Unlocking the Economic Ripple Effect with Civian

Imagine tossing a pebble into a pond. The small splash creates ripples that spread outward, growing larger and larger. This simple concept mirrors the economic ripple effect, where a single investment can generate widespread positive changes. Even small investments, especially when made in underserved communities, can lead to a cascade of benefits that have a substantial impact far beyond the initial outlay. At Civian, our mission is to create lasting change in underserved communities. We do that by providing data insights to optimize your investments in communities that need it most. It’s a win-win for businesses and communities.

How it works

A traditional Economic Input-Output Model shows how different sectors of the economy are interconnected, in other words, the ripple effect of investments. To economists and data scientists, this concept is as old and basic as the alphabet. But, for the rest of us, here’s a simple breakdown of how it works:

1. An Initial Investment injects money into the economy. This could be a new business opening, a public infrastructure project, or funding for community development. 
2. That money directly affects the initial recipients—businesses, workers, and suppliers. They experience increased income and sales. This is the Direct Impact. 
3. Then, the increased income or sales is spent on goods and services from other businesses. For instance, workers may spend their salaries at local shops. This is Indirect Impact. 
4. The ripple continues as further spending leads to additional economic activity. Local businesses hire more employees, suppliers receive more orders, and the cycle continues. This is Induced Impact.
5. The Overall Growth is the combined direct, indirect, and induced impact that contributes to overall economic growth and improvement in the community’s quality of life.

Leading with Local Intel: The Civian Difference

In any city, you can observe and feel the dynamic change from neighborhood to neighborhood. And, as you move through the area, the unique opportunities and challenges within each community change, too. The lived experience is real and observable, but those observations are anecdotal. As a business leader, you need data to inform your strategy. Civian provides data that quantifies the lived experience at a granular level.

Civian’s unique algorithm provides two very critical insights for business investments and local intel is a key differentiator.:

1. Community Risk assessment measures how vulnerable a particular community is based on economic health, access to resources and equity in the selected location. ​
2. Impact Score uses a highly sophisticated economic input-output model that accounts for the vulnerability of a community.

With Civian, you can optimize the impact of your investments and measure measure the ripple through the community. It's not just about the initial investment - it's having the confidence that your dollars are generating the greatest social return on investment (SROI). Civian equips you with the data needed to quantify the ripple effect of your investments by location.  That's responsible fintech. That's Civian.

Our unique approach promotes inclusive economic growth by taking into account the inequities that exist in the community. With this detailed view and measure of impact, even the smallest of investments can cause a massive positive ripple when thrown into the right pond.