5 Common Mistakes Nonprofits Make with Data & How to Avoid Them

Many nonprofits are currently experiencing a period of rapid growth. And while growth is an exciting enabler of achieving mission, this type of change is not without its challenges.

To support the unique challenges of organizations experiencing rapid growth, La Piana Consulting has created BUILDing for Growth — a customized capacity-building program for select Ford Foundation grantees currently experiencing substantial, rapid, and unplanned growth. We recently offered a workshop to our BUILDing for Growth cohort focused on the use of data and evaluation techniques in the nonprofit sector, and we are thrilled to share our thoughts with you as well.

If you are interested in learning more, our workshop explores 5 common mistakes nonprofits make with data and how to avoid them. In this workshop, Ali Carella, Senior Consultant at La Piana and an applied researcher by trade, jumps right into discussing the ways nonprofits are using data to make informed decisions and provides tips on:

• How to better measure your outcomes
• How to collect data using an equity framework
• How to use data to make decisions
• How to protect your data
• How to use data in collaboration with other organizations

View the workshop recording here!

*All group conversations were edited out of the video to respect attendee confidentiality.

Although nonprofits may make mistakes with data, the solutions shared in this workshop are small and achievable. Ali shares a variety of helpful resources throughout the workshop on data informed decision-making, protecting your data, how to approach collaborative data, and increasing the reliability of outcomes and impact reporting and evaluation. Throughout the workshop, she pulls from real-world examples and provides a variety of scenarios showing how to implement this thinking into daily work. You may download workshop slides here.

Interested in La Piana facilitating a session for your organization? We cover a wide-range of topics in support of nonprofit organizations! Please reach out to us at info@lapiana.org if we can provide additional information or if you would like to talk to us about the type of workshops we can facilitate for your organization.