The Life Of A Non-Profit Data Professional

Mar 30, 2020

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Summary

Building and maintaining a system that integrates and analyzes all of the data for your organization is a complex endeavor. Operating on a shoe-string budget makes it even more challenging. In this episode Tyler Colby shares his experiences working as a data professional in the non-profit sector. From managing Salesforce data models to wrangling a multitude of data sources and compliance challenges, he describes the biggest challenges that he is facing.

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Your host is Tobias Macey and today I’m interviewing Tyler Colby about his experiences working as a data professional in the non-profit arena, most recently at the Natural Resources Defense Council

Interview

Introduction
How did you get involved in the area of data management?
Can you start by describing your responsibilities as the director of data infrastructure at the NRDC?
What specific challenges are you facing at the NRDC?
Can you describe some of the types of data that you are working with at the NRDC?
- What types of systems are you relying on for the source of your data?
What kinds of systems have you put in place to manage the data needs of the NRDC?
- What are your biggest influences in the build vs. buy decisions that you make?
- What heuristics or guidelines do you rely on for aligning your work with the business value that it will produce and the broader mission of the organization?
Have you found there to be any extra scrutiny of your work as a member of a non-profit in terms of regulations or compliance questions?
Your career has involved a significant focus on the Salesforce platform. For anyone not familiar with it, what benefits does it provide in managing information flows and analysis capabilities?
- What are some of the most challenging or complex aspects of working with Saleseforce?
In light of the current global crisis posed by COVID-19 you have established a new non-profit entity to organize the efforts of various technical professionals. Can you describe the nature of that mission?
- What are some of the unique data challenges that you anticipate or have already encountered?
- How do the data challenges of this new organization compare to your past experiences?
What have you found to be most useful or beneficial in the current landscape of data management systems and practices in your career with non-profit organizations?
- What are the areas that need to be addressed or improved for workers in the non-profit sector?

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Parting Question

From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?

Closing Announcements

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The intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

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