Data Institute Virtual - A Community Perspective
Last month’s Data Institute Virtual, hosted by Good Measure and powered by Mission Capital, took place over two half-days and saw over 300 attendees, more than 50 speakers, and a litany of breakout sessions and workshops centering data, evaluation, and community impact. Our plenary speakers and panelists set the stage for an engaging, informative, and inspiring conference full of learning, connection, and growth.
Hear from some of our conference attendees about their experience directly:
Jane Taylor, Director of Education & Outreach – FIRST in Texas writes: As the Director of Education and Outreach for FIRST in Texas for a little over two years now, I attended the Data Institute for my first time. Honestly, I was fully prepared for two days of numbers, stats, surveys, and more data. However, what I experienced was an open and honest space where I participated in deeply transparent conversations on bias in data, learned technical tools for effective evaluation, and experienced innovative opportunities to network and connect with people who understood some of my real challenges. The Data Institute was emotionally moving, thought provoking and a fun technical learning space full of spirited advocates and storytelling agents for change. The Data Institute had great energy for a virtual conference!
I was intrigued by data and learning champion Andy Johnson. Andy spoke on starting with the heart and shared reflections on honoring communities as we gather data from them through creative evaluation and engagement. He described data as fire. As a non-profit organization and evaluator of programs, I am inspired to take a deeper look at ways we can be more principles focused in framing our evaluations. Andy stated evaluation is a search for truth inspired by fire. My team has been reflecting on how imperative it is that we are bringing fires to the issues we work on and not only sharing our data with the funders but finding meaningful ways to give data back to the community.
The panel with Jara Dean-Coffey, Marcus Walton and Sudha Nandagopal was a profoundly mystical magical moment. As a woman of color in senior leadership at a non-profit, it can be overwhelming to constantly go around discussing the real challenging issues in philanthropy. Observing this authentic open dialogue full of unedited truth bombs from the panel felt like freedom to me. A few truths: First, to meet this moment we must publicly grapple with some of the deeper issues in evaluation. Secondly, evaluation has to be a two-way conversation. We must connect thriving to our conversation about effectiveness. Lastly, we cannot method ourselves into equity. We can no longer hoard access and opportunities. We have to open the door and share power with the community we evaluate through trust building and creating quality relationships through advocating and organizing.
DeAna Swan, Quality and Outcomes Specialist for the Learn All the time initiative at the Andy Roddick Foundation (and Data Leaders Academy 2018 alum) writes: This year's Data Institute was a great reminder of why I love working with data and evaluation. In a field that has the potential to be isolating, especially during a season of social-distancing, the ability to share space with a community of data and evaluation staff and experts was rejuvenating. The institute itself offered a perfect balance of workshops that contained both conceptual and practical knowledge, so I was able to leave with ideas to further explore and ideas to immediately implement. Lastly, I greatly valued the efforts of the planning committee to ensure that equity was not only addressed but intentionally centered throughout the featured presentations and keynote speakers. This institute truly is a highlight and I already look forward to 2022!
Ayla Dehghanpoor, Marketing & Communications Manager at Families Empowered writes: One of my first projects with Families Empowered, over two years ago, was the launch of our first digital micro survey. It served a simple purpose: to help me, as the incoming Marketing & Communications Manager, better understand the kind of content that our parents wanted. It became immediately apparent that we could collect, analyze, and put programming changes into motion almost immediately with little more than a short Google Form. Over the years the Families Empowered team has perfected the use of micro surveys in ensuring that our programming is meeting the needs of our parents and also in demonstrating the impact of our own work. We were thrilled to be able to share all that we’ve learned to help our fellow organizations employ similar methods in their own work.
Speaking at a digital conference was nerve-wracking. We weren’t sure how well the interactive parts of our presentation (we asked attendees to fill out a survey in real-time and follow along with us as we analyzed the data and put together a beautiful one pager!) would work without being in the same room as the participants. Luckily we had a great number of people tune into our presentation and everyone participated just as enthusiastically as they would have in person!
As a part of an organization that focuses on direct parent support, I know how difficult it has been to transition to digital events in 2020. At Families Empowered we have spent a lot of time working through how to make digital events not just accessible, but also engaging. The Data Institute was well managed and also engaging both as a presenter and an attendee. My first experience participating in the Data Institute was wonderfully interesting, and I hope to meet everyone in person as a 2022 participant.
Virginia Potter, Portfolio Director, Pathways to Prosperity, at the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation writes: From the moment we found out that the pandemic would prevent us from hosting the Data Institute in person, I experienced a mix of emotions. I felt anxious for Good Measure’s backbone partner, Mission Capital, who would be responsible for figuring out how to make a virtual event work. And then I thought of missing seeing my colleagues and partners in person, and my heart sank. Then, it dawned on me that there may be some silver linings in the virtual format….fast forwarding to the day of, I logged on with steep anticipation, wearing a comfy sweater and a big smile. The first thing I saw was the chat blowing up as the keynote speaker, Andy Rafael Johnson, talked about his life’s journey and using data for good. People were eager to share how they were feeling and what they were taking away at a level I hadn’t seen before…and in real time. Sharing thoughts verbally in person during a keynote isn’t something we all do, so I felt that the running chat opened a whole new level of sharing that enhanced the experience overall. Not only did I feel a higher level of sharing was going on, but I found it easy to hop from one session to another and garner nuggets of wisdom or things to explore further along the way. In person, I could barely make it to two sessions, but in a given slot, I could visit over 4! And to be able to view session recordings after the event is a gift that keeps on giving!
The attendees, speakers, and stakeholders make Data Institute what it is; a creative learning space for nonprofit staff, funders, government employees, and community members to engage with each other around data and evaluation topics. If you’re feeling inspired, or need a little inspiration, many of the sessions from Data Institute are now available to view on the Good Measure website for free – now you can check them out at your leisure and become part of the movement toward a collaborative, community-centered approach to evaluation!