Data Driven Strategy in the Social Sector

Jon Sotsky
Director, Strategy and Assessment, Knight Foundation

Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Quid Inc.

Sean Gourley

Jeffrey Bladt

Chief Data Officer, DoSomething.org

Moderated by:

Eric Nee
Managing Editor Stanford Social Innovation Review

Sponsored by: Knight Foundation and Quid

Join the conversation: #SSIRLive

Wednesday, February 26; 11am- Noon PST / 2-3 pm EST

Secondary Research

Stakeholder Interviews

Analysis & Reporting

Communicating Lessons

Time-intensive Uncomprehensive

Usual suspects Subjective feedback

Static snapshot Internal audience

Lack of raw data Low engagement

Piloting New Research Approaches

Learning Questions
How much money is being invested in civic tech projects? What are the different clusters of innovation? How does activity and investment vary across clusters? Who is investing in civic tech? What is the balance of private and philanthropic investment?

Driving Strategy Internally

Excerpted slides from The Emergence of Civic Tech slideshare report

Amplifying the Value of Data

Source: http://www.knightfoundation.org/features/civictech/

Source: http://www.knightfoundation.org/features/civictech/

Source: http://www.knightfoundation.org/features/civictech/

Source: http://www.knightfoundation.org/features/civictech/

Source: http://www.knightfoundation.org/features/civictech/

Source: http://www.knightfoundation.org/features/civictech/

Promoting Learning in the Field

Unlocking Data Distilling Lessons Sharing Resources

DoSomething.org

Our Philosophy of Data

Our members are our nervous system

DoSomething.orgs Data Principles

1. Focus: Look at the right key performance indicators (KPIs) and
know the difference between our data and our metrics. Use outputs that can consistently be measured, at little or no cost, and which align with our core mission.

2. Speed: The rate of our insights must match the rate of our decision
making. Iteration is almost always preferable to evaluation.

3. Empathy: Speak often with our members and understand what

success looks like for them. Quantitative data is great at answering what questions, but qualitative research is needed to figure out the why.

Improving Our Communications How do we make all our broadcasts perform like our best ones?

Case Study: Pregnancy Text

Questions?

Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Quid Inc.

Sean Gourley

Jeffrey Bladt

Chief Data Officer, DoSomething.org

Join the conversation: #SSIRLive

Thank you for joining us!

Join the conversation: #SSIRLive