What good is gathering reams of data if it doesn’t help people understand the good you do? Carl Chadband learned the hard way when he served as chief operating officer at the Kanawha Institute for Social Research & Action, a West Virginia nonprofit that provides employment, education, and other services for children and families.
KISRA, as the organization is known, was “capturing a ton of data with no rhyme or reason,” he told Chronicle reporter Eden Stiffman in a conversation at our Philanthropy NEXT conference — until he was asked by a peer what the impact would be on local communities if KISRA’s programs disappeared.
“I was only able to talk about indicators for employment, hourly wages, attendance, and things like that,” recalls Mr. Chadband, now a senior technical specialist with communications and consulting firm ICF International. “I had no clue, really, of how to tell the story of the value our programs were creating.”
In this video interview, Mr. Chadband recounts how that question led KISRA to rethink its facts-and-figures approach to analyzing and utilizing measurements. He also talks about the storytelling lessons he’s learned, and why deciding how to present data to donors is like entering a walk-in closet.
Transcript
EDEN STIFFMAN: Hi, I’m Eden Stiffman, a reporter with the Chronicle of Philanthropy. I’m joined today by Carl Chadband, a consultant at ICF International, who was formally an executive at an organization based in West Virgina called KISRA. Thanks for being with us, Carl.
CARL CHADBAND: Thank you very much for having me.
EDEN STIFFMAN: So today, I wanted to ask you a little bit about how the organization you were formerly with, KISRA, measures its impact? And how do you use that data with donors? Can you tell us a few of the ways that you measure to impact when you were there?
CARL CHADBAND: Sure. It’s been basically a work in progress. To start, we were capturing a ton of data with no rhyme or reason in part because we were looking at other people’s method of collecting data.
So one day, we were talking to a young lady named Bernice Smoot, who’s with Saint Wall Street. She asked a question and said how do you capture the value of your programs? Which was a very unique question to have asked to you. And she said if we took KISRA out of the community, what value will be lost?
And there I was only able to talk about indicators for employment and hourly wages and attendance and things like that. But I had no clue of really how to tell the story of the value that our programs we creating. So from that process and coming in contact with Bernice and Saint Wall Street, we began to look and analyze certain information and indicators that we were capturing. And our approach then grew from there.
So we started using census tract data. We also were using healthy kids who are in the West Virginia Kids Count report different conservative figures that can show the value accurately of the services that we provide.
EDEN STIFFMAN: And once you had some of that information, how were presenting it to donors?
CARL CHADBAND: So we had the take-on approach that the data that you have basically is a walk-in closet. And no one brings their whole closet with them when they go out. So when you’re getting ready for the day, as you are dressed very nice today, you decide a very limited portion that you’re going to use to go out, depending on who the audience is.
So the same is true for your data. You’re not going to give them everything that you have because you’ll overwhelm a funder, a supporter, another stakeholder. Instead you want to get in the habit of making your data custom and tailored just for that audience that you’re going to see. So we had to do away with one-size-fits-all data reports and impact documents because it really didn’t meet the need of the funder or us as we were trying to articulate the value of our services.
EDEN STIFFMAN: And how do you weigh using qualitative storytelling versus more quantitative data? And how do you break away from that one-size-fits-all approach when you’re presenting those two different kinds of results, impact data to individual donor versus foundation donor?
CARL CHADBAND: So there’s a term out there, creative destruction. And a lot of the things that you learn early, you have to unlearn. So a lot of time nonprofits, they are in a position where they’re always trying to tell somebody something. They always want to tell, they want to tell, they want to tell.
But when you really get into effective data, you have to do a lot of listening. So upon listening to the clients that you serve, listening to the communities that you serve, and listening to funders, you can actually find out what they want. And once you know what they want, that’ll help you if you need to have hard numbers. If you’re just dealing with a numbers person, then they don’t care about the little heart string songs.
Or if you’re dealing with a person that really is into personal relationships. They want to know the children that are being impacted, the homes that you are attempting to strengthen. So you need a good story or if you’re doing something in between with numbers and also a story. So listening will actually guide you on how you need to roll out your impact documents.
EDEN STIFFMAN: And can you share one example of how not to use data? Have you learned anything along the way that you would warn anyone against?
CARL CHADBAND: How much time do we have? So we had a chance — there was, justice reinvestment was really big a couple years ago where the amount of prison overcrowding and people that recidivate and going back into jails and correction facilities, it’s weighing hard. And it’s a drag on a lot of state budgets.
So we had all this data. We had been tracking it. Each person was like, $25,000 or $26,000 just to house them. Then, if they had children, there were other collateral costs if they were involved in early sexual debut, more likely to be under welfare, things like that.
So we were able to put together all of this data. And it was just like a science report or something that belonged in a Masters’ class. And you could just see people’s eyes just gloss over because they were just overwhelmed. So we learned very quickly, you have to be selective in the numbers that you’re displaying. But also, you have to get those stories and actually make the case themselves for support.
EDEN STIFFMAN: And I understand you have some experience developing public private partnerships. Can you tell us any lessons you learned about what makes those relationships successful?
CARL CHADBAND: Well, typically, if you can get involved in independent sector, and if we were to do a Venn diagram between private sector, nonprofit world, and then, also, foundations, somewhere in the middle is where you can get the most good done.
So there was a time here, recently, where we were able to approach a foundation and say, hey, we know you’re looking to invest in this footprint. You’re having some reservations about some of the players or actors that are there. Let us come in, let us do a community survey, let us hear directly from the people and let that guide how you want to do your investments. And they agreed to it. So it’s a great process. You can go on www.kisra.org, and you can see that report.
EDEN STIFFMAN: Right. Well, thank you for joining us today. We appreciate your time.
CARL CHADBAND: Thank you for having me.
