October means playoff baseball. It’s the month of the most gloriously unexpected. Moments of heroes that rise to the occasion when the pressure is on, like Gibson’s walk-off against the A’s in 1988. And we’ve seen legendary performances from teams you thought had the odds stacked against them, like the 1906 White Sox “Hitless Wonders” who secured the title. As we watch four talented teams battle in their respective series, you may be eagerly asking yourself what will be the story we remember this year?

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.

This blog post was written in collaboration with Dr. Lisa Delpy Neirotti, Ph.D., Associate Professor & Director of Sports Management Programs at The George Washington University School of Business.

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.

Surveys are an important form of data collection to support program improvement and storytelling. We also know it can be challenging to create, disseminate, and analyze surveys amid all your other priorities.

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.

“The SBYD [sports-based youth development] conversation has thoroughly evolved in the three years that I have been attending this event,” reflects UpMetrics Director of Client Services, Stephen Minix.

“We began in 2012 with three loans—it was sort of our experimental year,” explains WEALF (Women’s Enterprise Action Loan Fund) founder, Vicki Weiner. “The next year, we really got going, and things started to come together.”