What is fractional data support, and how can it help your nonprofit?

Transcript:

Hi everyone. My name is Lindsay. I'm The Data Coach, and today we're gonna continue our conversation about what is the right time to bring in a data professional to help out your nonprofit organization. This time, We're gonna talk about fractional data support services, what they are, and how they can help out your organization .

If you're new here, hi, welcome. The purpose of the Data Coach is to help nonprofit organizations better organize, analyze, and use their data to achieve their missions. One way that we do that is by providing free educational content on this YouTube channel. So if you enjoy this video, you find it helpful, please like and subscribe to join this growing community.

Types of fractional data support

Okay, so what exactly is fractional data support? Fractional data support services help companies and organizations do the data work they otherwise couldn't do due to a lack of capacity or resources or expertise. These kinds of services are especially helpful for organizations that don't have the budget to hire full-time data people, or only need temporary or part-time support. At The Data Coach, our fractional data services include:

- Data collection support, like building custom surveys, interviewing, and focus group facilitation.

- Data analysis services, both quantitative and qualitative

- Data reporting and communications, essentially designing communications that will be effective for different kinds of stakeholder groups.

The nice thing about fractional data support is that it is fully customizable and again, less expensive than hiring full-time help. Because we at The Data Coach take a collaborative approach to what we do, you'll walk away with more knowledge about how to do different kinds of data work that you can apply to future projects, although we are always here to help.

Why do nonprofits ask for fractional help?

So what's motivated different nonprofits to reach out to us for help? The first one, the organization collected a bunch of data at some point and then realized nobody knew how to analyze it. This happens way more often than you might think. It's actually how I landed one of my jobs in the nonprofit sector. A local advocacy organization sent out this survey to juvenile court judges, and it was all open-ended questions. And by the time the survey closed, they realized that no one on staff actually knew how to analyze qualitative data. So it all sat on a shelf for about six months before they brought me in to do the analysis. So if you're sitting on data that needs to be organized and analyzed and it's not really anybody's area of expertise, bringing in outside help can be a great way to get the analysis piece done and finally do something useful with that data.

Number two, the organization wants to do more with its data, but they don't have the capacity or the resources to do it on their own. This is especially true for smaller organizations that come to me. They want to be more data driven, like larger organizations, but [00:03:00] staff members are already stretched thin and can't put more on their plates. With fractional services, we can come in, develop project plans with you, do the data collection and analysis work for you all while being mindful of your budget and your staff members' other responsibilities.

And then finally, and this might be the top reason, data anxiety and overwhelm. Last week I was having lunch with a colleague of mine and we were talking about how people show up to our initial consultation calls. I realized that most of the time people contact me when they are feeling anxious and overwhelmed. It's true for nonprofit staff and it's true for nonprofit consultants. Whether at the start of a project or halfway through something, there's an uneasiness about the amount of work that has to get done, their individual capabilities to do all the tasks that they need to do, and this lingering sense that like maybe we don't really know what we're doing and what if we mess this up. My job as your data coach and your data partner is to ease your mind. So when people come to me in this kind of state, we talk about the pain points, I hate that phrase, we talk about the shit that's stressing you out. We figure out what kinds of fractional services would be most useful to help lower your stress levels, and then develop a clear plan of action that we can implement together. Whoever says data work is dry and boring, and lacks emotion isn't doing it right!

I hope this video helps you clarify what fractional data support is and how it can help your organization meet its missions and goals. If you have used this kind of support before, what worked well for you? What didn't? What kinds of projects do you have coming up that you think fractional [00:05:00] support might be helpful for you? Leave your thoughts in the comments, love to hear from you. Thanks again for watching, and we'll see you next time. Bye!