Thriving Cities

What Thriving Cities does

Thriving Cities Group (TCG) is a 501c3 nonprofit founded in 2012 at the University of Virginia's Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture and incorporated as an independent entity in early 2018. The organization helps communities and their civic leaders — including community foundations, universities, municipal stakeholders, and place-based nonprofits — improve through civic design consulting, advisory services, and digital solutions. TCG operates with 1-10 employees distributed across offices in Charlottesville and Elkton, VA; Nashville, TN; Greenville, SC; and Toronto, Canada.

The organization's core offerings include the RoundTable digital platform (with modules for community connection, capacity-building, and ecosystem mapping), the Community Craft teaching curriculum, Civic Design consulting engagements, and a newly launched Community Intelligence Platform that incorporates ThriveAI. The differentiating technical element is the proprietary community ecosystem dataset, reportedly covering 600+ nonprofit entities per community versus 100-300 from alternative sources, supported by ten years of underlying research in human ecology. The team includes a Lead Data Scientist and an AI & Technology Advisor holding seven patents on graph data, which supports the platform's natural-language query and predictive analytics features.

Revenue is generated through subscription fees for the Community Intelligence Platform (priced at $15,000-$25,000 per year per community), professional services for Civic Design consulting, and licensing of the Community Craft curriculum. Named customers and partners include the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, the University of Memphis, the Orange County Community Foundation, Prosper Waco, and Connect Knox, with foundation grant funding sourced from the Henry Luce Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, and the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust. International and ecosystem reach is signaled by partnerships with UN-Habitat and Belmont Innovation Labs.

Name

Thriving Cities

Legal name

Thriving Cities Group

Website

https://thrivingcitiesgroup.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Thriving Cities Group is a Charlottesville-based 501c3 nonprofit that helps communities and their civic leaders improve through digital platforms, civic design consulting, and a subscription Community Intelligence Platform powered by ThriveAI.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Civic Design & Community Intelligence Consulting

NAICS

Civic and Social Organizations (813410), Grantmaking and Giving Services (81321), Social Advocacy Organizations (8133)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Smart Cities & Urban Innovation Programs (Digital Planning, Civic Tech for Cities) (BPAIANAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

Capacity Building & Nonprofit Infrastructure Funders (BPAGAKAO), Community Foundations (BPAGAKAB), Civic Education & Community Engagement (Voting, Local Government) (EDAAAFAC)

Keywords

• Community intelligence platform
• Civic design consulting
• Nonprofit ecosystem mapping
• Philanthropic investment advisory
• Community foundation analytics

Headquarters

HQ city

Charlottesville

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices5 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Community Intelligence Platform Subscription: Annual subscription-based access to the Community Intelligence Platform, priced at $15,000–$25,000 per year, providing analytical capabilities typically requiring million-dollar consulting engagements.
2. RoundTable Platform Access: Platform access for community foundations and nonprofits as part of the National RoundTable Coalition.
3. Civic Design Consulting & Advisory: Human-centered, multi-disciplinary consulting services engaging thought leadership, community engagement, data, technology, and research to help tackle fundamental community challenges.
4. Community Craft Curriculum: Teaching and training curriculum using the Human Ecology Framework to help community leaders craft effective civic responses.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Thriving Cities Group sells a community intelligence and civic design portfolio to community foundations, government leaders, and philanthropists. Its offerings include the AI-powered Community Intelligence Platform with ThriveAI (subscription analytics at $15,000–$25,000/year), the RoundTable digital platform with geospatial nonprofit mapping, the Community Craft teaching curriculum based on the Human Ecology Framework, and Civic Design consulting services. The portfolio helps organizations map nonprofit ecosystems, predict community challenges such as gentrification, and make data-driven community investment decisions.

Product overview

Thriving Cities Group offers a multi-disciplinary approach combining research, training, community organizing, and technology. The core offering is a unified platform comprising RoundTable (digital platform with three integrated modules for community intelligence, connection, and capacity) and the new Community Intelligence Platform featuring ThriveAI for natural language queries. Supporting these are two service offerings: Community Craft (teaching curriculum using the Human Ecology Framework) and Civic Design (consulting and advisory services). The portfolio works together to help communities assess, plan, and implement strategies for equitable thriving.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Community Craft: A teaching curriculum that enables leaders to craft more effective civic responses to the needs and opportunities of 21st Century communities.
• Civic Design
• RoundTable

Products and services

• Community Intelligence Platform AI-powered analytics platform that integrates nonprofit, census, health, and city planning data into a unified system, offering real-time community scorecards, predictive scenario modeling, gentrification risk prediction, and natural language queries via ThriveAI for community foundations, city/government leaders, and philanthropists.
• RoundTable Digital platform that connects community problem solvers by braiding together Community Intelligence (geospatial mapping of neighborhood indicators), Community Connection (nonprofit profile database), and Community Capacity (coaching frameworks and donor reports) to enable effective, equitable, and enduring community investment.
• Community Craft Teaching and training curriculum built on the Human Ecology Framework (six endowments: The True, The Good, The Beautiful, The Prosperous, The Just and Well-Ordered, The Sustainable) that helps community leaders understand, assess, and engage local thriving through human-centered, multi-disciplinary approaches.
• Civic Design Multi-disciplinary consulting and advisory service that engages thought leadership, community engagement, data, technology, and research to help tackle fundamental challenges facing 21st Century communities, increasing local leadership over decisions that affect communities.

Quantifiable outcome

• Community foundations gain visibility into 600+ organizations vs traditional 100–300; annual platform cost of $15,000–$25,000 provides million-dollar consulting-level analytical capabilities.

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability8 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Community Foundation of Greater MemphiscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerProject partner on the RoundTable platform. The Community Foundation of Greater Memphis uses RoundTable to connect philanthropic investors with community-based organizations and track investment impact across the Memphis ecosystem.
• University of MemphiscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerProject partner collaborating with Thriving Cities Group on community intelligence research and the RoundTable platform development, bringing academic rigor and local research capacity.
• Cook TrustminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerProject partner supporting the RoundTable platform, contributing philanthropic investment expertise and community foundation network connections.
• Orange County Community FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerProject partner and member of the National RoundTable Coalition, using the RoundTable platform to map the nonprofit ecosystem in Orange County and facilitate community-based philanthropic investment.
• Prosper WacocoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerProject partner and member of the National RoundTable Coalition, serving as a nonprofit coalition in Waco, Texas that uses community intelligence tools to coordinate early childhood and community development programs.
• Belmont Innovation LabscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost organization for Thriving Cities Group's Interim CEO Tim Day and Founder Dr. Josh Yates operates as Executive Director. Co-located at Belmont University, it serves as the strategic hub for the organization's initiatives.
• Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture (IASC) at University of VirginiacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOriginal founding host for Thriving Cities Group as a research project starting in 2012. Continues to host the Thriving Cities Lab, an ongoing research initiative advancing research around human and community thriving.
• Duke University (Ormond Center)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerDr. Josh Yates directed the Ormond Center at Duke University, focusing on initiatives to support thriving congregations and communities, which informed the development of Thriving Cities Group's approach.
• UN-HabitatminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerChris Elisara serves as chair of UN-Habitat's SDG Cities task force and member of their World Urban Campaign's secretariat, connecting Thriving Cities Group's work to global urban development initiatives.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• PolicyMap: PolicyMap provides geospatial data and mapping for community development, lending, and policy analysis. Comparable as a geospatial analytics platform used by foundations and community development organizations for neighborhood-level insight.
• Civilla: Civilla is a nonprofit civic design and research organization that applies human-centered design to public systems. Comparable to Thriving Cities Group in its mission-driven approach to civic innovation and use of design thinking for community impact.
• BrightHive: BrightHive builds data trust and analytics infrastructure for social impact organizations. Comparable as a data-platform-for-social-good play serving foundations and nonprofits seeking coordinated, secure data sharing.

Emerging players

• Reimagining the Civic Commons: Reimagining the Civic Commons is a collaborative initiative funded by the Kresge Foundation working to revitalize civic assets in cities. Comparable as a foundation-backed effort to strengthen community wellbeing through coordinated civic investment.
• Reinvestment Fund: Reinvestment Fund combines community development lending with data analytics (PolicyMap parent historically) to inform equitable investment. Comparable in combining community investment capital with neighborhood-level data intelligence.
• Results for America: Results for America advocates for evidence-based decision-making in government and philanthropy. Comparable in working with foundations and city governments to use data and evidence for community outcomes.

Broad incumbents

• Bonterra (Social Solutions): Bonterra (formerly Social Solutions) provides SaaS tools like Apricot and CharityTracker for nonprofit case management and outcomes measurement. Comparable as a software platform serving the same nonprofit and foundation customer base.
• Salesforce.org (Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud): Salesforce.org offers CRM and program management solutions specifically tailored to nonprofits and foundations. Comparable as an incumbent SaaS vendor to the same community foundation and nonprofit customer base.
• Candid: Candid (formerly Foundation Center + GuideStar) is the leading source of nonprofit and foundation intelligence. Comparable as a data and intelligence provider serving grantmakers and community foundations seeking ecosystem visibility.
• Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC): LISC is a national community development financial institution supporting neighborhood revitalization through data-driven, place-based investment. Comparable as a large-scale community development organization using data to coordinate philanthropic investment across US cities.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks1 record

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/thriving_cities

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Thriving Cities