This presentation is from the Houston Netsquared meetup on September 11th, 2012. Dr. Rosalind Wyatt and Ahshia Berry shared advice to nonprofits and technologists on how to dig into the online data you are collecting, analyze it, and generate content that you can use for your organization's marketing, business development, and public relations campaigns, as well as for Grant Applications and other funding sources. Find out more about Houston Netsquared online: http://meetup.com/net2houston and follow Netsquared Houston on Facebook: http://facebook.com/net2houston

1. Connecting Houston NonProfits, Entrepreneurs, and Technologists for Social Good
Looking For Data in All the Right
Places
Dr. Rosalind A. Wyatt, Founder and President
Sustainable Houston
Ahshia T. Berry, Owner, Events and Lagniappe
Public Relations
#NET2Houston

2. Connecting Houston NonProfits, Entrepreneurs, and Technologists for Social Good
Mission: To build the Houston economy in a socially and
economically just and environmentally sustainable
manner by educating and guiding local, independent
businesses in sustainable business development.
Four Tenets of Sustainability:
•Fiscal Sustainability
•Personnel Sustainability
•Community Sustainability
•Environmental Sustainability
#NET2Houston

3. Connecting Houston NonProfits, Entrepreneurs, and Technologists for Social Good
Marketing for Non-Profit Organizations
• Focuses on reaching 3 targets:
– Donors/Potential Donors
– Volunteers
– Program/Service Participants
• How does the data you collect enhance/increase your
effectiveness in engaging each of these targets?
(moving them to act in some way)
– Sometimes these are completely separate tasks but
many times they overlap.
#NET2Houston

4. Connecting Houston NonProfits, Entrepreneurs, and Technologists for Social Good
Ultimately We Want To Know:
• The Impact of Our Programs- How Much
of Difference Are We Making?
– Making a real impact will:
• Help us increase donations
• Help us get more volunteers
• Help us to be seen as the source of real help to
those we serve or wish to serve
– Of course we use data to answer these
questions.
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5. Connecting Houston NonProfits, Entrepreneurs, and Technologists for Social Good
Active Data Collection vs. Passive Data
Collection
• Active Data Collection- A Concerted Effort to Gather
Data
– Surveys
• E.g.- program evaluations, member feedback,
volunteer feedback
• Passive Data Collection- Data that is available just by
virtue of the fact that you have a web page, an e-
newsletter, a Facebook page, a Twitter account or
digital tool. (You don’t have to do anything special to
get the information)
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6. Connecting Houston NonProfits, Entrepreneurs, and Technologists for Social Good
The Challenge of Analysis
• Just because the collection effort is passive, doesn’t
mean that the analysis is passive.
• Actually it’s a bit more challenging to turn this passive
data into something meaningful
• Example: what does having ‘1000 likes’ mean in real
terms when it comes to donations or volunteers?
• Example: what’s the true relationship between page
visits to donations? What are the actual number of page
visits a person makes before he or she makes a donation?
(conversion rate)
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7. Connecting Houston NonProfits, Entrepreneurs, and Technologists for Social Good
So, how do we really use some of the passive
data?
Let’s brainstorm some ideas.
 But First let’s think in terms of quantitative
vs. qualitative data
 Quantitative measures: # of likes, # of
friends, x number of people talking about
(PATA); easier to analyze
 Qualitative data has more depth, richer.
Example: reading posts and looking for
themes and tone (how many times did
people posting use a particular term?
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8. Connecting Houston NonProfits, Entrepreneurs, and Technologists for Social Good
What are some new ways that we can tie the
following measures to impact in either
donations, volunteering, or service usage/
quality?
 Facebook Likes
 Facebook Mutual Friends
 Twitter @Mentions
#NET2Houston

9. Connecting Houston NonProfits, Entrepreneurs, and Technologists for Social Good
CAUTION!
Remember to take a motion picture rather
than a snapshot approach (when analyzing
passively or actively collected data
 Use as many data points as possible.
 The more data points you have
typically, the more confident that
you can be in your conclusions.
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10. Connecting Houston NonProfits, Entrepreneurs, and Technologists for Social Good
The key here is that this “passive” data
is free or at the very least cheap.
Don’t be afraid to play with it and
make all kinds of connections to
donations, to event attendance,
program participation, etc. Make the
connections first and then look for
clues to explain the why.
#NET2Houston

11. Connecting Houston NonProfits, Entrepreneurs, and Technologists for Social Good
Have Fun and
Play!
You never know what type of interesting
connections you may make between seemingly
disparate variables.
#NET2Houston

12. Connecting Houston NonProfits, Entrepreneurs, and Technologists for Social Good
Thanks for your
attention!
Contact me at rosalind.wyatt@gmail.com
Follow me on Twitter: @MarkElements
Follow SH on Twitter: @SustainHOU
Friend SH at www.facebook.com/sustainablehouston
#NET2Houston