July 18, 2019

by: Sheela Nimishakavi, MA, MPH

There’s a Zen proverb that says, “It takes a wise man to learn from his mistakes, but an even wiser man to learn from others.”

I wholeheartedly believe this- no one has time to make every mistake and learn from them! We have work to do. That’s why I think case studies are an excellent tool to learn success strategies.

In this episode, I walk you through a case study found in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, called Data as a Means, Not an End. This case study centers on the nonprofit City Year as they shifted their data strategy.

Spoiler alert- they achieved incredible results.

And, you can too! Some highlights from this episode:

• [5:40] While City Year is a huge nonprofit, the problems they faced with data collection are pervasive for nonprofits of all sizes
• [11:00] Are you only using data to review what was achieved?
• [12:07] Data regarding mission-critical activities always needs to take precedence
• [14:13] When data activities are segregated, gaps in data literacy can result which is harmful to nonprofits

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