Brianna Johnson is an intern at the Case Foundation who is passionate about the non-profit sector. She is currently working on a Masters of Public Administration at George Washington University. In her spare time, Brianna loves to explore DC, and spend time with friends. Follow Brianna on Twitter @thebrijohnson. 

What is truly “good” data, and how can it be used to create more effective organizations?

This was the question posed in the first moments of the “Data for the Greater Good” webinar facilitated by Independent Sector. The third in the 2012 NGen Leadership Series, this session focused on how collecting and visualizing data can be beneficial to the overall mission of an organization. For this call, data was defined as any information that could be used in order to justify the creation of an organization or to illustrate the impact that that organization has created.

The webinar began with a discussion about the challenges of data collection and visualization, and how to ensure that data is used in a way that makes sense to the organizational mission. Facilitators asked participants for answers to the question, “What challenges with data are you or your organization confronting?” The most popular answers included uncertainty about how to secure relevant data, and a lack of understanding about how data could be useful.

At this point, I found myself questioning how data could truly be used for the good of not just one organization, but in a more expansive manner. I could see how collecting data was useful, but I questioned how it could truly be a factor for the greater good.

My questions were answered when the facilitators introduced Zac Townsend of Data Without Borders and HyeSook Chung, Executive director of DC Action for Children, to tell the story of how they made data work for them. Data Without Borders is an organization that seeks to match non-profits in need of data analysis with data scientists in order to create reports on relevant data, and in March 2012 they collaborated with DC Action on a “Datadive.” The purpose of this 24-hour marathon of data collection and analysis was to determine how successful DC Action has been at accomplishing their mission of advocacy for children in the District of Columbia.

For the Datadive, DC Action collected data on education, healthcare, and family structure statistics from a variety of sources. The analysts took this data and looked for connections between these indicators and the work that DC Action does. When the Datadive was complete, they issued a report detailing these connections and proving that the work of DC Action has had a positive impact on the lives of the children it advocates for.

When asked what made the Datadive so successful, Chung replied that not only did it indicate that the organization is successfully working towards its established mission, allowing them to gain more support from important groups, but that it increased collaboration between DC Action and other organizations, and allowed them to work toward a common goal.

Hearing this truly helped me to understand the meaning behind “data for the greater good.” It is not simply a measure of how relevant or how accurate data that has been collected is, but it is about how this data is used. Whether it’s used to bring attention to important issues, or shared in order to create stronger relationships among similar organizations, the best data is that which helps an organization to build its capacity to serve and work toward the greater good.

Now that I’ve learned about how data can be used for the greater good, I’d love to hear your thoughts. How does your organization use data?