MSU EDA University Center for

Regional Economic Innovation

E-Update | May 2025

NC3 Community Capital Impact Conference

On May 29, 2025, stakeholders from across Michigan and the country convened at the University of Michigan’s Blau Hall for the “Measuring Community Impact” conference - a day-long event focused on the future of community capital and community investment funds. Supported in-part by Michigan State University’s EDA-funded Regional Economic Innovation (REI) University Center, the gathering brought together scholars, fund managers, grassroots practitioners, and other fields to examine how we measure impact when communities drive capital.

The event opened with foundational perspectives from national leaders including Chris Miller of the National Coalition for Community Capital (NC3) and Sydney Davis, Economic Recovery Corps fellow. A highlight was a data-driven presentation sharing insights on the impact and success of investment crowdfunding. Miller shared a case study from Nova Scotia, which underscored the potential for community capital models to drive wealth creation and resilience even in rural and underbanked regions; in addition to creating jobs.

A key theme throughout the day was nuance: What does community impact mean, and to whom? In addition to, how does one measure impact at different levels? In an afternoon session, participants formed small teams to design feasible studies to evaluate the impact of new forms of access to capital for small businesses, tailored to their chosen community contexts. Each team identified potential key outcomes and metrics, sketched a basic theory of change, discussed assumptions and potential short- and long-term effects, in addition to trade-offs due to budget constraints, data access or limited time. The exercise challenged attendees to think critically about measuring impact at multiple levels—from fund performance to investor sentiment, to small business survival, to community trust and inclusion.

The convening closed with a forward-looking session on AI and innovation in measurement tools. Attendees left not only with new ideas, but with the shared interest to elevate community capital as a credible, measurable tool for economic transformation. REI’s support of this convening aligns with its ongoing mission to co-create with community innovative economic development tools, models, practices and programs for Michigan’s underserved communities.

MSU Data Science Capstone Seeking Community Project Partners for Fall 2025 & Spring 2026

The Department of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering (CMSE) at Michigan State University (MSU) is seeking community partners with potential project ideas for their undergraduate data science capstone course at Michigan State University (MSU) for both the Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 Semesters.

Community Partners will have the opportunity to work with the course instructor, Dr. Dirk Colbry, to develop a data science project appropriate for a team of 4-5 seniors who have completed the majority of their Data Science degree at MSU. These students are familiar with multiple programming languages (e.g., Python, R, MATLAB, Bash, C++) and have experience in a range of data science skills and topics, including: databases, data manipulation, statistical analysis, optimization methods, computational modeling, large scale computing, scientific visualization, and machine learning. 

Typically their partners come from Industry, Governmental Agencies and Non-profit institutions. The partners have ideas/problems and are looking for student teams to help solve their data science projects. They are seeking a variety of projects ideas and generally prefer ones that have one or more of the following properties:

• Social impact
• Impact to the State of Michigan
• Direct impact of students and their interests

Learn more and please consider sharing with your networks: https://msu-cmse-courses.github.io/cmse495-SS25/Seeking-Community_Partners

Please reach out to Dirk Colbry, colbrydi@msu.edu with any questions.