Three reasons why not-for-profits should take a Data Maturity Assessment

An impact assessment

Our Data Maturity Assessment tool has been live online for a little over a year now. It is available in free and premium flavours. In November we asked people who had completed an assessment for some details on the impact it had had on their organisation. The details of this are available in a report published today. It covers the full range of our theory of change for this tool and how this compares to the experience of not-for-profits using the tool (spoiler: quite well).

Three key findings

Wondering why you should take a data maturity assessment? Here are three reasons based on the findings of that report.

1.     It is a great way to get people talking about data

As we heard from a not-for-profit organisation

“The main benefit was to start the conversation on [sic] my organisation.”

 Data permeates all aspects of an organisation, it suffuses service delivery, marketing, fundraising, impact evaluation, ICT and HR processes. It is also intrinsically linked to organisational culture and leadership. This can make it hard to improve data maturity, it cuts across everything and seems to affect everyone. Just starting the conversation can be hard for many organisations but taking a data maturity assessment can really help.

2.     It makes it easier to develop a data strategy or improvement plan

“Being able to objectively assess our data maturity enables us to clearly identify areas for improvement and development which in turn create a data strategy action plan.”

We heard from a housing association.

 Around half of the people who took our Data Maturity Assessment went on to implement a data strategy or improvement plan. And the vast majority of them reported that this resulted in increased knowledge and expertise, improved strategic planning and decision making, and improved products and services.

 At a high level developing a data strategy is a simple matter of working out where you are, where you want to be and how to get there. A data maturity assessment tells you where you are and gives you a sense of where you could aim to get to.

 3.     It can unlock additional resources

27% of people who took a data maturity assessment for their not-for-profit organisation went on to seek additional resources either internally or externally. And, this is the crucial part, all of them were successful.  

They typically used the resources to allocate new roles or responsibilities to existing staff, create new jobs or secure consultancy or external support.

Our Data Maturity Assessment is a self-assessment but we have designed it to make it as systematic and robust as possible. It can provide a baseline for organisations seeking to improve as well as helping organisations evidence the impact of changes and additional resources.

 As one of the organisations told us in their feedback

“It gives a great overview of where we are already doing well and where to focus more attention and resources. It was also thought provoking for how to continue to improve.”

The report

You can read the impact report online or download a copy of the report in PDF.

We developed the data maturity framework and the assessment tool based on our theory of change. This survey was the first opportunity we have had to really test that theory and, we’re delighted to say, the evidence suggests that our theory is broadly correct. There are learning points and we will use these to iterate our theory of change and to develop the Data Maturity Assessment tool going forward.

We really hope people will read the report as it shows the full range of organisational benefits that flow from taking the Data Maturity Assessment. It is free to take a single-user Data Maturity Assessment and there are full-organisation and agency discounts available for very reasonable fees.

As Nissa Ramsay, a consultant at Think Tech Social told us:

“It's the only tool dedicated to data maturity, which is desperately needed and supports digital maturity. It's evidence based, clear and practical.”

Try it yourself

If you’re interested in taking a data maturity assessment find out more about the tool or get in touch for a chat.

Thanks to: Digital Impact an initiative of the Digital Civil Society Lab at Stanford University’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (Stanford PACS); Esmée Fairbairn Foundation; and CAST – The Centre for Acceleration of Social Technology for support with the Data Maturity Assessment tool.