Three Thursdays, May 7 – 21, 1 to 2:30 PM Eastern (10:00am-11:30am Pacific)
The term “big data” gets used (and misused) a lot, making it seem scary and expensive. But bigger isn’t always better. Gathering the right data—and knowing how to use it—is what matters. Join us for Nonprofit Data for Beginners: Choosing Metrics, Collecting, Analyzing, and Using Data for Evaluation and Storytelling, a three-week course designed to help you ask the right questions, find the data you need, and use your data to strengthen your organization.
May 7: Asking the Right Questions
Simply collecting data is not enough. Deciding early on what you will do with that data—and why you want it in the first place—will help you to define goals and approaches. We’ll talk through how to define your organization’s own data-based metrics strategy from the ground up.
May 14: Hunting Down the Data
More often than not, the most useful data won’t be found already neatly laid out in a spreadsheet. You might find extremely valuable data in handwritten staff notes, in multiple software systems, or public repositories. We’ll discuss where different data can live, which sources of data might be useful, and where and how you can collect it to be ready for analysis.
May 21: Making Use of Your Data
In the final session, we will discuss the various ways you will need to manage and use the data you’ve collected. We’ll consider the logistics of entering, storing, and maintaining your data. We’ll also look at how to develop an action plan that ensures your data program is useful and sustainable.
Eric Leland, Founder and Director of FivePaths
Eric Leland has spent the last 15 years working with progressive organizations and businesses tackling online and offline technology challenges. Eric is a founding partner of FivePaths (fivepaths.com), a technology firm that brings unparalleled strategic technology consulting, information architecture and web CMS and CRM platform development expertise to each project. Eric is very active in nonprofit, philanthropy and technology circles, having served as co-chair to the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network in San Francisco, on the National Advisory Board for the Addiction Technology Transfer Center, and as a member of NTEN and the Tech Underground.
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