Charities Who Love Charts: How Data Sharing is Improving Chicago and Could do the Same for Your Nonprofit with Traci Stanley and Joshua Fulcher

Every nonprofit (and every nonprofit funder) wants to focus on collaboration opportunities.  Traci Stanley and Joshua Fulcher are on the forefront of nonprofit partnerships and are the driving forces behind the Chicago Benchmarking Collaborative. The collaborative is an alliance of seven education and human service agencies that collectively work with more than 12,000 low-income individuals throughout some of Chicago’s most underserved neighborhoods.

The collaborative developed a set of common outcomes and a technology blueprint to track and benchmark metrics. The collected data is used to design and implement strategies for measurably better outcomes. The CBC recently published a how-to guide to its methodology, Increasing Mission Impact Through Collaboration: Chicago Benchmarking Collaborative Processes and Toolkit.

 

*****Timestamped Highlights*****

(2:30) The founding goal of the Chicago Benchmark Collaborative.

(5:10) Overcoming resistance to collect and share more data.

(6:10) Using this data to benchmark with peers.

(8:30) Working with partners that are underperforming against the benchmark.

(11:45) How the collaborative uses data sharing to create high need programs.

(13:15) How data collaboration helps participating organizations secure funding.

(15:20) Ways the collaborative uses data to learn from high performers and improve services.

(17:45) Lessons from the Collaborative’s early days that new collaboratives can learn from.

(20:45) Why a collaborative needs strong executive sponsorship (and what that looks like).

(24:45) How to handle CEO transitions that jeopardize the partnership.