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The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit think tank "devoted to independent research and innovative policy solutions." It offers some really interesting publications. I particularly like to surf the (duh!) Research section. Some of the articles are free and some are not. I found the articles loaded faster if I clicked on the category, the sub-category, the topic and then the article.
For instance, under Cities and Suburbs, I chose the topic Other under the Demographics subcategory. There I found an interesting presentation entitled Using Census Numbers to Find Good Stories: A One-Hour Internet Class for Journalists that is applicable to enhancing a researcher's approach to data mining and wealth demographics.
If you work for a social service agency, there are some articles that may be helpful in preparing case statements, such as Metropolitan Poverty in the United States or A Country of Newcomers, under the Income topic in Demographics.
Information from the Brookings Institution is reputable, credible and often highly regarded. Two more articles are described below. To explore other categories and articles, start your own adventures at
http://www.brookings.edu/index/research.htm
FINDING EXURBIA: AMERICA'S FAST-GROWING COMMUNITIES AT THE METROPOLITAN FRINGE
This is a Brookings Institution article that recently caught my eye because of the importance of socio-demographics to fund raising. This article defines "America's fast-growing communities at the metropolitan fringe." Here's an excepted description of the exurbs:
- Large non-Hispanic white populations;
- Mostly married-couple family households, especially with children;
- High-income newcomers mixing with moderate-income longtime residents;
- Workers making long-distance "super-commutes" back into the urban core, and workers telecommuting
and working from home;
- A real estate-driven economy, with large numbers of workers employed in construction, landscaping, real estate brokerage and home-related retail;
- Enormous cookie-cutter "McMansions" abutting old farmhouses; and
- Reliably Republican voters
Looks like these are areas where researchers are likely find clusters of major gift, future major gift, high-level annual fund and planned giving prospects.
http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20061017_exurbia.pdf
TRACKING METROPOLITAN AMERICA INTO THE 21ST CENTURY
This is an informative Brookings Institution article that describes the changes to the statistical areas used by the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Why should you care? These areas are also used by demographers, mail houses and Web sites that let you narrow your search geographically!
If you have ever been mystified by the abbreviations CMSA (Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area), PMSA (Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area) and MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) you are about to be further confused. These standard geographic areas have been changed and the new system "designed to capture 21st-century settlement patterns," alters the names, types and boundaries for metropolitan areas and creates new "micropolitan" areas. The new alphabet soup includes MetroSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area), MicroSA (Micropolitan Statistical Area) and CSA (Combined Statistical Area).
Read about the whys, hows and whens of the new system versus the old.
http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20041115_metrodefinitions.pdf
Chris Mildner
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