Data Matters: Let’s Look Within To Find Our Exemplars
2011 Fellows , Measurement , NGen Add comments
Guest post by Phil Buchanan is President of the Center for Effective Philanthropy
When it comes to leadership, data matters. I’d argue you can’t be effective as a leader without understanding how to tap into data to gauge the effectiveness of your work and then drive (and inspire) improvement. So I am thrilled to see that the current class of NGen Fellows has decided to focus its project on “using data for leading the nonprofit sector.”
My hope, in reading the NGen Fellows blog post explaining this choice, is that we remember that this push is not new – that we have lots of examples to learn from. The Fellows write of the imperative "to keep up with our counterparts in the private and public sectors." But even if the assumption is correct that the nonprofit sector lags in this area, and I am not sure it is (especially when you factor in how much more complex and difficult it is to obtain performance data in our sector), I don’t think comparing ourselves to other sectors is the most effective way to motivate change.
If what we want to do is inspire nonprofit leaders to use data more effectively to improve the impact of their work, we should look within the sector for examples. In that vein, I was pleased to see that one of the project goals is to "showcase organizations effectively utilizing data to achieve more efficient operations and successful outcomes." This should not be hard because, while we can all agree that there should be more, the fact is, examples abound.
- Why not look to the example of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, a nonprofit whose savvy use and analysis of data has helped dramatically improve patient outcomes?
- Why don’t we study organizations like Nurse-Family Partnership, which has developed powerful data on its efficacy?
- Or how about the work of the Stuart Foundation and its grantees to improve life outcomes for foster kids? (Disclosure: Stuart is both a grant funder and client of the organization I lead.)
Wharton professor Peter Fader, who is Co-Director of the Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative, has observed that nonprofits often excel in using “their data to better understand their ‘customer base,’” arguing that, “in this area, big companies with lots of resources really can learn from their cash-strapped non-profit cousins.”
I think we do ourselves a disservice by painting with too broad a brush when it comes to the state of the sector in its approach to data. We need to understand both the historical and present-day examples from within the sector of rigorous, data-driven, effective nonprofit work. And, as a former strategy consultant to major companies, I can tell you there’s a lot of shoddy use, and non-use, of data in the corporate world. (Financial crisis, anyone?)
At the (nonprofit) Center for Effective Philanthropy, where I serve as president, we have developed tools to allow foundations to get confidential, comparative feedback about their performance from grant recipients and others. (Our motto is "Better Data. Better Decisions. Better Philanthropy.") People widely assume that we used customer-satisfaction surveys in the corporate world as our model, but we did not; our model, in fact, was the comparative reports based on student survey results put together for decades by a consortium of nonprofit colleges and universities.
If we are to inspire more leaders in the nonprofit sector to embrace the tough work of being data-driven leaders, we will be much better off looking for models within the sector. My hope is that the NGEN Fellows will keep that in mind as they pursue this important project.
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Phil Buchanan is President of the Center for Effective Philanthropy. He blogs frequently on the CEP Blog.
Feb 16, 2012 at9:07 AM Excellent comments and a strong reminder that the constant comparison of the non-profit sector to other sectors from the perspective of our sector being weak, inefficient, and often inept, is just not the best path. Thanks for the push Phil.
Feb 16, 2012 at1:11 PM I really appreciate the importance of reminding each other that performance evaluation in the nonprofit sector is incredibly sophisticated, complex and challenging. At Commongood, this is part of our pitch and one of our most successful strategies for recruiting talented research and evaluation professionals from for profit / gov't side. If you're with an organization making this type of hire, don't shy away from the complexity of the role. Let candidates know this is cutting-edge work with no easy answers. The right candidates will love the challenge.
Feb 16, 2012 at5:43 PM Thanks, Lisa, for your comment. I think the best way to motivate people is with examples from within the sector, and there are plenty to choose from! Part of the reason why we're better off looking within relates to Kevin's comment regarding complexity. When I was in an MBA program a decade ago, I got so tired of students and faculty who made simplistic analogies that ignored the tough facts about the sector. Among those tough facts are that there is no universal measure, no analog to ROI, and there never will be; that nonprofits are working on the toughest challenges -- if business or government could have easily solved them, they would have; and that, while there is much to be learned across sectors (in both directions), everything is context-specific. As Kevin points out, these tough realities make the challenge all the more interesting.
Feb 22, 2012 at6:47 PM I appreciate the reminder that incredibly smart, talented and savvy people push the envelope in the nonprofit world every day, innovative use of data included. I agree with the inference that we do a poor job of controlling the dialogue and promoting the sector in this regard - I wonder how we turn that around? To do a small part, I'll add a couple more organizations to the list Phil started.
Children's Defense Fund uses data scientists on staff to add analytical rigor to the task of protecting and advocating on behalf of this country's children.
Do Something in New York has at least two "data people" on staff to leverage technology and analytics to more effectively engage young people in social change.
But how does anyone not already immersed in this work (inside or outside of the sector) discover bright spots like these? Where and how do they share them if there is something particularly striking that might be of interest to many other nonprofits, but not enough to warrant the time and energy required to organize a workshop session for an upcoming nonprofit conference?
Put simply, if I find an example of a nonprofit with a breakthrough use of data that could increase performance of 100 other organizations immediately, who do I tell? Where do I submit the link or idea? My 400 Twitter followers only gets the message so far (no offense, my Tweeps).
We seem to be lacking the same promotional engines and centralized resource hubs afforded our for-profit brethren. I would probably characterize the problem as a "small entity versus large entity" problem rather than a "nonprofit versus for-profit" problem; small businesses face the same challenges.
Especially when it comes to providing practical, accessible, affordable resources to help the everyday person use data more effectively for social impact, I think our sector has an opportunity to improve.
I'm thankful for this NGen project because we have the opportunity to highlight and document a few of these great examples (and thanks, Phil, for expanding that list) and to share some tools with people craving this type of sharing, but it seems like the sector needs a more visible resource for "non data geeks" who know they want to use data for social impact but they're not sure where to start...or people who think they're onto something but aren't sure whether it's worth sharing with the outside world. If we are to in fact change the narrative and feature our exemplars, we need an easier and quicker way to find out who they are.
Even if they don't beat us on data savvy, most corporations sure outpace nonprofits in their ability to make visible and self-promote case studies of the great things they do. That's a nut I'd love to crack.