What is your charity’s data maturity?
As more and more charities invest in using data, there’s a new buzzword in the sector: ‘data maturity’.
It’s something every organisation should be aware of, because it sheds light on your data use, strengths and weaknesses, and how you might be able to develop.
Understanding where your charity sits on a data maturity scale can help you to identify problem areas, and what actions you can take. It can guide you to an understanding of the reasons behind your organisation’s current approach to data. It’s also a great way to evidence why certain areas might need more resources, or a new approach.
Getting support
As part of our mission, DataKind UK assesses and supports charities through data science projects that build on all parts of their data maturity, and helps them to plan their next steps. And, as a capacity-building organisation, taking a before and after snapshot of our partners’ data maturity and development is one of the key ways we gauge our own impact.
We first hit upon this formula after an extensive research project with charities in 2015, for which we worked with Data Orchard. Fast forward to 2021, and our Scoping and Impact Committee has honed a framework for assessing and supporting our charity partners. In our Journey to Impact report, we shared the process we use to assess each organisation we work with. Our results also show how far these organisations have gone in their data journeys, and where they are now.
Last year also saw Data Orchard release their State of the Sector report, summarising their findings on not-for-profit organisations that had used their online tool since its launch. They found huge variation in the sector, but the majority of organisations (46%) who used the tool rated themselves as at the middle stage of ‘Learning’ in their data maturity.
Most recently, data.org worked with our sister chapter in the US, DataKind, to develop their version of the Data Maturity Assessment, which organisations can use to assess their data maturity and receive feedback about appropriate tools, resources, and next steps.
It’s brilliant to see so much more support made available to help charities work out their data maturity, and that it is being tailored to organisations of all sizes and stripes.
Aspects of data maturity
DataKind UK looks at seven different areas to assess the data maturity of an organisation: data uses, the data itself, analysis, leadership, culture, tools, and skills. These are rated from ‘unaware’ to ‘mastering’ depending on how the organisation currently uses data. Below we explain each in more detail.
1. Uses
This looks at how an organisation uses the data it collects. An unaware organisation might only collect the minimum basic information. On the other side of the spectrum, a mastering organisation collects its data in order to make strategic decisions; design and evaluate delivery of services; and target interventions.
Ask yourself:
- Why are you collecting data, and what kind of data do you collect?
- How do you benefit from analysing this data and what are you trying to find out when you analyse it?
- What else do you want to know, and what data might fill that gap?
2. Data
The second facet is about the quality and content of the data itself. An unaware organisation will collect minimum data (if any), mostly manually, for specific purposes, not updated and not checked for accuracy. A mastering organisation will collect internal and external data, in an automated way when possible, investing in resources to clean, manage, and audit.
Ask yourself:
- How do you collect data, and what sources do you get the data from?
- How clean and complete is it?
- What other data assets do you make use of to maintain or update it?
3. Analysis
An unaware organisation will limit its analysis to basic manual counts of compliance-related data. A mastering organisation will use a combination of descriptive (what happened?), predictive (what will happen?), and prescriptive analytics (e.g. machine learning, forecasting, optimisation), going beyond basic charts in order to support decision making.
Ask yourself:
- What techniques do you use to analyse your data?
- What types of analyses do you tend to make?
- What reports do you produce, and how are they communicated to their intended audience?
4. Leadership
The leadership team of an organisation that falls into the unaware stage for this theme is not interested in using data to make decisions, has no business plan around data and does not see it as a priority. A mastering organisation, on the other hand, has a leadership team that has data expertise, an overarching data strategy, and articulates how data can help the organisation achieve its broader strategic goals.
Ask yourself:
- What does your leadership think of data use?
- Do they have plans for more development of it?
- What current investment is there in your data use, and is more planned for the future?
5. Culture
For unaware organisations, data is siloed, never shared internally or externally, and only anecdotal information is used for decision making. In a mastering organisation, data is viewed as a team effort and is easily available for staff of different levels of seniority to discuss and use for decision making.
Ask yourself:
- Does your whole organisation have an interest in data?
- How engaged is your team?
- How do you go about sharing your analyses?
6. Tools
An organisation that falls into the unaware stage collects its data in disorganised ways — perhaps still on paper forms; or electronically, but without a clear structure or location for the information. An organisation will fall into the mastering stage if data is held in one (or as few as possible) database, and if it makes use of robust tools such as business intelligence software, data visualisation tools, or machine learning technology.
Ask yourself:
- What is your existing data infrastructure?
- How and where is data stored?
- What tools do you currently use?
7. Skills
An unaware organisation will have little or no expertise around data, and no access to training. A mastering organisation provides training to its staff in order to maximise the use of data analytics, employing a variety of data-related roles responsible for data management, statistical analysis, data science and strategy.
Ask yourself:
- What skills does your team have, and what skills do you need?
- Can you provide training?
- What level of expertise do you have access to?
Finally, it takes time
Understanding your organisation’s data maturity is a great first step, but turning that insight into action can take time. DataKind UK’s Data Science Lead, Dulcie Vousden, says: “Organisations with a high level of data maturity are able to harness their data to support operational decision making about service delivery and ultimately increase their impact. So it’s brilliant that many organisations seek to become more data-driven.
“However, it can be tempting to try to solve everything all at once. Understanding your organisation’s current data maturity can help reveal the areas that need the most progression to reach your desired end stage.”
Our main learning from the organisations we’ve worked with is that every charity’s journey is unique. Don’t be disheartened if you don’t score highly when you take an assessment! Just know that you’ve taken the first step to making things dramatically better. And that there are plenty of organisations out there that are invested in helping you do just that.
If you’re inspired to find out more about your organisation’s data maturity, or want to get support to improve it, get in touch with us.
