Storytelling Through Data: A Conversation With the Data Innovation Project

In 2016, a group of researchers established the Data Innovation Project (DIP) as a means of achieving one primary goal: Helping organization leaders make data-informed decisions. For the DIP, data is more than a tool. It’s a vehicle for telling compelling stories, connecting with others, and laying the groundwork for achieving organizational objectives.

Data collection can feel daunting and elusive for many of the Onion Foundation’s smaller grantee organizations, so the DIP team was a perfect partner to help support those efforts and encourage good data practices. We approached them in 2023 with one main question: How can organizations learn more about who is participating in their programs, without making assumptions or asking misguided or intrusive questions?

Learning about who’s in the audience helps us understand who isn’t. For organizations that seek a broad, diverse, inclusive representation of the people in their community — a value we share at the Onion Foundation — periodic data checks help them compare intentions with results.

The DIP team developed a toolkit designed specifically so that arts and culture organizations could begin this work. The Onion Foundation invited an advisory group, representing different kinds of grantee organizations, who gave input about how they might use such a tool and what they needed to do so. Subsequently, a pilot group worked with the DIP team to beta test the toolkit with real-world application. Participants worked through each step of the design, implementation, and data collection process to learn more about their programs.

We talked with the DIP’s Director, Sarah Goan, and Research Analyst, Madison Burke, to hear more about how they view data and what made this Onion Foundation collaboration so impactful. Here’s that conversation.

The DIP’s Approach to Data Collection and Analysis

What is the Data Innovation Project’s primary mission?

Goan: We started the Data Innovation Project because we recognized that there was often a mismatch between what funders were expecting or desiring from nonprofits and what the nonprofits’ capacity actually was to deliver on those expectations. So we’ve tailored our work to create accessible technical assistance, evaluation expertise, and data expertise to help bridge that gap. We try to meet folks where they’re at. We want to be really relational and approachable, and we try to make sure that our communities can use and be good stewards of data.

Burke: Yes, at the heart of our mission is trying to help organizations feel like they can do this. It’s about giving organizations the tools to feel more confident in their own abilities.

What does your work with organizations look like?

Burke: It’s really dependent on their needs, their capacity, and how deeply they want to partner with us and engage in this work. We provide workshops that help folks get a good introduction to data-related topics. We also offer short-term support through our data clinics, and we do contract-based work where we walk organizations through every step of the process from ideation to implementation to conclusion.

Goan: We’re always coaching. We’re helping folks navigate conversations with leadership or with their boards. We’re giving them perspectives to consider, questions to pose. It’s about guiding and consulting.

Burke: It’s exciting to see the way that we can expand organizations’ knowledge and capacity so that they feel ready to step into that data role with confidence.

What does data mean to you? How do you understand that concept?

Goan: At its core, data is information. We embrace the idea, wholeheartedly, that it’s not just numbers or surveys. It’s information and insight. We promote a mixed methods approach, which is gathering some numbers and some narratives — doing more than one type of data collection to corroborate across sources and perspectives to get a truer picture of what’s happening.

Qualitative data is data. Some people say, “They’re just anecdotes!” But there are things you can do to move from anecdote to actual data. We recognize and embrace those types of data, while teaching about how to tighten practices to make the data replicable and verifiable.

The Human Side of Data Analysis

Are any of your clients hesitant to work with data?

Burke: So many people are terrified of data. But what I love about it is its capacity as a tool for storytelling. That’s where I see data as being powerful and beautiful — it helps us learn more about what we’re doing, make sure that we’re doing it the right way, and find the story that we want to share. We try to find ways to shift people’s perspectives about data.

Goan: Yes! A lot of people also expect me to tell them where they’ve failed. But we really believe that evaluation should be a partnership. We help nonprofits design programs and think about how to collect information in the easiest way possible. Good evaluators help you tell stories.

Burke: A good evaluator would never say, “Here’s where you’re failing.” They would say, “These are opportunities for you to grow and here’s how to do that.”

What values do you bring to each partnership?

Burke: That’s the first question we ask: What’s most important to you? Everything related to data, storytelling, and evaluation needs to go back to an organization’s mission, purpose, values, and vision. We deeply value transparency, accuracy, data privacy, and ownership of data. We want to make sure the stories organizations tell are actionable.

Goan: We’re experts in evaluation, but we’re not experts in organizations’ programming. It’s really about honoring their expertise and bringing our expertise to bear in a collaborative, equal partnership. We want to leave organizations in a position where they may not need us again, where they have a stepping stone to something greater.

Creating a Data Collection Toolkit

How was it working with the Onion Foundation pilot group?

Goan: It was fun! We wanted to make sure that the products we created were meeting organizations’ needs, that our assumptions about their work were valid, and that our examples were resonating with folks in the field. We asked about their experiences, and we listened to what they had to say without moving to solutions right away. It was fascinating to convene the advisory group and hear about commonalities we see across the nonprofit sector, as well as the unique challenges particular organizations experienced.

Burke: It was exciting to validate the way we were thinking about the toolkit, but it was also a great opportunity for organizations to see that they aren’t alone in this and that they have collaborators in each other that they can rely on. Allowing space for them to talk to one another about those challenges was really meaningful. It also helped us figure out which sections of the toolkit we needed to spend more time with.

What information did organizations primarily want to learn?

Burke: There was a lot of interest in learning who organizations weren’t reaching. That emphasized the need for us to bring in a needs assessment and rely on secondary data like the census. There was also deep concern around confidentiality and keeping participants safe. This toolkit is all about collecting demographic information, and in a time when certain identities don’t feel safe sharing that information, how do you collect the right data?

We tried to remind organizations that they should only collect what they actually need to make meaningful change. Don’t run away with your curiosity. We created a scaffolded approach to asking a range of demographic questions, so organizations could pick the option that worked best for them.

What role does a toolkit like this play in Maine’s larger arts sector?

Goan: It’s important for organizations across sectors to have a consistent and reliable way to talk about these topics. They need to have a resource that was developed with real organizations in their field and with the communities that they’re working with. This isn’t just a generic toolkit — it’s really tailored to the needs of their fellow organizations. That gives them a reliable way to talk about data collection. It also helps ensure community members are getting consistent survey questions so organizations can share a common framework.

Burke: I hope that this toolkit continues to be useful for organizations to develop a shared language and reminds folks that there’s a lot of different ways they can approach data collection. Data isn’t a scary beast! We’re here to help anytime.