Every presentation I attended at the Nonprofit Technology Conference hit on the importance of data and measurement.

Why data? It allows us to learn, improve, and have greater impact as nonprofit organizations. But to do so, it needs to be meaningful and a part of organizational culture.

During #12NTCviz,  Beth Kanter shared lessons on being a data informed nonprofit versus a data driven organization. A data informed culture is focused on knowledge and driven by curiosity. It’s about answering the questions “why did this happen?” and “how can we get a better result?” while presenting the data in an effective manner.

Nonprofits by in large fail at presenting their data. They are so focused on transparency; they record and present every piece of data they can get their hands on. This data is typically presented in a very dull, uninspiring and unreadable spreadsheet format.

We’ve all sat through those board or management meetings where we are handed pages and pages of number on spreadsheets. Did they inspire you? Did they make you want to break through the data to find ways to have a greater impact with your work?

It’s time to visualize our data in ways that allow us to learn, and ways that inspire and build confidence amongst board members and donors. Thanks to Kanter and fellow presenters Brian Kennedy and Johanna Morariu, this great wikispace was compiled with resources and examples.

How is your nonprofit using data to get better results?