We wanted to share a resource developed by Powered by Data, a non-profit initiative we launched to work with nonprofits, funders and governments to help them better use, share and learn from data.
How would you rate your organisation’s “data capacity”?
Simply put, data capacity refers to the ability to use data effectively within an organization.
Building data capacity doesn’t just happen on its own -- it requires the right tools, skills, policies and workflows. And more broadly it means adopting a data-informed culture across the organisation.
But the benefits it brings make it an important opportunity for your organisation’s success: better institutional memory, improved operations, and the ability to experiment and adapt much more quickly.
For fundraisers, it can mean improving your ability to target the right funders, increasing the effectiveness of your asks, and better communicating the impact to funders and other stakeholders.
In fact, fundraising can be a great place to start the “data conversation” within your organisation.This was one key takeaway from discussions on data capacity held during Transform the Sector, a conference that Powered by Data held in February that aimed to highlight how the Canadian social sector can harness the opportunities of digital data.
You can learn a bit more about data capacity by watching this 5-minute video produced after the conference:
And here you’ll find a complete report based on the data capacity discussions.
Finally, if you’re interested in digging even deeper, this page compiles all the resources that we’ve produced following Transform the Sector 2017.
We hope you find all these resources informative and useful, and we’ll be sure to let you know about the next edition of Transform the Sector.
And as always, happy fundraising!
Your friends at Ajah