Guest Post by The 2011 American Express NGen Fellows

Whether it’s a sophisticated database or a drawer full of client records and evaluation forms, all of us working to affect social change have data and insights at our fingertips. This often underutilized information about our communities and the services we provide can be key to helping us as nonprofit leaders make sound decisions about how to use our limited resources, catalyze support for social change, and meet our missions. With rapid technological advances enabling us to connect more quickly and effectively than ever before, data has the power to bridge gaps in understanding and to foster meaningful conversations around our most challenging social problems. 

Unfortunately, many of us are not collecting, analyzing, or sharing data in ways that lead to greater social impact. Some of us see data and analytics as the antithesis to heart, soul, and passion for a cause. Others see data manipulation as the exclusive tool of trained statisticians, making it too complicated or expensive to consider. Still others are unaware that they can use data to scale impact or don’t know about the growing number of tools and methods for marrying data with direct experience. Finally, many of us who want to understand and use our data often don’t know where to start – and don’t have the time or resources to experiment. 

For our emerging generation of nonprofit leaders, the ability to keep up with our counterparts in the private and public sectors as they use data for planning, research, communication, development, and evaluation will be crucial to our success. That’s why the 2011 American Express NGen Fellows have decided to focus our project on using data for leading the nonprofit sector. 

Our goals for this project are to:

1.   Highlight the understanding of data as a next generation leadership skill;
2.   Dispel the myth that only skilled number crunchers can use data;
3.   Raise awareness of innovative tools and methods for capturing, analyzing, and sharing data;
4.   Present practical tips to help nonprofit leaders of all skill levels increase their ability to use data;
5.   Showcase organizations effectively utilizing data to achieve more efficient operations and successful outcomes; and
6.   Provide a forum to discuss the benefits and challenges of using data for social change.

We will use three primary tools to accomplish our project goals. 

NGen Blog:  We intend to use this blog to discuss what we learn from nonprofit leaders leveraging data to solve pressing community problems. In this medium, we will explore successes, challenges, and failures from a range of everyday practitioners and experts trying to impact programs, strategy, service delivery, and operations. The blog will also assist us in our efforts to discover affordable tools, processes, and best practices that make it easier to experiment with data collection, analysis, and implementation.

Data Dive:  In partnership with Data Without Borders, we will help up to four nonprofit organizations examine their existing data to unearth learning that amplifies their efforts. Watch this blog to learn more about participating in this innovative event March 2–4, in Washington, DC.

Webinar:  As part of the NGen Leadership Series, we will host a webinar on March 22 to share our learning from the Data Dive event, our project status, and the online discussions prompted by the blog.

We hope you will join us for an ongoing dialogue on the pearls and perils of using data for social change.  If, as NGen leaders, we can begin to feel more comfortable assessing the effectiveness of programs, telling more compelling stories with data visualization, distinguishing between useless numbers and meaningful information, and understanding how data best fits into our jobs, then we will be successful.

Most of all, we want to hear from you. What do you wish you knew about incorporating data to do your work better? What is your biggest challenge with using data? Leave us a comment below, and we will ask our bloggers over the next three months to answer your questions. Together we can identify the tools you need to turn your organization’s data from land mines of disconnected numbers and unread reports into a gold mine of dynamic information that helps you make strategic decisions for real lasting impact.