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Transcript:
Hey everyone, my name is Lindsay. I'm The Data Coach, and today is gonna be a bit more of a casual video. I'm gonna share a little bit of my lore with you and talk about a few things that I wish I had when I was a solo analyst working at nonprofit organizations, and I hope that this video will help fellow solo analysts and organizations more broadly, be a little more proactive in supporting their data people.
If you are new here, hi, welcome. The mission of The Data Coach is to help nonprofit organizations better organize, analyze, and use their data to achieve their missions. One of the ways that we do that is providing free data and research related content on our YouTube channel. So if you find this content helpful, please subscribe to join our growing community.
So for [00:01:00] most of my nonprofit career, I was the singular data person in the office, and that meant different things depending on the organization I was working for. I've been in charge of data entry, data cleanup, data analysis, reporting, communications, database management, data policies, data procedures, sometimes all at the same time.
I've also done a lot of education and training on data policies, procedures management, research methods, and reporting for my colleagues who wanted to help but didn't necessarily have a research related background. And per usual, we kept it spicy with, other tasks that fell outside of my job description because that is how nonprofits roll.
In some ways, it was really great being the data guru, right? I was able to take the lead on lots of different projects and I really enjoyed teaching and supporting my colleagues. I've [00:02:00] always felt proud of the work that I've done. But when you're the only person in the office who does a specific thing, especially if it's more on the technical side, it's easy to be overlooked.
You know, I rarely got guidance or professional development support because no one else really knew how to support me. My annual reviews would often say things like, oh, you're doing a great job, but it didn't really have specific things for me to work on. And I didn't have a lot of time to advocate for myself because I already had a lot on my plate.
I've been running my own business now for about five years, and by talking to other folks and just having some time to reflect, this is what I wish I had as the solo person in the nonprofit organization. The first thing is an intern. Now, most of my interns I've had by accident. They were either someone else's intern [00:03:00] who was abandoned by their supervisor, yes, that happens, or they were brought in to help with general projects and just ended up getting assigned to me regardless if they were interested in what I was doing. But I think having an intern with a specific interest in or experience with using data to do good and make good decisions could have been a really great experience for the intern, for the organization, and for me as the analyst.
From the analyst perspective, it would've helped increase my capacity and given me a chance to develop my supervisory and mentoring skills, which you often don't get to do when you're the only data person at the office. There's no one else to supervise. It is also a great way to start building and developing a pipeline of data people into the organization and the sector.
Exposing younger people to different opportunities available within nonprofit organizations and different ways they can contribute to social [00:04:00] change. All great stuff. The intern gets to learn and the analyst has someone to talk to about ideas, challenges and future project work they might be able to work on together.
So now how do you get an intern? Check your high schools, community colleges, local colleges and universities. Post volunteer opportunities on your website and your socials, and make sure that you're involving your analyst in that process so everyone's needs are being met.
The second thing I wish I had was more encouragement and engagement in conversations about professional development.
It's hard for supervisors to know what their data person is up to if they don't totally understand what they do or how they do it. My supervisors have been attorneys and social workers and program managers without. You know, not necessarily having the same background I did, but you don't need to be a data person or [00:05:00] expert to support the development of your staff person.
I would've loved if someone asked me about the soft skills I wanted to learn, supervising communication, mentorship, leadership to help me get to the next stage of my career. Professional development ends up on the back burner at a lot of nonprofits, but I think if more leaders had it top of mind and engaged in regular conversations about it at team meetings and individual check-ins, there would be a lot more opportunity for everyone to grow and become even better at their jobs.
Third thing, please ask us questions. Please ask us questions. Please ask us questions. Please ask us questions. Contrary to popular belief data, people are not wizards, though I assume that I would look great in a wizard hat.
When I would present data to colleagues and our partners who weren't as comfortable with numbers, [00:06:00] they would often take whatever I said is truth and not ask me any questions.
And that's not great for a couple different reasons. One, data people make mistakes sometimes, so if something doesn't make sense, it's important for someone to point it out so we can figure it out together. Plus, if I'm talking about results to a colleague who then has to explain those results to a legislator, to community leaders, a partner organization, and they don't totally get what I'm saying, that sets them up for trouble, which we don't want.
So please ask your data people questions. There are no stupid questions. If you don't understand something that's being presented to you, it's likely someone else doesn't get it either. We are more than happy to explain things, and by asking those questions you help us develop the communication and teaching skills that are really key to being an effective analyst.
And then finally, I would have loved [00:07:00] some kind of data nerd community. Being the only data person can be lonely work. If you get stuck on a methodological or analytic problem, you end up going around in circles in your own head because you're afraid no one else will know what you're talking about.
Now I still asked my colleagues to talk out nerd stuff with me. It would've been great to be able to pick up the phone and call a fellow nonprofit data person to help me problem solve some of the more technical stuff. At the time, I didn't seek this out. See previous comments about workload and being overwhelmed pretty much my entire career.
But for you, my friends. I will give you three places to potentially find your people. NTEN stands for the Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network. They do a fabulous conference every year that is both in person and virtual. This is a great option if you are into bringing new tech to your organization to do data work more effectively and [00:08:00] efficiently.
But there are also great resources for analysts and I just met some really great and interesting people when I went in 2024. Evaluation associations. If your work is primarily focused on program and other types of evaluations, check to see if there is a local affiliate of the American Evaluation Association in your area.
We have one here in Colorado. They put on great social events and have a bunch of professional development opportunities. Lots of ways to connect with other people. And then finally, check out the staff pages for the nonprofits you like and support.
See if they've got anybody with data in their title. I found that other people are usually happy to connect and talk shop. It can feel awkward, obviously trying to get in touch with strangers, but all networking is awkward and weird, so you might as well give it a go.
If you are the one data person at your organization, or even if you're not, did any of this resonate [00:09:00] with you? What would you like to see your organization do to help you grow in your career? Please leave your thoughts and ideas in the comments. Who knows? Maybe we can get a solo analyst group going, which would be really lovely.
Thank you so much for watching, and we will see you next time. Bye.
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