FAQs

The Data Capacity Peer Learning Cohort is a six-session, three-month program that builds on the Nonprofit Data Journey Maps, guiding organizations through the Know and Assess milestones across three focus areas: People, Purpose, and Practical. Through structured, guided support, participants assess their current data and technology landscape and leave with a feasible action plan tailored to their organization.

Join Peer Learning Cohorts to get access to a supportive and shared learning environment, build your organizational data capacity, and receive coaching and support to help you action your work. The program is about discovery, not judgment. Data challenges are systemic in the nonprofit sector. The cohort brings a group of folks together to collectively work on data challenges at their organizations and to identify realistic, feasible, and actionable solutions tailored to your organization.

Over three months, participants can expect to invest roughly four to six hours a month in the cohort. That time centers on a two-hour virtual workshop every two weeks, built around foundational learning, hands-on activities, and space for peer connection, with light pre-work and post-work in between to apply what’s been learned and set the next session up for progress. Alongside the workshops, optional facilitator office hours and an online peer community are there for coaching and support whenever questions come up, so no one is working through the material alone.

By the end of these 6 sessions, participants will, on behalf of their organization, have:

• a clearer understanding of what data the organization holds, what it is used for, and what value it has to the organization
• a clearer understanding of what digital tools and systems are being used across the organization
• started or completed foundational documents, including a data inventory, tool inventory, and process maps
• identified key gaps and risks related to the organization’s data and tools
• identified a possible solution and next steps to improve the organization’s data and tools

Participants will walk away with practical documents, knowledge, and processes to keep building their organizational data capacity.

This cohort is a good fit if you work with data in any capacity at a nonprofit organization, whether you’re just starting out or looking to strengthen existing practices, and you have some organizational access and mandate to act on what you learn. Program managers, data analysts, evaluation specialists, operations managers, and anyone responsible for collecting, analyzing, or reporting on data all fit naturally here. It’s especially worth considering if your organization is collecting data without a clear sense of how to use it, weighing a new technology or system before building internal capacity to support it, trying to understand its current data landscape before making decisions, or simply ready to invest time in structured learning alongside peers facing the same questions.

We will review applications and reach out with next steps shortly.

Check out the rest of the Nonprofit Data Capacity Navigator resources and supports to help build your organizational capacity to use, manage, and analyze data.