Who You Are
What is your role? Here are some ways The Capacity Collective could help.
Program Manager or Coordinator at a Nonprofit
It is likely you went into the nonprofit sector to help people. You are doing the good work, but you are also expected to interact with data, such as reporting to funders, to a Board, community, or all of the above. Whether it is numbers or narratives, reporting takes time, and you don’t have it.
Maybe you need to brush up on Excel. Or maybe you need to move your forms online. Maybe it’s time for a data system, or to fine tune the system you have. Maybe you just need someone to listen to your data pain points and figure out how to get some of your precious time back. We can help!
Example Services
Assessment Calculator
We create custom tools for calculating future screening and assessment dates for your clients, based on date of birth, enrollment, or other factors.
Data Equity Services
We ensure you are collecting data in a way that reflects the way community members talk about themselves, and reflect your equity values and goals.
Data Process Services
We support you in documenting data processes and finding opportunities to reducing extra steps and save time (and brain space!)
Excel Coaching or Training
Coaching or small group training customized to your needs and your current comfort level with Excel (or Google Sheets).
Reporting Support
We support you in gathering, organizing and documenting reporting needs for easier reporting to funders. We can create a calendar, a system, or even custom tools to process data to be reporting-ready.
Director at a Community-Based Organization
You probably use data in almost every aspect of your job. From reporting to funders or donors to keeping track of your staff’s professional development to reimbursement requests and time tracking…it’s all data! Data can be a powerful tool, and it can be a giant time sink.
Maybe you need specific reports or visualizations to take to Board meetings. Maybe it’s time to think about getting out of Excel and into a database system to better store and access data. Maybe you need better data quality, or a way to share data back to the communities you serve. We can help!
Example Services
Apricot (Database) Services
From demos to custom supports with implementation, we meet your team where they are, and work toward being able to administer the database in house. We also fix up and improve Apricot sites that are not meeting your needs.
Data Collection Services
What to collect, when, and how to reduce burdens and barriers for clients. Your data collection should support relationships with the people you serve, being culturally-responsive, while setting yourself up for reporting and making data-informed decisions.
Data Process Services
We support you and/or your staff documenting data processes and finding opportunities to cut out extra steps and barriers. Data doesn’t always have to be tedious!
Data Visualization Services
Coaching, training, and/or setting up templates or dashboards to visualize your data for diverse audiences and your various data needs and goals.
Excel Coaching or Training
We provide coaching or small group trainings that are customized to your needs, and your (or your team’s) current comfort level with Excel or Google Sheets.
Program Manager at a Funding Agency
You support great programs doing great work. What you need back is data, and that’s not always easy to get. Funded partners may not have the data system they need (be it Excel or a database), or they may not have people with the time/knowledge to get you data in the format you need.
Maybe you have programs that struggle to get you data. Maybe you have individual programs that need support with collecting and reporting their data. Maybe you have a whole cohort of programs who need to have their data needs assessed and supported. We can help!
Example Services
Data Analysis Services
Performing analysis and/or supporting programs with a plan and processes for analyzing qualitative or quantitative data, to demonstrate outcomes and find compelling stories in the data.
Data Collection Services
Support funded programs to develop or refine their data collection tools to collect the data they need for reporting and to be able to make data-informed decisions.
Data Fundamentals Training
We work with program staff (individuals or teams) to understand what is data, the value of data, how to collect quality data, and how to be informed consumers of data.
Data Process Services
We listen to program staff to hear their pain points when it comes to data, we support the documentation of processes, and we look for opportunities for improvement and streamlining to reduce barriers and time.
Reporting Support
We support funded programs to collect, store, analyze and report quality data to meet your requirements.
An Ideas Person Hoping to Start a New Project
You know you want to make a difference, and you have some ideas about how you would like to do it. You know you are going to need data at some point, to see how you are doing, or to demonstrate how your approach works.
We love working with people at every step, from dreaming to implementation and beyond. We work with you to conduct a community needs assessment, or to explore data to find unmet needs. We can help you write data needs into your funding proposals and develop your data collection tools.
Example Services
Community Research Services
We are well versed in conducting culturally-responsive research that is rooted in community. We have experience with community-based needs assessments, landscape analyses, participatory action research, surveys, focus groups, community cafes, photovoice projects and more.
Database Services
How are you planning to collect, enter and store your data? We can provide demonstration of various tools and help you choose a system that is right-sized and meets your budget, and will grow with your program. That may include designing a custom Airtable, or setting you up with a system like Apricot.
Data Collection Services
We help you determine what you will need to collect, and the best ways to do it to build and maintain trusting relationships and get you the data you need to evaluate your program and stay responsive to emerging needs.
Data Process Services
We can help you to document and set up and/or refine your data-related processes to make your data collection, storage, analysis and dissemination as easy as possible.
Data Analysis Services
We can help you to explore public data to find gaps and/or best practices, current data to inform decision making, and we can help you plan your future data analysis plans.
The Grant Writer at a Growing Nonprofit
You are always looking for a good story. For some proposals, you want to demonstrate a need or gap. In some proposals you are finding ways to show how your program has created benefits for community. In both cases, you need compelling stories.
We help organizations set up systems to get data at your fingertips as easily as possible, including numbers and stories. We also help organizations find and analyze publicly available data to be able to compare your program outcomes to regional, national or international data.
Example Services
Data Analysis Services
We can conduct or support qualitative or quantitative analysis to track change over time, make comparisons, identify gaps, and demonstrate impacts. This includes finding patterns in narrative data, like case notes.
Data Collection Services
We help develop plans and instruments to ensure you are collecting the data you need to identify gaps and outcomes so that you can write proposals and report the data required by funders.
Data Process Services
We support documenting and improving data-related processes to get data accessible for easily weaving into your proposals and reporting. This includes gathering success stories for proposals/reporting.
Data Visualization Services
Your stories in visual form can touch hearts and minds even faster than words. We support turning data into powerful charts, graphs, infographics and more that can make stories more meaningful and impactful.
Reporting Support
We support you in gathering, organizing and documenting reporting needs for easier reporting to funders. We can create a calendar, a system, or even custom tools to process data to be reporting-ready.
A Graduate Student or Junior Faculty
Maybe you are putting together your thesis or dissertation plan and are feeling overwhelmed. Maybe you’re adjunct faculty, and you’re supposed to conduct research to stay marketable, but you’re teaching an overload! We get it.
We have recovering academics on the team–a scholar from a research institute and a former tenured professor (who ran a graduate program). We have published in peer-reviewed journals, and know the world of social science research. We remember the methods and the pressure. Let’s talk!
Example Services
Coaching & Training
Graduate school doesn’t teach you everything! We provide training and coaching on a variety of social science research methods, including surveys, semi-structured interviews, and participatory action research.
Data Analysis Services
We can conduct or support qualitative or quantitative analysis, from developing your analysis plan to interpreting your results. We can support everything from descriptive statistics to regression.
Data Collection Services
We have expertise in survey methodology, focus groups, semi-structured interviews, participatory action research, and more. We can help you develop your research instruments or even help you collect your data.
Data Visualization Services
We take your tables, charts and graphs to the next level, making them aesthetically pleasing and meaningful so they stand out and make your points more powerfully.
Research Services
From choosing and justifying the right methodology to interpreting and writing your results, we support every aspect of an academic or community research project from a social science lens.
Our Services
