change in this fight, in addition to voting (make sure you're registered!).
Our nonprofit arm, Mocking Incubator, has come together with its Board to make a commitment to increase its diversity. Everyone on our board is a trusted ally and contributes tremendously to our work, but we also recognize that while 85% of our current Incubator Cohort Founders are Black or Latino, 60% of our directors are White. We are in the midst of actively recruiting new members who will better represent the founders that we serve.
We are working to further increase opportunities for our Nonprofit Founders and Incubator members. We are developing partnerships and new donors that will help increase the grant support we provide. Soon, our training and engagements will be more accessible through new online platforms, resources and literature (like free copies of tools from our Nonprofit Canon Reading List). We are working to help offset start-up costs for the important work our Incubator organizations are doing.
We are adding mandatory, continual anti-racism and cultural humility training to the curriculum for all Mockingbird staff. We participated in this this training as a staff in September of 2020 and are researching ways to continually integrate this dialogue into our day-to-day operations.
