It’s rarely easy to raise money, and the global pandemic isn’t helping. The nonprofit sector has always relied on relationships to fundraise. Events and in-person meetings are a thing of the past. What do you do when traditional fundraising channels are no longer possible? Fortunately, many nonprofit organizations have not taken advantage of their board members' full reach, due largely to lack of clear data about the organization's impact.
“The inequity in this district as compared to the other districts surrounding us has always been so tangible and clear,” explains Jenna Wachtel Pronovost, Executive Director of the Ravenswood Education Foundation. “Then COVID happened and the schools closed. The inequities have intensified in this environment, and we knew we would have to act quickly to support our students and the greater community.”
Many foundations have responded quickly to provide funding to those most in need during COVID-19. Yet the stark reality is that there is more need than funds available. The challenge for foundations today is how to maximize the impact of COVID-19 relief funding by investing with both urgency and intentionality.
Access to relevant, actionable data presents an enormous opportunity for the impact sector to be more effective and efficient in reaching its goals and realizing its potential. In fact, we’re beginning to see the sector shift significantly in this direction, best represented by our champions at our partner organizations, who are leading their teams to become more data driven.
If you are reading this, you already know that we live in a data driven world. Having access to actionable data has transformed virtually every sector -- and recently, we’ve seen a notable shift in the social impact sector, as more organizations put systems and processes in place to leverage data to drive impact.
