Heart, Soul & Data

There's a difference between data maturity and analytics maturity. Data is about the foundation, and analytic maturity is the work to get the insights from data. Maturity is not about fancy tech or how complex things are, it's about consistency. A data organization is mature when they can do all the of activities that are involved in succeeding with data consistently. 

Analytic maturity and data maturity look different for every organization. Today's guest, Christen Ng, talks to us about analytic maturity and what that means for your organization.

Christen Ng joined AVID in 2021 as the Vice President of Technology and Data. She is responsible for leading the Technology Services and PMO teams in bringing the organization’s technology infrastructure, applications, and data/impact strategy to life. She has extensive experience in building systems and resources that leveraged data-driven insights to drive efficacy in many nonprofit segments: healthcare, workforce development, arts education policy, and gender equity/DEI.
She has become highly skilled in organizational performance management, program assessment and evaluation, and outcomes measurement. This expertise has translated to millions of dollars in grants, local and national recognition/awards, changes in Chicago's education policy, program models that have been scaled and replicated, and master class workshops and presentations in sharing proven solutions.
Christen holds an MBA in international business from Webster University and a bachelor’s degree in information systems from DePaul University. She has previously served as Vice President on the board of the United Nations Association of Chicago and volunteered as a mentor for MIT's Solve initiative.

Are you at the start of your journey with data? Or maybe you're in the middle of it and not sure what your next step should be? Today, let's hear about an incredible journey that the League of Conservation Voters has been on with data that may provide inspiration or answers for anyone walking a similar path right now. Listen in as Amanda tells her story and shares what has worked and what hasn't as she helped shaped her organization's data.  

Amanda Hoffman is the Vice President of Data and Operations at the League of Conservation Voters where she provides senior level leadership within the management & administration of a national environmental organization with 10 legal entities (c3, c4, and PACs); $160M revenue, 33 state affiliates & grantmaking of $25M. She manages all operations, data, information technology, information systems and administrations for the organization’s fundraising, membership & marketing efforts. She also manages lead department strategic plans, work planning and long-term targets. She provides leadership for streamlined data solutions that drive accurate reporting, efficiency, and organizational insights

Amanda attended American University and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BS in International Relations. She also has a Post Graduate Certificate from University of Illinois Chicago in Nonprofit Management. She resides in Washington, DC and is a board member for EcoWomen.

Research will always be done through the lens of the researcher – we can never fully leave behind who we are and how we see the world. But by bringing awareness to our own cultural biases and the diversity of others’ cultures, we can mitigate many of the possible errors our blind-spots produce.

Kim Hunt joins Heart, Soul & Data to talk about cultural competency in data collection, analysis, and application. We how culture is more than just nationality or race; culture is any collection of norms (dress, language, observances, morals) that are shared by a group. There is a military culture, a Mid-West farmer culture, and so many more of distinct lived experiences.

When it comes to collecting data and using data to make service or program decisions, we need to make sure wherever possible we include members of the cultures we are serving and studying.

What you can do now:

Do a member check on your board, your advisory group, your research council – do the lived experiences there reflect and represent those of your clients or community? If not, what could you do to bring in more direct representation?

Guest Bio:

Kim Hunt, PhD has been active in education and the nonprofit sector for more than 30 years. As a Navy Spouse, she moved homes with her husband and two daughters 16 times in 21 years throughout the US and Europe. Dr. Hunt’s research focus is on highly mobile military children and their capacity to build resilience, resilience in other highly mobile populations, education, social determinants of health, and military transition. She has over 10 years of experience in program design and evaluation, organizational evaluation, needs assessments, data collection development including surveys, focus groups, interviews, and research. She is currently the Director of Evaluation, Research and Training for Komposset Consulting Strategies, LLC. Dr. Hunt is a Certified Nonprofit Professional and has previously worked with many small and large nonprofit organizations and educational institutions. Dr. Hunt has vast experience working across cultures and holds a certificate in cultural competency training. In addition, Dr. Hunt creates and facilitates evaluation and data collection training for nonprofit organizations.

Dr. Hunt earned her PhD in Leadership Studies with a dual emphasis in Nonprofit Management and Education from the University of San Diego, a MA in Education with a focus on Curriculum Development from University of Phoenix, and a BS in Economics with a concentration in Developing Nations from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA.

Marillac St Vincent has served Chicago for over a century, and its data needs have evolved along with its services. Kevin McGhee, the Senior Director of Data Management, walks us through the journey of how this dynamic nonprofit has grown its data and leaned into data for measuring quality of its programs to drive improvement.

Day-to-day, Kevin ensures data quality integrity and approves policies, processes, and procedures related to data. Directly supervises a Data Quality Analyst and Compliance Manager and owns all aspects of the agency-wide dashboard. His work allows MSV to better understand the capacity of the organization. Kevin is a Heal Chicago Fellow, completed Northwestern Kellogg School Center for Nonprofit Management course funded by The Allstate Foundation, and was an NTENny Award recipient from NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network. This award acknowledges community members who have generously given their time, knowledge, energy, and enthusiasm to the nonprofit technology sector.

Kevin grew up on the west side of Chicago. He is a graduate of John Hay Community Academy Elementary and William Howard Taft High School.

He graduated Cum Laude from Champlain College with a BS in Computer Information Systems and a Master of Science in Information Systems from DePaul University. He served as Co-Director of the AmeriCorps program with the Michigan Community Service Commission and worked with the Heartland Alliance as an Asset Development Coordinator and Enrollment Specialist to assist Chicago Housing Authority participants with the Family Self-Sufficiency Program.

Kevin isn’t all work though, in his free time, you’ll probably find him golfing, biking, flying kites, playing basketball, or spending time with his high school sweetheart and their two children.

We can't amplify our good work with data if we don't have the right people to work on the data. Today's guest, Claudia Juech of the Patrick J McGovern Foundation explores the scope of the analytic workforce shortage and how we as social organizations can creatively solve it.

 

Claudia Juech, Vice President of Data and Society at the Patrick. J. McGovern Foundation, is a technology-focused strategist, pragmatic optimist, and builder of programs and organizations. Her career has been all about using data for decision making – first in the financial sector in Germany and more recently at the Rockefeller Foundation, where she and her team used foresight approaches and innovation methodologies to identify the most promising ideas that could be shaped into the next $100M initiative. Before she joined PJMF, Claudia established and led the Cloudera Foundation in Silicon Valley as its founding CEO until it merged with PJMF in May 2021. Her work centers on data-use cases where the resulting insights can advance action and lead to progress on societal challenges. Claudia has a degree in information science from Cologne University of Applied Sciences and an International MBA from the University of Cologne.

 

I believe that a foundational level of data literacy is as important to each and every one of us as knowing how to read and write. Today's episode is an audio recording of a presentation I gave at the NTC 2022 conference this year about the imperative we have to build our own and our team's data literacy. 

Not only will data literacy help you in both your personal and professional life, but investing in data literacy at an organizational level will help you retain your employees and amplify the success and sustainability of your nonprofit. 

Visit the shownotes page to watch the video version or download the slides.

What does making chocolate chip cookies have to do with data? Join Jennifer Otremba of Nonprofit Data Geeks as she explains through the power of baking how to take the logic model of your organization's operations and turn it into your data model. If you aren't familar with logic models, don't worry! Jennifer explains what they are and how you can make your own. 

The basic idea is that everything you have and do in your role, your team, and your organization can be arranged into an interconnected flow of inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes. Understanding where different resources and operations fit helps you understand how they relate to one another - and, for our purposes here, what you need to track and monitor.

Jennifer's number one piece of advice for making progress and succeeding with a sustainable data model is to identify (or create!) 'captains of data' in your team or organization. Making this a clear and known hat that some people wear will help you carve out time and support for these captains.

Jennifer Otremba, Founder & Lead Salesforce Consultant at Nonprofit Data Geeks, "accidentalled" her way into data. She has been geeking out on nonprofit data since 2007 when she started as the Program Director at Breakthrough Twin Cities. After 5 years working in a direct service role she transitioned into a data and evaluation role in 2012. In 2013 she successfully migrated Breakthrough's development database from Raiser's Edge to Salesforce and has been a Salesforce convert ever since. At Breakthrough Twin Cities she built a robust data management system that allowed them track almost every aspect of their program and development work in Salesforce. Other nonprofits heard what she was up to and started asking for help, which is how she become a consultant in 2016. Since then, Jennifer has worked with dozens of nonprofits, helping them leverage Salesforce to meet their specific needs. Jennifer has a B.A. in Natural Science from the College of Saint Benedict and an M.Ed. in Youth Development Leadership from the University of MN. When Jennifer isn't busy geeking out on nonprofit data, she and her husband are chasing after two daughters and finding great places to hike with family and friends.

Should there be a Hippocratic oath for data? A kind of fiduciary responsibility oath for analysts? We explore the ethics of responsible data collection, analysis and reporting with Alexandra Robinson, the Head of Data Ethics and Social Impact at Threshold World.

Alexandra shared several resources for learning more about ethical data work. All Tech Is Human engages in the development of Responsible Tech Ecosystems for a better future. ResponsibleData.io fosters a community for those using data for social change. They have toolkits, exercises, and more to help. You can get involved with ResponsibleData.io by joining their mailing list, writing blog posts, and more.

As the head of Data Ethics and Social Impact, Alexandra directly supports the CEO and executive team on data regulation, cybercrime risk, data management, and adverse event mitigation. She is the principal subject matter expert and advisor to threshold’s product/engineering teams developing a subscription-based program design, management, and storytelling platform for non-profit customers. She has real-world experience developing data policies, products, and programs in and for complex contexts such as Ebola-recovery in West Africa, labor exploitation in Nepal, and human trafficking in Las Vegas. Alexandra earned her MSc in Global Crime, Justice and Security from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, UK and her BA in Political Science from Davidson College.

"Agile" is a formally designed approach meant to help software developers turn out better software faster and with fewer bugs. Today's guest, Bo Ruan, Head of Data at the Alzheimer's Society, helps us see how we can leverage the core concepts of agile to create more impactful data systems, analytics, and insights.

Now, if you Google Agile Methodology, you can quickly get sucked into a rabbit hole of certifications and masterships and oodles of training. Bo's approach is that you're not aiming to become a formal Agile practioner, but rather to adapt the key Agile principles - which are themselves simple - to your data work. In this episode, we cover those essential elements and how to put them to use with social good data.

If you want to get started with Agile in your data work, Bo recommends starting with the 12 Principles of the Agile Manifesto. While they are stated in the context of software development, most of the steps have clear parallels to data work, such as delivering working outputs regularly for immediate stakeholder feedback, connecting end-users and developers continuously, and regular reflections on how things have gone and how they can go better.

Bo Ruan is the first Head of Data at the Alzheimer’s Society, part of a career in serving the social good sector through data. As the first in his role, Bo faced the challenge of developing a data strategy from scratch. Alzheimer’s Society had not yet leveraged the data it has access prior to Bo joining, so he was uniquely placed to roll out an effective and robust data strategy for the charity. It is a process that continues to deveop, and that Bo is thrilled to be part of. Bo earned his BA in philosophy from King's College London and his MSc in Business Innovation from the University of London.

How do you measure 'social good' in a remotely standardized or comparable way? How do you decide whether it would be better to invest in a program to improve childhood literacy or a STEM program? 

We tackle these difficult questions with Kyle Kerrigan of Upbring, a nonprofit dedicated to breaking the cycle of child abuse by empowering children, families and communities. At Upbring, Kyle and his teammates are driving innovation in their social programs by leveraging 'social return on investment' - a calculation designed to facilitate comparisons across ideas and outputs. Social return on investment, or SROI, requires you to decide what exactly it is you are trying to achieve, and how you will capture the value of different levels of that achievement.

Most SROI calculations use dollars as a way of creating that standard. This isn't to say that you are actually stating teaching a child to read is worth $500 in absolute terms, but rather a way of creating a scale that would allow a stakeholder to build a sort of 'rank order' of different outputs or a hierarchy of outcomes that matter. In some cases, these decisions do have financial impacts or require significant financial inputs, and therefore a comparison of financial return is relevant.

To learn more, check out Kyle's blog article on calculating SROI. Ready to get started? Leverage Upbring's Innovation Evaluation calculator. 

About Kyle Kerrigan

Kyle Kerrigan utilizes his enthusiasm and skills to address society’s most pressing issues.  He serves as Director of Data & Analytics at Upbring Innovation Labs, exploring audacious ideas that can break the cycle of abuse.  A division of Upbring, a Texas-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization serving children and families, we scale innovation by creating earned revenue streams and sustainable impact at the intersection of social enterprise, new technology and data.  In addition to using data to support fund development, compliance and annual reporting, Kyle leverages analytics to drive Upbring’s innovation, growth and competitive differentiation.

He graduated from DePauw University (IN).  Shortly thereafter, Kyle completed his post-graduate education at IU’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA), earning his Master of Public Affairs (MPA).

Kyle is also an endurance athlete and coach, and when not at his desk, he can often be found on the trails of the Texas Hill Country.