We’ve all been there. Frustrated with maintaining 15 different spreadsheets, 30-word documents, and 19 Survey Monkey Surveys, a nonprofit leader says, “Enough! Let’s just get a database.”
Yes! Finally! A centralized place for all the program’s data will help the team serve clients better and make reporting to funders a breeze.
Joy and excitement fade to sadness as the team struggles to fathom how to go about getting a new database, much less implementing one. And the stakes couldn’t be higher: nonprofits often invest upwards of $50,000 in a new data system. So when it goes wrong, both money and goodwill go down the drain.
A new free resource, Making Wise Decisions: A Step-by-Step Guide to Selecting the Right Data System, was created with these nonprofits in mind. Developed by experts in program evaluation and database development, Making Wise Decisions incorporates advice from small- to midsized-nonprofits that have adopted a new database.
Making Wise Decisions offers user-friendly, step-by-step guidance to organizations that are considering adopting a new data management system. This free toolkit includes:
- A comprehensive guidebook that walks nonprofit organizations through key considerations when selecting and adopting a data system.
- A set of guidebook-aligned planning tools that teams can use to document their agency-specific needs and considerations.
- An online quiz that organizations can take to identify data systems most likely to meet their needs.
- Webinars and trainings to help nonprofits get started.
Developed by B3 Consults and Public Profit, Making Wise Decisions is generously supported by the S.H. Cowell Foundation, with supplemental funding from the Y & H Soda Foundation.
The toolkit will be available in late January 2018. Keep tabs on the Public Profit or S.H. Cowell Foundation’s websites to learn more!
For breakfast, I had an apple, peanut butter, and whole wheat crackers.