Event Details

Americans consume 3.6 zettabytes of information per day according to research by The University of California at San Diego. One zettabyte is one billion trillion bytes. How much information is that, really? How is it being consumed? You can better understand these abstract questions by looking at this image. That's the power of data visualization.

Nonprofits have many reasons to use available data sources along with data they're collecting to better demonstrate their work. The question is: how do you cut through the noise to talk about your cause? 

Why, you purchase the recording of "Taming the Data Monster", of course!

Nonprofits need to take huge amounts of information and create ways for a population already overloaded with data to understand their story. How can nonprofits display the data they collect in a useful way to further their missions and causes?

Join NTEN for a unique online event to learn and discuss the way data affects your nonprofit and what resources & tools are available to visualize your data in powerful ways to tell your nonprofit's story.

> Purchase the Recording of Taming the Data Monster!

Lucy Bernholz will open the event with a plenary, Data are the New Platform for Change. You can read more about Lucy, below.

Breakout Sessions:

After the plenary, we'll then dive into your choice of 3 breakout sessions:

• Capturing Metrics to Measure Your Mission:  Introduction to Data Analysis: How can you use software to help you gather the information to assess the health and progress of your organization?  We'll talk through what metrics are possible to gather from commonly used types of software and discuss a framework to help you analyze what's likely to be useful to you. Presented by Laura Quinn, Idealware.
• Storytelling & Data: Data is so much more than a stack of numbers or a server filled with client outputs.  It can justify the work that your nonprofit is doing, help explain why it is critical, and even offer exciting new ways to motivate others to help solve the problems your organization is working on. This information needs to be understandable and shareable. Data can be shaped into a story that supports your work and makes it more accessible to your supporters. Presented by Kurt Voelker, Forum One Communications.
• Creating Dashboards: An organization's dashboard is one of its most important internal communications tools, giving you a birds-eye view of your organizations overall progress. But an organization's dashboard is so much more than exporting a few PDFs and spreadsheets from your analytics and CRM programs. It's about organizing your data in a way to communicate where you have been, what you are doing, and most importantly what you need to do to move forward. We'll talk about determining what should be on your dashboard (the answer may surprise you), how to present the data for the dashboard in a clear and concise manner, and how to make less onerous the task of gathering data. Presented by: Marissa Goldsmith, Beaconfire Consulting.

Audience:

This workshop is intended for Communications staff who want to take data and incorporate it to tell more compelling stories and for IT Staff interested in learning how to collect more useful data.

Learning Objectives:

1. The role of data in nonprofit management
2. The role of data in enagaging your stakeholders
3. How to decide what data to collect and basic analysis skills

10:00 - 10:45 AM - Opening Plenary: 45 minutes
10:45 - 11:00 AM - Q&A & Backchannel: 15 minutes
11:00 - 11:10 AM - Break: 10 minutes
11:10 - 12:10 PM - Breakout Sessions (choose one): 60 minutes
12:10 - 12:30 PM - Final Q&A: 20 minutes

The Format:

This immersive, interactive webinar experience will begin with a plenary session providing an overview of data visualization. Because we know you'd be disappointed in us if we didn't include them, we'll have a live question and answer and a back channel discussion. After a ten minute break, participants will have the option of joining one of four break out sessions. Each of the 60 minute sessions will include a drill down in the topic area, presented by an expert in field (see below). The back channel will be moderated by even more experts, who will add additional insights and answer participant questions.  Participants will also receive recordings of all sessions. 

The Speakers 

Lucy Bernholz is the Founder and President of Blueprint Research & Design, Inc. She has worked as a program officer and consultant to foundations since 1990. Bernholz founded Blueprint Research & Design, Inc in 1997 as a means of pursuing a lifelong interest in the shifting relationships between society’s definitions of public and private and to help grant makers make better use of applied research. Read more about Lucy here and on her blog.  

Marissa Goldsmith has been working with non-profits in establishing their online presence for over ten years. She is a functional analyst at Beaconfire Consulting, helping non-profits determine their Web site goals, and turning them into requirements, business rules, and software configurations to make their online presence a reality. She also works with non-profit organizations in an ongoing capacity to manage and analyze their Web site data and use that data to make decisions about their Web presence.

Laura Quinn has been working in the software sector for more than 12 years. As Idealware’s Executive Director, she directs Idealware’s research and writing to provide candid reports and articles about nonprofit software, including the Consumers Guide to Low-Cost Donor Management Systems and the upcoming Nonprofit Social Media Decision Guide. Prior to Idealware, Laura founded Alder Consulting, where she helped nonprofits create Internet strategies, select appropriate software, and then build sophisticated websites on a limited budget. She has also selected software, designed interfaces and conducted user research for multi-million dollar software and website implementations with such companies as Accenture and iXL. Laura is a frequent speaker and writer on nonprofit technology topics.

Kurt Voelker is the CTO of Forum One Communications, a web strategy and web development consultancy based in Alexandria, VA. He has 13 years of experience helping some of the worldslargest largest (and smallest!) nonprofit organizations conceive, build, and deploy their web sites and systems. He's also an avid pickup basketball player. You can catch up with Kurt's thoughts on technology and web strategy on Forum One's blogs influence.forumone.comand tech.forumone.com,and on twitter as kvoelker.

Event Materials

Opening Plenary Slides - Lucy Bernholz

Capturing Metrics to Measure Your Mission:  Introduction to Data Analysis Slides

Storytelling & Data Slides

Creating Dashbaords Slides