UNC Charlotte Urban Institute

Name

UNC Charlotte Urban Institute

Legal name

UNC Charlotte Urban Institute

Website

https://ui.charlotte.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

1969

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Applied Research Services

NAICS

Administration of Housing Programs, Urban Planning, and Community Development (925), Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Research, Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) Partnerships (EDADALAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Community Centers & Neighborhood Support Services (BPAGAEAL), Civic Education & Community Engagement (Voting, Local Government) (EDAAAFAC), Housing & Neighborhood Services (Local Housing Programs) (BPAIACAJ)

Keywords

• Applied research services
• Community data analytics
• Integrated data systems
• Policy analysis research
• Regional planning research

Headquarters

HQ city

Charlotte

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Grant Funding: The institute operates primarily as a university research center funded through grants from government agencies, foundations, and community investors. The Data Trust was founded with support from UNC Charlotte, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Foundation For The Carolinas, Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services, and United Way of Greater Charlotte.
2. Donations and Philanthropic Support: Tax-deductible gifts to sustain operations, with the institute encouraging donations from those who value their research and policy analysis on the Charlotte region.
3. Research Services: Fee-based research services for community organizations, government agencies, and nonprofits including program evaluation, data analysis, and policy research.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

The UNC Charlotte Urban Institute conducts applied, nonpartisan research and provides integrated community data systems to address social, economic, and environmental challenges in the Charlotte region. It operates the Charlotte Regional Data Trust, which links administrative data across agencies, and the Quality of Life Explorer, an interactive neighborhood-level data visualization tool. Services include program evaluation, policy analysis, GIS and spatial analysis, survey research, technical assistance for school transportation (TIMS), and capacity-building programs for community organizations and faculty.

Product overview

The UNC Charlotte Urban Institute operates as an applied research and community outreach center offering a platform of interconnected data products and programs. The core offerings include the Charlotte Regional Data Trust (an integrated data system linking administrative data across agencies), the Quality of Life Explorer (an interactive data visualization tool), and the Transportation Information Management System (TIMS). Supporting programs include Your Voices Carolina survey services, the Impact Data and Evaluation Academy, Gambrell Faculty Fellows, Schul Forum Series, Community-Engaged Research and Learning, and City Walks. Together, these products provide the Charlotte region with data infrastructure, research capabilities, and community engagement tools to address social, economic, and environmental challenges.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Charlotte Regional Data Trust: A community-university partnership that links data across service and organizational silos to provide information the community can act on. An integrated data system operated by the Institute.
• Quality of Life Explorer
• Gambrell Faculty Fellows
• Schul Forum Series
• Impact, Data and Evaluation Academy (IDEA)
• Transportation Information Management System (TIMS)
• Your Voices Carolina

Products and services

• Charlotte Regional Data Trust A community-university partnership that links individual-level administrative data across agencies, sectors, and programs to provide integrated data for research, evaluation, and planning in the Charlotte region. Originally founded in 2004 as the Institute for Social Capital.
• Quality of Life Explorer An online interactive tool to explore social, housing, economic, environmental, and safety conditions in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, linking administrative data with neighborhood-level data.
• Transportation Information Management System (TIMS) A system providing technical assistance to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction for school transportation data management, used by local educational agencies across North Carolina.
• Your Voices Carolina A suite of survey programs including the Annual Regional Wellbeing Survey, Custom Surveys, and Annual Omnibus Survey for collecting community data and feedback.
• Impact, Data and Evaluation Academy (IDEA) A training and capacity-building program that helps organizations develop skills in data analysis, evaluation, and evidence-based decision making.

Quantifiable outcome

• 145 corporate landlord investors identified controlling approximately 7.6% of single-family homes in Mecklenburg County
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2004The Charlotte Urban Institute is a member of NNIP, a collaboration among local partners and the Urban Institute in Washington D.C. to further the development and use of neighborhood-level information systems in community-building and policymaking.
• Consortium of University Public Service Organizations (CUPSO)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2004Membership in CUPSO supports the institute's efforts to assist state and local governments on contemporary issues, facilitating networking, information exchange, and collaboration among university-based public service institutes.
• Charlotte-Mecklenburg SchoolscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2004One of the founding partners of the Charlotte Regional Data Trust (originally Institute for Social Capital), providing educational data for integrated research on student outcomes and community conditions.
• Foundation For The CarolinascoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2004Founding partner that helped establish the Institute for Social Capital, providing philanthropic support and community connections.
• Mecklenburg County Department of Social ServicescoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2004Founding partner of the Charlotte Regional Data Trust, providing administrative data on social services, child welfare, and community support programs.
• United Way of Greater CharlottecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2004Founding partner of the Data Trust, supporting community needs assessments and providing data on social service utilization across the region.
• Bank of AmericacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCorporate partner supporting research that provides insight into community initiatives, including work on the racial wealth gap in Charlotte-Mecklenburg.
• Habitat for Humanity of the Charlotte RegioncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnered with the institute to study educational outcomes of Habitat homebuyers compared to McKinney-Vento students, demonstrating the impact of stable housing on student success.
• Mecklenburg County Community Support ServicescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLong-standing partnership marking 10 years of data-driven efforts to address housing instability and homelessness, including integrated data reports.
• The Lee InstituteminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoint study on community perceptions of corporate-owned single-family rental homes in Mecklenburg County.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves10 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Urban Institute: The Washington D.C.-based Urban Institute is a nonpartisan applied research organization studying social and economic policy. It is a direct peer to UNC Charlotte Urban Institute through their NNIP partnership, and operates with a similar applied-research, community-data-driven model.
• MDRC: MDRC is a nonpartisan social policy research organization conducting program evaluations and field experiments on housing, education, and workforce programs — closely comparable to UNC Charlotte Urban Institute's evaluation and applied research work.
• Child Trends: Child Trends is a nonpartisan research organization focused on children, youth, and families that conducts applied research and evaluation work — overlapping with UNC Charlotte Urban Institute's housing, education, and community well-being research portfolio.
• Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy (AISP): AISP at the University of Pennsylvania is a national leader in integrated data systems (IDS) for policy research, closely paralleling the Charlotte Regional Data Trust's mission of linking administrative data across agencies to inform social policy.

Broad incumbents

• RAND Corporation: RAND is a broad, established research institution providing policy research and analysis across social, economic, and urban issues — a broad incumbent competing in adjacent policy research domains.
• Brookings Institution: Brookings is a large public policy think tank with urban and metropolitan policy programs that conduct applied research on housing, economic mobility, and regional issues — comparable to UNC Charlotte Urban Institute's regional policy work but at much larger scale.
• Mathematica: Mathematica is a larger, established research and data analytics consultancy providing policy research, program evaluation, and data analytics across health, education, and social programs — a broad incumbent that competes for the same applied research engagements.

Emerging players

• Portland State University - Institute of Metropolitan Studies: A university-based institute conducting applied urban and regional research with community partnerships in the Portland region — directly comparable in structure to UNC Charlotte Urban Institute as a university-housed, community-engaged research center.
• Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) at NYU: CUSP is a university-based urban research center applying data science and analytics to urban challenges — comparable to UNC Charlotte Urban Institute's blending of academic research, data infrastructure, and community engagement.

Regional players

• NYC Center for Innovation through Data Intelligence (CIDI): NYC's CIDI integrates administrative data across city agencies for cross-domain analytics, paralleling the Charlotte Regional Data Trust's integrated data system model, but focused on New York City government rather than a university setting.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/CLTUrbanInst
• Instagraminstagram.com/clturbaninstitute/?__pwa=1
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/unc-charlotte-urban-institute

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles13 records

Subsidiaries4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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

Frequently asked questions about UNC Charlotte Urban Institute