Connecting Houston NonProfits, Entrepreneurs, and Technologists for Social Good #NET2Houston Dr. Rosalind A. Wyatt, Founder and President Sustainable Houston Ahshia T. Berry, Owner, Events and Lagniappe Public Relations Looking For Data in All the Right Places

Connecting Houston NonProfits, Entrepreneurs, and Technologists for Social Good #NET2Houston Photo from Houston Net Tuesday: Flickr schipulites Mission : To build the Houston economy in a socially and economically just and environmentally sustainable manner by educating and guiding local, independent businesses in sustainable business development. Four Tenets of Sustainability: Fiscal Sustainability Personnel Sustainability Community Sustainability Environmental Sustainability

Connecting Houston NonProfits, Entrepreneurs, and Technologists for Social Good #NET2Houston Photo from Houston Net Tuesday: Flickr schipulites Marketing for Non-Profit Organizations Focuses on reaching 3 targets: –Donors/Potential Donors –Volunteers –Program/Service Participants How does the data you collect enhance/increase your effectiveness in engaging each of these targets? (moving them to act in some way) –Sometimes these are completely separate tasks but many times they overlap.

Connecting Houston NonProfits, Entrepreneurs, and Technologists for Social Good #NET2Houston Photo from Houston Net Tuesday: Flickr schipulites Ultimately We Want To Know: The Impact of Our Programs- How Much of Difference Are We Making? –Making a real impact will: Help us increase donations Help us get more volunteers Help us to be seen as the source of real help to those we serve or wish to serve –Of course we use data to answer these questions.

Connecting Houston NonProfits, Entrepreneurs, and Technologists for Social Good #NET2Houston Photo from Houston Net Tuesday: Flickr schipulites Active Data Collection vs. Passive Data Collection Active Data Collection- A Concerted Effort to Gather Data –Surveys E.g.- program evaluations, member feedback, volunteer feedback Passive Data Collection- Data that is available just by virtue of the fact that you have a web page, an e- newsletter, a Facebook page, a Twitter account or digital tool. (You don’t have to do anything special to get the information)

Connecting Houston NonProfits, Entrepreneurs, and Technologists for Social Good #NET2Houston Photo from Houston Net Tuesday: Flickr schipulites The Challenge of Analysis Just because the collection effort is passive, doesn’t mean that the analysis is passive. Actually it’s a bit more challenging to turn this passive data into something meaningful Example: what does having ‘1000 likes’ mean in real terms when it comes to donations or volunteers? Example: what’s the true relationship between page visits to donations? What are the actual number of page visits a person makes before he or she makes a donation? (conversion rate)

Connecting Houston NonProfits, Entrepreneurs, and Technologists for Social Good #NET2Houston Photo from Houston Net Tuesday: Flickr schipulites So, how do we really use some of the passive data? Let’s brainstorm some ideas.  But First let’s think in terms of quantitative vs. qualitative data  Quantitative measures: # of likes, # of friends, x number of people talking about (PATA); easier to analyze  Qualitative data has more depth, richer. Example: reading posts and looking for themes and tone (how many times did people posting use a particular term?

Connecting Houston NonProfits, Entrepreneurs, and Technologists for Social Good #NET2Houston Photo from Houston Net Tuesday: Flickr schipulites What are some new ways that we can tie the following measures to impact in either donations, volunteering, or service usage/quality?  Facebook Likes  Facebook Mutual Friends 

Connecting Houston NonProfits, Entrepreneurs, and Technologists for Social Good #NET2Houston Photo from Houston Net Tuesday: Flickr schipulites CAUTION! Remember to take a motion picture rather than a snapshot approach (when analyzing passively or actively collected data  Use as many data points as possible.  The more data points you have typically, the more confident that you can be in your conclusions.

Connecting Houston NonProfits, Entrepreneurs, and Technologists for Social Good #NET2Houston The key here is that this “passive” data is free or at the very least cheap. Don’t be afraid to play with it and make all kinds of connections to donations, to event attendance, program participation, etc. Make the connections first and then look for clues to explain the why.

Connecting Houston NonProfits, Entrepreneurs, and Technologists for Social Good #NET2Houston Have Fun and Play! You never know what type of interesting connections you may make between seemingly disparate variables.

Connecting Houston NonProfits, Entrepreneurs, and Technologists for Social Good #NET2Houston Thanks for your attention! Contact me at Follow me on Follow SH on Friend SH at