Last week, we held another one of signature impact data chats. It was a lively discussion with a diverse group of evaluators, foundations, nonprofits and impact investors interested in sharing strategies for using data to support fundraising and communication of impact. See some of the#resources shared below. Please feel free to suggest other resources and send us links, we will continue to build this resource list through your comments.

Different Ways to Present Data

Below we highlight some strategies shared in the Impact Data Chat for presenting data to support fundraising efforts. 

Understand the difference between data visualization vs. data presentation. A great resource is Stephanie Evergreen  https://stephanieevergreen.com/ 

‍Infographics and Creative visualization of a problem or social issue: Creative visuals that surface issues and data trends can be used to illustrate the depth of a problem to inspire people to take action. For example Mona Chalabi visualizes research and data related to current social conversations  in artistic, fun and creative wayshat inform, create awareness and also encourage you to take action. https://www.instagram.com/monachalabi/?hl=en                                             

‍Framing the unmet demand: Visuals that show need and unmet demand and that give clear action steps. Philanthropy’s Response to the Call for Racial Justice has a great example of this, showing the mismatch between pledges and allocations in funding flows. https://racialequity.org/mismatched/

‍‍‍Case studies: Case studies, and especially visual impact stories, can help organizations tell their story in a data driven way that humanizes their key wins. You can use quotes, videos and contextualize  impact numbersm adding voice and character to traditional reporting. Here are some examples of case studies that ImpactMapper has produced to show the power of impact storytelling through visual case studies. https://www.impactmapper.com/sdg5-projects/pastoral-womens-council

‍Articulating your value and unique contributions: to a change process with stories and data. The ImpactMapper Evaluation of Charge, uses data trends and case studies of businesses to illustrate their unique contributions.

Vignettes: Quotes and vignettes can be a powerful way to show how lives have changed through the #interventions that you are seeking funding for. You can use key quotes from nonprofit leaders, sharing life stories or stories of impact. An example can be found in the Report on the Personal Status of Women in Westchester. https://wwagenda.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/wwa-report-final_3-7_updated.pdf

‍One Page Summary:  Create a one page visual summary to communicate report or evaluation key findings These documents are effective when they are not dense with text and instead have graphics Videos: 

‍Using learning exchanges to build relationships

• In person exchanges allow groups to articulate impact and lessons learned in more meaningful and contextualized ways compared to reports. 
• Interactions allows for relationship building between #funders and #grantees and opens the door for honest engagagement and stronger collaboration.
• For an example of these learning exchanges, see https://xchangeapproach.com/learning-xchange/‍
• In addition, ImpactMapper holds learning events at their retreat center Havn in the Norwegian fjords.  

‍Other Tips from the Community:

In addition to sharing resources, we had a great discussion around tips when conducting evaluations for impact. A few tips from our discussion appear below. 

Get back to basics of gathering data that can be used and that provides insights on strategy and implementation

Stop producing logic models or theories of change that are too detailed and do not give you the data you need to make decisions on:

• your strategy
• how you might implement more effectively
• how you might engage, advocate and be influential in the ecosystem
• connect with the right communities and partners to make change happen

Make sure to define terms, especially in cross-cultural and cross-national evaluation or research work.

• Terms and language matters.Translations can change the meaning of concepts and outcomes you want to track. Linguistic, cultural and social barriers to effective measurement are all issues that we need to have on our minds when we're working cross culturally. Some steps you can take include
• Engage the participation of stakeholders/communities at multiple phases, but especially in the designing phase of the overarching theory of change/logframe. 
• Engage the communitywhen you're developing instruments to make sure that you have definitional issues and measures aligned with the community's understanding. 
• Create processes for people to define success on their own terms without necessarily having indicators come from the top down. 
  

Use all of your data, especially the qualitative data.

• Some tips for translating qualitative data into quantitative data appear in this manual written by Alexandra Pittman.
• ‍Impact Mapper software allows you to do qualitative and mixed method analysis
•  Nvivo: https://www.qsrinternational.com/nvivo-qualitative-data-analysis-software/home, allow for qualitative data analysis.

Designing TOCs with a specific use/audience in mind.

Re-work theories of change to focus on communicating key messages rather than exhaustively capturing allnthe bits of programming, assumptions.

Next Impact Data Chat: Data Visualization for Social Justice, October 6th at 5PM CET. Register here!

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