Good Measure: Using Data to Tell Your Story

You may be familiar with the term “data literacy,” but what does it really mean? Some may point to spreadsheets and pie charts to define what it means to be data literate; but, effectively using data goes beyond being able to identify, collect, and synthesize it. Data’s power lies in the stories it can tell, and for nonprofits, storytelling is essential to the work. It’s crucial that nonprofits are conveying the story of their teams, board, donors, volunteers, and beneficiaries in a way that inspires audiences and translates the value of the work.That’s where Good Measure comes in. Good Measure is a collaboration of a group of funders, in partnership with our nonprofit partner Mission Capital, dedicated to improving access and the effective use of data to drive social change. I wrote about it in a recent blog Introducing Good Measure: Using data to measure what matters.Aligned with the mission of using data to strengthen organizations to transform lives, the Good Measure team recently engaged visualization expert Ann Emery to host a webinar series about using data placemats as a tool for data visualization. Read Ann’s blog, 3 Simple Tips for Sharing Data here, to learn more about the webinar series, and how data visualization can drive meaningful work forward.This blog originally appeared on msdf.org