Did you catch MemoryFox’s November Special Event with SureImpact? Watch it now!

Full Transcript:

0:02okay and everybody who registered will receive the recording afterwards so and everybody who’s here obviously will as

0:08well so please don’t feel like you have to scribble down a bunch of notes um we will provide you with the

0:13recording and I’m going to go ahead and get started I’m a big fan of starting promptly so again thank you so much for

0:20joining us today um today we’re going to talk data driven storytelling and I first would just want

0:28to go ahead and kick it off by introducing our two guests again I don’t want to waste any time because this content is so good that I’m just going

0:35to hop right in so first I would like to introduce Sherry Cheney Jones uh Sherry

0:41is the founder and CEO of Sher impact and for more than 20 years Sherry has

0:47worked alongside Foundation nonprofits and government leaders to help them use

0:52data to solve complex social problems and increase Revenue she is an author professor and

0:59she’s internationally recognized uh as a measurement expert um wow international

1:05love that and Sherry believes in the in data metrics and accountability so

1:11welcome Sherry thank you for coming and joining us today thank you Carly great to be

1:17here yeah and then also I’d love to introduce my next guest which is Chris Mio um he is the founder and CEO of

1:25memory Fox he spent eight years in the Army where he traveled the world and he learned about the power of Storytelling

1:31and how it is a tool that connects people across cultures generations and socioeconomic

1:37backgrounds and since then Chris has made it his mission to elevate the stories of real human beings and really

1:45taking it one step further he really believes that through authentic storytelling the world can become a more

1:51inclusive and Equitable place for everybody so thank you for joining us today

1:56Chris thank you for having me Carly and um quickly I just want to share with

2:02you all kind of how today’s going to work we are going to break down today’s session into three parts so first Sherry

2:09is going to guide us through the process of collecting analyzing and presenting data effectively then second Chris is

2:16going to explore the power of Storytelling um that’s going to kind of include you know how to collect great

2:21stories and how those stories can benefit every department at your nonprofit and then third you all were

2:27wonderful and submitted great questions during registration so Chris and Sherry I have a ton of questions for you from

2:35all of our guests and I’m going to do my best to get as many answered as possible so be ready I’m going to be hitting you

2:41with the hard questions um but like I said we’re GNA kick it off with Sherry so Sherry take it away thank you so much

2:49Kari U let me get my slide here real quick and we’re gonna get started because I know I read some of those

2:54questions you guys are ready to learn ready to go and learn um about both

3:01qualitative and quantitative storytelling and if you had followed uh Chris and our conversations on social

3:07media before this presentation uh we were having healthy debate about what’s better stories or data well guess what

3:13you need both um and I like to say 1 plus 1 equals three when you add data

3:19with stories related to impact that’s when the real magic happens in terms of your ability to raise more money um and

3:26create and scale your impact so we definitely need data and with our stories to create more powerful stories

3:34so when we talk about impact measurement I know I recognize that it is not um

3:41nonprofit professionals favorite thing to talk about uh most people got into

3:46the line of work that they did because they want to make a difference um they didn’t want to become statisticians or

3:52math majors and that’s cool so let’s talk about why we want to prioritize

3:57impact measurement and impact data the research is clear overwhelmingly

4:03clear that when nonprofits share their impact data along with their storytelling they are significantly more

4:10likely to increase funding they uh are in like ensuring that they’re creating outcomes for the lives that they serve

4:17because they’ll know if they’re on track or off track what they need to do to improve and it also allows you to Pro

4:24provide a much more powerful story and we’ll talk about that in in the end so this is why do this data is just a means

4:31to an end and it’s about moving your mission forward so this is my personal quote uh

4:38I love this quote it’s guided my whole entire life in God we trust everyone else must bring data um and your funders

4:45feel that way too so when you’re pitching your a nonprofit to a foundation a government entity even now

4:52we’re seeing the next generation of donors are looking for that impact data

4:58they want to move towards trust-based philanthropy they want to be able to um

5:05you know invest in causes that are making a difference they see you as a portal of purpose but they can’t manage

5:12they can’t see the impact you’re having you also can’t manage and see the impact you’re having unless you’re measuring to

5:18those outcomes um so that’s why this is so important for us in this topic today

5:24so we’re going to go back to a little bit of the basics 101 um when we talk about what is act data what is what data

5:31do you need in order to tell powerful story both with quantitative and qualitative data the first is impact

5:38data is proving that you’re achieving lasting social change whatever that mission is on your mission statement

5:44it’s having evidence that shows to your donors to your funders to your staff to

5:49your stakeholders that you actually are moving the needle on the outcomes that you say your nonprofit is here to

5:56achieve we so therefore we need need to create ever evidence that’s what I look

6:02when I talk about impact measurement it’s evidence it’s demonstrated impact and therefore we need data yes we can

6:09have stories stories are a great way to talk about how you are moving um a

6:15particular situation or person humanizes it but data also shows in a systematic

6:20way how we’re making the difference all right so here’s a perfect example of a data driven story so we have two options

6:28let’s say you’re under and you receive these two applications the first is an

6:33outputs only statement it talks about just the number of people served within

6:39your nonprofit for the year the second is a nonprofit that has outcomes and

6:44impact data when they’re telling their story so they’re talking about how many people they served how they moved

6:50reading uh comprehension how what percentage of the students that they served stayed in school and out of the

6:58Juvenile Justice System and are able to even then communicate their social return on investment how much uh you

7:04know our five very $500 donated they were able to increase the lifetime earning potential of one child by

7:11$289,000 so that is a quantitative impact statement um and we want you to

7:17move to think about your own nonprofit where are you in that Journey the ones that can do uh the outcomes impa based

7:24impact statements are the ones that attract those funds over the nonprofits that just focus on number of outcomes so

7:31when we talk about quantifying your impact this is the type of statement that we um would want to help you move

7:38towards that are most powerful um another evidence of the

7:44importance of having impact data is uh related to the research I did back in

7:492014 um I wrote all about it in my book impact in excellence and what we found

7:55was that there are three types of nonprofits there are those who have impact and outcomes data and they’re

8:01using it to drive decisions there’s those that live more in the outputs world that can just talk about counts of

8:07people served or number of services provided and then there are those who have no data related to their

8:13programming and across the board you can see that the organizations our purple

8:18organizations those who have outcome and impact data are significantly more likely to achieve the things that all of

8:24you desire to achieve so if you looked at increased revenue for example 6 2% of

8:30our uh nonprofits that had impact in outcomes data uh reported increased

8:35revenues versus just 18 with those with only outputs and um those without any

8:40data at all only 12% reported increased revenues so having these types of

8:45information is the hidden secret sauce and what I love to share about this slide is let’s look at external

8:51relationships a lot of people uh point this out to me and this is where memory FRS and the qualitative work comes in so

8:59you’ll see that 81% of those with impact and outcomes data uh were able to have better external relationships that

9:06includes relationships with funders but then we’ll look at the 42% of those with

9:11outputs only data and 50% with um no data and although those two the 42 and

9:1850% are not significantly different uh when we dug deeper to understand why the

9:24trends weren’t the same is we found that those who didn’t have data we’re relying

9:30more on stories and relationships and so when you add though

9:35then the impact in qualitative data on top of that that’s when you start to see a huge difference from 81% having

9:42improved external relationships to just 50% who were more Rel relying on stories

9:48and relationships so how are we going to get there I’m sure you’re sitting here

9:53thinking this is great Sher I would love to have an impact and outcomes story but what should I I be doing how do I get

10:00there how do I figure out what I should be collecting and here is a very simple exercise um you will get these slides so

10:08make sure you uh do this exercise at your convenience after this webinar but it is the five wise exercise you’ll ask

10:14yourself three questions five times the first is why does your nonprofit do what

10:20it does right so if you’re a Youth Development organization you’ll be

10:26asking yourself why do you do what you do um you know what is your mission maybe it’s to give children a safe place

10:33to learn to increase their social emotional learning to um you know help

10:38them have better grades get a better job live live a better quality of life what

10:44stay out of trouble whatever it is but you’re G to ask yourself why do you do what you do the second question you’re

10:49going to ask yourself is why do your funders in Partners want to partner with

10:55you because they they may have some different motivations they may have your same wise but they might be looking to

11:02reduce um Juvenile Justice fees or criminal fees or maybe they’re looking for um you know if it’s a school system

11:10they’re making sure that children are in the classroom so they increase their revenues from the state so they may have

11:16slightly different wise than your wise and the third is to ask yourself why do

11:21your participants or clients participate in your program what do they hope to accomplish and these you know if you’re

11:29especially if you’re thinking about serving you they might want a fun a fun environment to be in they may want to

11:34hang with their friends um they your parents might be signing them up maybe your the parents have a specific skill

11:41they want their kids to go to a better college or they don’t want them to be home alone whatever it is those wise

11:48might be different from your funders wise and it might be different from your wise and when we think about communicating to our audience and

11:55proving our impact to our stakeholders we need to understand understand each one of those and those y’s are going to

12:03become our outcomes that’s what we’re going to measure so once you’ve done the

12:08five wise exercise excuse me you’re going to put this into a logic model and the reason

12:16we we use a logic model as a to a tool to measure our success is because it

12:21will demonstrate The Logical linkages between what you do who you’re serving and what are those

12:29short medium and long-term outcomes and we can measure everything we’re not going to measure everything but at least

12:35that gives us a framework a basis of what we should be measuring when we talk about measuring our impact and

12:43outcomes so let’s get really clear about what is the difference between an output and an outcome and uh so if I were to

12:51give you this example and I want you to open your chats because this is an interactive question so McDonald sells

12:5733 million hamburgers a day Five Guys sells 350,000 hamburgers a day and I want you

13:05to answer the following question who makes the better hamburger all right go

13:10open open up your chat tell me who makes the better hamburger Five Guys or McDonald’s okay

13:16we got one Five Guys oh we got a McDonald’s okay um they don’t know Carly

13:21doesn’t know okay got this is the mixed audience all right there are the five guys are trickling in Five Guys Five Guys Five

13:28Guys all right so this is often the case right I ask this question I get the

13:33answer Five Guys but Five Guys sells more hamburgers a day or McDonald’s

13:38sells more hamburgers a day than five guys why I share this example is because think about the nonprofit sector what do

13:46we typically do we count hamburgers we count outputs the number of hamburgers

13:52the different hamburger joints serve that is just an output so that would be

13:57like you talking about the the number of kids served people served adults served number of services provided but when I

14:04asked you who made the better hamburger you made your decision or most of us you made your decision based on

14:11quality not quantity and so we want to make sure we have evidence of our

14:17quality your true profit your true profit are outcomes and so that’s why

14:22the five wise exercise is so important because it gets to what are those outcomes why does your organization

14:29exists what is it trying to accomplish and then you measure that in order to communicate your

14:36impact all right so how are we going to get there you’re like okay I want to tell an outcome and impact story I know

14:42it’s going to help me raise more money I’ve done the five wise exercise I’ve developed a logic model now what do I

14:48need to do well you have to prioritize data collection the only way you’ll be able to have uh data to tell an impact

14:56story is if you incorporate the data collection within your daytoday ongoing

15:02way of doing your work and you’ll need three types of data you need the

15:08demographics the number of people that you serve and who they are something about um you know different race gender

15:14ethnicity zip codes whatever is unique to your logic model your theory of change you also need to be able to talk

15:20about what did you do with them and then have those wise those outcomes how are people off so you need these three types

15:27of data in order to tell a compelling impact measurement story so we talked a little bit about

15:33that you also want to capture the cost in Revenue uh so you can calculate your cost per success and something related

15:41to Quality related to participant and stakeholder feedback in the

15:46satisfaction this is a great way to think about how to organize how you’re going to tell your story when you’re

15:53collecting your data is thinking about three types of questions and creating a measurement of framework work around

15:59that what was done again those are going to be your demographics number of serve how well it’s done that will be data

16:04related to Quality timeliness cultural responsiveness uh client experience and

16:10then how people are better off those will be a count or a percentage or a systematic data collection related to um

16:18your outcomes and your impact so once you done the fiveways exercise created your logic model um prioritize data

16:25collection you’ll likely want to put this measurement framework together so that you’ll know when you go to tell an

16:32impact story that you can communicate what was done How well was it done and how people and communities are better

16:37off because of your work so in order to get to a statement

16:42of impact um our recommended approach is to have three pieces of data the first

16:48is a clearly defined outcome the number of people who successfully achieve those outcomes and then how much your program

16:55costs because this will then allow you to capture that that cost per success

17:00how much does it cost to get one person to a successful outcome this is so much

17:05different than cost per service because if we just talk about cost per service the only thing we can do to increase

17:12efficiency is to do more with less so we want to be able to communicate how much does it cost to get to an outcome

17:18because that’s what our funders are really buying so when you go fundraise you can say it it cost 2000 $2,000 to

17:26get one client to uh income stability or whatever it is the outcome is you’re

17:31measuring so we talked a lot about that the the three types of things and here’s an example of a

17:38nonprofit who was able to be very successful systematically Gathering their data pathlight home is a housing

17:45provider in Orlando Florida and they adopted sh impact to help them measure what they did how well they did it and

17:51how people are better off and because they had the relationship between what they did and how uh well they did it and

17:58who was better off they learned that their residents who uh received Case Management Services were two and a half

18:04times more likely to have a successful or no fault move out compared to those who did not have Case Management

18:10Services they then took this information and this data went and fund rais got

18:16some funds from the Disney foundation and others to help them uh make sure that all of their residents had access

18:22to Case Management Services which allowed them then to increase their outcomes which was a successful no fault

18:29uh move out because they’re a housing provider they also were able to look at

18:35a variety of different outcomes that told the multiple complex of the stories so they knew the journey using their

18:41five wi of how their programs were improving not just the earnings and the housing uh stability of the families

18:48that they served or the individuals they served they also were able to understand by program what were the eviction rates

18:54were they getting people access to Mental Health Care were their family relationships improved do they have

18:59increased job skills and they’re using this data to drive level Le levers to

19:04improve their programs to improve their outcomes as well as raise more money so you want to be able to sell tell a

19:10complex Story related to your outcomes so that you know how your Mo changing lives and changing circumstances within

19:17your communities so that was a high level overview I want Chris to have plenty of time to talk about um the

19:24qualitative side of things but those are the nuts and bolts and steps still want to adopt to create an impact data uh

19:34organization all righty can can everybody see my oops we’re like a little bit ahead there can everyone see

19:40my screen here all right good I just heard a little baby waking up upstairs way long

19:46way earlier than they were supposed to get up from their nap so if you hear some Screaming there’s nothing going on it’s just a baby

19:52upstairs um all right well thank you Shar I thought it was really good and I I liked your idea of the five y’s I

19:57think that actually applies to startups too I think they’re I I can I had my brain turning too a lot in terms of how

20:04we can measure things so thank you for sharing that and I think of qualitative and quantitative sort of like you know

20:10ying and yang peanut butter peanut butter and jelly right like they’re both good but they are even better together

20:17and so we’ll talk a little bit about how to marry those two things um how to actually show your mission with

20:23qualitative storytelling content everyone kind of knows they need to do it but it’s like how do we actually do it so let’s dive into it all right so

20:30I’m sort of a stats nerd myself so um we put together some statistics show why

20:36quantitative or qualitative me measurement is so important so first off and probably most importantly it’ll

20:42allow you to raise more funds classy actually did a study and they found that campaigns that incorporate video

20:49qualitative impact video receive 114% more funding than campaigns that don’t

20:54and I think that totally makes sense right video gives you a window into the people in the the mission you know like nothing

21:01else sorry second off you know it’s more memorable viewers retain vastly more

21:06information when they see it through video people telling stories to other people is a primal human function I mean

21:13how do you think the very first impact measurement ever took place right they told stories about it they no one could

21:19read back then or anything right they told stories about it and that’s how imp impact measurement had happened for

21:25thousands of years and finally it’s what people want it’s what they crave these

21:30days short form video like Instagram Tik Tock and and and the like have exploded

21:36as attention spans and the and the attention economy have grown and so um

21:42you know you want to be telling stories by your impact that meet the tastes of the times and video is the way people are telling those stories in a lot of

21:49ways nonprofits been given an impossible task to stand out in this attention economy um against organizations that

21:56have a lot more money than them and so we’ll talk about that how you can leverage authentic Grassroots video

22:03impact content to kind of level the playing field a little bit and here’s an example I I love to

22:09share this is uh kids health connections out of uh of Michigan and they use

22:15Community generated impact content to be able to supplement their Grant application to supplement the qual the

22:21quantitative um material that they were uploading so let’s give it a look I love the to and I love that they

22:30help me and they motivate me and push me up when I’m fre now and um I stop or I’m

22:37say I can’t do it they always say I can’t but I always say I can’t but they

22:42always say I can’t do it never so you can but I love that they motivate me all the time and we’re strong Fit Kids all

22:51right right I mean that’s beautiful authentic Grassroots impact content and

22:57imagine imagine that right next to a beautiful statistic about how many people and what was the impact and how

23:03it changed their lives right those two things married together tell a very powerful story that touches all aspects

23:10of of what motivates a person or a granting organization and so we know video is

23:16important right and we know that good impact what good impact video looks like so how do we actually get started

23:22collecting it because that tends to be the actual the actual problem so we built a simple framework at memory Fox

23:28that anybody can use um when I say simple it is very intentionally simple um because video doesn’t have to be hard

23:35and and and is very accessible to everybody so if you stick sort of this tried intrude strategy you’ll always end

23:41up with great impact content that you can share alongside your statistics and and your more quantitative uh

23:48data all right so before you even go talk to somebody start at the end result

23:54what are we trying to accomplish here is it for a social media campaign a donor report Grant a Gala is it qualitative

24:01video about a very specific quantitative statistic that you want to share um you

24:07know possibly for a report or some something otherwise and then think about what type of content would be best for

24:12it a slid show a single video a snippet that you want to put up on Instagram stories but but first step is just think

24:20about those outputs and then work your way backwards from that to to be able to fill in the information beforehand so as

24:28you think about who to collect it from you know step two what type of content will satisfy the requirements for step

24:34one do we want testimonials do we want Maybe video of the uh mission in action

24:40do we want children talking about the mission kind of like kind of like we showed earlier um do we want Mission do

24:46we want videos from actual Mission beneficiaries do we want it from volunteers maybe we want it from staff

24:53or even donors who feel passionately about the mission all of this tells the story story of your organization in a

24:59qualitative way um so think about the inputs next after thinking about those

25:04outputs and then finally um you know now that you know what you want to accomplish what are the questions that

25:10we want to ask that will elicit these great responses great questions lead to Great answers and poor questions they’re

25:17just going to cause your storytellers to lock up and it is a barrier to elevating their voice and that’s what we’re here

25:22to do is Elevate people’s voices to share the qualitative story of the organization

25:28and so like I said to wrap it up what do you want to accomplish what type of content will help you achieve that and

25:34what are the call to actions that will help you get that content and this is exactly what kids

25:41health connections followed to submit for their Grant and like I said great stories equals great results and they

25:47were actually able to successfully win this grant by marrying the qualitative

25:52and the quantitative side of their submission which I think is really really powerful to see

25:59now we put this in here thank you so much if if you like you can kind of go ahead and scan this QR code if you want

26:05and um you’ll get uh some we’ll be able to email you some information we include

26:10these slides um some also some additional information an actual walkth through of how fit kids um did their

26:19campaign and why it was successful so um I’ll give you guys a minute if you want to run through that or I think Carly I

26:25think we’re going to share it with them um after the presentation so but I’ll

26:31give everybody you know 15 seconds to kind of run through that um and then

26:36we’ll launch into the next part all right cool and like I said

26:42we’ll we’ll be sending this out to everybody uh who attended as well all right so I wanted to include in

26:49this because there were some uh questions that actually uh were submitted that actually apply to uh my

26:56side of the presentation and so one thing that we saw a lot of was um I’d

27:01like to see examples of how organizations collect actual stories and share them in various mediums and so

27:08what I prepared was um you know four examples across four different

27:14mediums now fundraising we already touched that’s a pretty obvious uh use case for your stories but uh we could

27:21we’ll go through donor stewardship programs marketing and volunteer Recruitment and engagement and so in terms of uh donor

27:29seership I love this one this is always a very powerful uh way to hit people

27:34with almost like a wall of qualitative content showing them um a story page

27:39right list out all you know take all the stories that you collected put them all on one page this was a beautiful

27:46presentation put together by Martin St Lucy I uh using canva um which is

27:51obviously an amazing tool that you guys can use for qualitative uh presentation of your information and look at this

27:57right I mean if you’re a donor and you see this every month I mean that is the type of qualitative information that you

28:03just love to see um and it’s fairly easy to present uh using things like canva

28:08and other tools so I I really like this one it’s a really great way to hit them with a wall a wall of

28:15qualitative um another one is Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle collected

28:21uh questions from students and about coid and then they took all those and

28:27then put it into a bigger um sort of impact content on YouTube which I

28:32thought was a really cool way to Institute sort of like multi- Channel and uh yeah this was a great way to kind

28:39of tell the story you tell a little bit showing your impact a little bit through YouTube and through presentation of

28:45programs and things like that everything you do conveys your mission and your values and things like that that’s all

28:51part of your qualitative story next one and this is obviously

28:56very cool um you’ve got C Kamp aaya I think I keep

29:01forgetting the name of them um sounds like Camp Anana for those of a certain age um but uh yeah they used it they

29:09used it for their marketing mat they actually put these videos right on their website right people come to your website they want to learn certainly

29:15you’re going to present them with Statistics and the quantitative side you definitely want to have that on your website but also supplementing it with

29:22some videos that show the qualitative aspect people having fun people enjoying the mission people benefiting and the

29:27impact uh that ensues and then finally on this one as

29:32federan is very near and dear to my heart um volunteer Recruitment and engagement so wreaths Across America

29:38beautiful organization they collect so every year so they Place wreaths at all the cemeteries throughout the country if

29:44you ever noticed there’s wreaths on the veterans gravestones at various times of year and that’s their responsibility

29:50they coordinate with local organizations throughout the country and what they did is that as while they were doing the wreath placements at Christmas they also

29:58had them collect uh submit content videos and pictures of the ceremonies and they collected over 6,000 pieces of

30:04content from all over the country and this is like boom like that is the

30:10qualitative impact like you are out there putting people smiling veterans out there and now they can use this

30:16content throughout the entire year on social media showing their qualitative impact they have one collection event

30:23and then it lasts them the entire year through all the grants that they do and all the different different types of events and so it’s a really powerful way

30:30to show your story just using it on social media but that qualitative content is really what helps drive that

30:36um alongside the statistics another question that we got could you share some examples of

30:43successful ways to ask people to submit their stories one of the things that I’ve learned on this journey is that

30:49everybody wants to collect stories everybody knows the storytelling is important but there’s like a practical piece of how you actually like get the

30:56stories from people um which is not trivial um and so hopefully we have some

31:01tactics and techniques that will help you with that um one of I think is a

31:06very powerful one is generate a domino effect so instead of setting up a photo booth at your events or any sort of

31:12thing like that like set up a story booth and once people see other people

31:18you know gathering around there telling their story it starts to spread especially if it’s a nice experience and

31:24um you start building a little bit of a domino effect momentum to it um and especially people if there’s wine at

31:30your event it’s like a Gala I mean people become very liberal with the stories that they tell and very giving

31:35um of of of of of talking about the qualitative side of the mission um as people open up a little bit

31:43more and then next one uh designate a Content collection champ this is a super

31:49super important piece to this whenever you have your programs and this goes to what Sherry was saying about making

31:55measurement a part of your organization so when you have a program coming up or you have an event coming up and you’re

32:01everybody’s getting their sort of tasks assigned one of the task should be who is going to be the content collection

32:07champion and so they that might be the quantitative person as well or something like that like that person is in charge

32:13of the of of gathering the information about this event and so they’ll do the quantitative piece but maybe the

32:19qualitative piece too pulling people in and saying hey um you know we’d love to get your story or would it be okay if we

32:25got a little story from your child or from you and things like that but like having someone who’s wearing that hat

32:30that they’re the ones going out there and making sure that this happens otherwise if you’re just sitting up QR

32:35codes or you’re just hoping that it’ll happen it never happens um you know that’s just sort of the way events go

32:41everybody’s very busy uh next one right to the point about asking great questions to get

32:47great Stories part of your job as a person this goes to the quanitative side too is like the questions are just as

32:53important as the answers the questions are what get you there and if you have good razor sharp questions you can really get there to to where you need to

33:00be so instead of someone tell your story you know how did our organization help

33:05you overcome a challenge you were facing right impact and that’s a beautiful story that you you attach to that

33:12statistic and now they can see the full picture of it another one instead of tell us about the volunteer work you do

33:19tell us about the first time you volunteered how did that make you feel right how do that make you feel and that

33:25is something that people love to talk about if they’re given the space and given the actual questions that

33:30elucidate those answers so you want to be very very careful to craft the

33:35questions um so that you can get the great qualitative content that you want um to be able to complete the

33:42circle and so finally maybe the most important thing and I I I I am not very

33:47good at these types of presentations I get very nervous about them and so Carly’s the type of person who says you

33:53just don’t be afraid right just go out and do it and then she learned that when she was working in nonprofits and one

33:59day she there was a Medal of Honor recipient that she wanted to invite to

34:04not only be a donor but be a part of their community and she was nervous about it and she just don’t be afraid to

34:10ask right you have something great and you have something that that you’re proud of and something you want someone people want to participate and so don’t

34:17be afraid to ask and so Karly I thank you for that tidb because that just you know it’s a good good motivational tool

34:23I think for everybody but yeah don’t be afraid to ask people to to hear their story because people do want to share

34:29their story it’s like as foundational as as anything else to The Human Experience so so really um you know don’t be afraid

34:35of that and so yeah that’s my part of the presentation I think Carly I think

34:41this is a great time we’ll we’ll head into those great questions and answers that uh that uh yeah I have say I’m very

34:47honored that my picture gets to be a part of your presentation and you’re my

34:52nor star Carly Sherry I have pictures that I’ll send to you as well because I know you’re wondering yeah you would

34:58probably like to add me as well so I figured that would come up um okay wow

35:04okay we learned a lot I just learned so much I mean I work with Chris every day so I know kind of the stuff he was

35:10saying but Sherry mind-blowing stuff I’ve never heard of the five W’s

35:16written it I’m really loving it yeah like we mentioned at the top of the hour

35:22we have so many great uh question submissions that came in while people read reged so I’m just going to dive in

35:28let’s see how many we get to um so my first question for you came from Melissa

35:34and this is a question for both of you so maybe I’ll just start with Sherry but this is kind of just an overview what is

35:41data driven storytelling and what does it mean to you yeah so daty driven storytelling what means to me is related

35:49to when you identify those five wise having the metrics to tell the story so

35:55our formula is basically you know what did you do who’ you do it for how well did you do it and how people are better

36:01off so being able to answer those questions using data and then you know

36:06if you had a great video testimony where someone was telling their story of basically how they received that service

36:13and how they’re now better off kind of it solidifies it brings the emotion and care to that data driven story that’s my

36:21definition anyway yeah Chris anything to add to that yeah I mean like think of it in

36:27terms of logos ethos and pathos where it’s like the logos right you’re trying

36:33to appeal to their reasoning and that’s the part of you that craves statistics and what I think is important about it

36:40is you have a common measurement framework across the organizations you’re using statistics and so everyone

36:46agrees generally that statistics are are you know they they match across

36:52organizations so you’re using that to appeal to donors on a logical level and

36:57then on the ethos side we’re demonstrating our values by elevating voices right and we value both

37:04statistics and the human element we are an organization who cares about both and I think if imagine you’re a Community

37:11Foundation or a family foundation and you’re looking through organizations that is very appealing to them right

37:17because they want to know that you can do both you’re you’re thinking about both things at that advanced level um

37:23and then finally the pathos right which is more the appeal to emotions and sympathy that’s where you want them to

37:29feel something and so while statistics sort of stabilizes the message and makes it rigorous the qualitative aspects

37:37activate the emotional part of the brain that Inspire action and so I think that’s why data data driven storytelling

37:44is such a great concept and a way to frame um you know what you do oh yeah I

37:50love it broken down that way that’s so interesting and actually that transitions really nicely into my next

37:56question um and this was submitted by glennen so thank you Glenn for submitting this but

38:02um we both you both talked about this a little bit but the question is how do I use storytelling to describe impact my

38:09data impact so how exactly do we pull those together and I think you both touched on it but any other tips for our

38:19audience well I I mean I think for us we see the most powerful um storytelling is

38:25when there’s a story or a testimonial or video and then you back that up with

38:31with Statistics so to Chris’s point you know most most givers most donors most

38:36Grant uh funders they’re going to um originally uh make the decision to

38:43purchase or engage with your organization because of the emotion but they’re going to rationalize their decision with their brain so when you’ve

38:50got the emotional story with the data to support it how your organization does it

38:55overall now it’s just kind of of a uh Nob brainer investment because you’ve got elements of both yeah and if you’re

39:02not using both you can kind of create some like unethical situations I think

39:07it you know what I mean by to and overweight because if you’re just using only too much statistics right we’re in

39:13a messy business not a business but like in a messy line of work right it’s not always as clear-cut as as as as people

39:21may want it to be and so sometimes the data may be a little uneven right or maybe not as optimistic as you think

39:27that it is or it should be and so but if you’re all stories well then you’re

39:32missing the big picture and you could you know as the saying goes the death of one person is a tragedy and the death of

39:39a million is a statistic and so you want to like have both sides of that um to

39:45make sure that you’re you know you’re being ethical about the way that you tell the story about your organization

39:51and you’re being truthful about your impact a really good point um it kind of

39:57reminds me of this idea of like okay so if you work like the nonprofit you work

40:03for you probably have a great idea of the impact you’re making and you see those numbers and you’re like wow look

40:08at this how big this impact is but sometimes I feel like you might need that context through a personal story to

40:14like Pro not prove it but kind of let somebody in on the in on it with you

40:20right so they can really humanize it yeah it’s a human it’s a humanization it’s making them like oh oh yeah okay I

40:26I get I get that I know a neighbor like that I know a friend like that you know that reminds me of my

40:33grandma yeah yeah yeah yeah I love that um okay my next question is for Sherry

40:40and this is from Alexandra and the question is um how do you present data

40:45in a visual clear and impactful way that’s a great question so um I think

40:52when I always I do feel like I sound like a broken record because I’m so in love with the what did you do how well

40:59did you do it and how people are better off so if you you know kind of build your impact measurement statement in

41:05that way where you’re able to say hey we serve this many people we gave them you know this is what their breakdown was

41:12this is what we did for them and these are the results they got like it’s very clear and if I’m if I’m your fundraiser

41:19and I’m telling that story if I’m writing in a Grant application it gets something I can very clearly you know

41:24tell the story that way so that’s from a datadriven perspective I think just getting really clear on those key metrics um is really important and

41:32I’m sure Chris has some great ways to how to yeah I mean I think it’s funny because it like it kind of applies to

41:37startups too is this idea of being very clear about your impact and like no

41:44venture capitalist or big you know guy wants to hear you Meander around what you do they want to say memory Fox

41:51helped nonprofits collect over 60,000 stories in 2020 22 you know what I mean

41:57like that’s an impact and then like and it help them raise x amount of dollars is like the next level right and so you

42:04know I I I just it’s all about how you present it and being clear um yeah and I

42:10think that’s what that’s what’s great about what you do Sherry thanks okay well Chris I’m gonna stick

42:17with you for the next question this was submitted by Libby but I know personally we get this question all the time so I’m

42:23glad that somebody asked um but the question is how can nonprofits utilize client

42:28testimonials without exploiting people yeah I this is something that I’m

42:34very passionate about because I’m sort of a cynic about social media and how it’s just like this this Behemoth right

42:40that just churns out content and I think this is actually the most important topic in qualitative nonprofit impact

42:47measurement is like there’s this insatiable demand for video and so

42:52nonprofits sort of have to tow the line between getting their message out there and tugging out heart heartstrings but

42:58not being exploitative and that’s a little bit about the ethics we talked about earlier so we actually are always

43:04learning about this and we’re trying to stay ahead of the game on it because it is so important so I don’t have an easy

43:10answer except that we have a special event panel coming up um well we’re going to talk about this a little more

43:16in depth um Karly I’m sure you could drop the link because there are some thought leaders out there who who have

43:22spent a lot of time researching this and and I think it’s it’s even better for them to talk about but I will say for me

43:30from an emotional perspective you know it’s about North Stars right coming from a place of love and elevation and like

43:37elevating people’s stories not just getting a story right so that you have the right content for the right donor

43:43and things like that do not like like do not be a tourist in other people’s Misfortune I think that’s a a mantra

43:50that I tell myself all the time is like do not be a tourist in other people’s Misfortune like they are just equal to

43:56you and so ask them good questions that value their time and their emotions and

44:02their whatever difficulty they may be enduring and just be thoughtful of that

44:07and I think as long as you keep that as a North star you can go wrong but you mostly won’t go wrong and I think you

44:14know as we continue to build the thought leadership around this I think a lot more will become clear over time but

44:20it’s a it’s a it’s definitely something in progress as social media is just like rapidly changing and you know becoming

44:27pretty chaotic yeah I think that’s a great answer and yeah I just I think there is

44:34like you said no easy answer I think we’re all trying to learn that in real time and I guess I would just say if it

44:40feels wrong it that’s a great if it doesn’t feel right to you life lesson I

44:46think it might not feel right to your audience and and like I said we’re all learning so yeah getting that training from like experts that are studying this

44:53stuff is me yeah EX yeah um okay now I have a question from

45:00Julia and it is for Sherry the question is do you have any recommendations on um

45:07public or free resources that you can use for data mining yeah I think um if you want to

45:14there’s two ways to tell your story um I prefer that a nonprofit collects their

45:20own data um about their own impact but sometimes you might be a little bit

45:25Upstream and you want to go and talk about the community need um and that’s where you can lean on the census uh you

45:32know the US Census Data makes tons of data available for free where you can um

45:37dive deep into your own community and understand what are the trends and the problems and the needs that your um

45:43organization is doing now I think that that’s a great way to to justify your case for support or to explain the need

45:49of why your nonprofit exists and what you’re doing to address it I think though then there’s the other uh way

45:55where you need need to Source your own data and you need to collect uh

46:00information from the actual participants in your survey and you can use you know

46:05survey tools or you know other uh online resources to help you collect that

46:11information but it’s really important that nonprofits Source their own data so they know that they are solving the

46:17problems that are that the communities are facing that’s such a good point I forget that the census does all of that so

46:24often so that’s a really good resource thank you for mentioning that um okay another question for Chris

46:32how do you ensure transparency in qualitative storytelling this came to us from Trisha yeah I I uh I I think a lot

46:41about this but I have a terrible job articulating it but I probably do a better job in like a bar stool or something like that sitting next to

46:47somebody because I think it’s a really like Rich topic is the idea of like how to to do this in an ethical and

46:54transparent way when when it comes to qualitative storytelling and so I think it’s incumbent on the person the

47:00organization that is collecting to to to make sure that they’re asking very good

47:07questions that keep the Storyteller on track you know I think you know sometimes we’re all

47:13legends in our own minds or sometimes our stories can Meander our stories can get a little a little too much and uh so

47:20it’s incumbent on the person who is doing collecting the stories to make sure that that is um done in an ethical

47:28way and really like and also making consent a big part of your collection experience um with with with the

47:35qualitative side it’s just consent is everything and you’re consenting to human to use cons human experiences and

47:42you need to be thoughtful of that and so being transparent about the way that you collect those stories but I think o like

47:48the overarching thing is is is a commitment to authenticity and it’s about consistency of authenticity you

47:54don’t just prove that you’re transparent in one moment it’s a series of moments

48:00over the course of time where you demonstrate it consistently through good quantitative and qualitative analysis of

48:07what you do um and so on the qualitative side don’t be afraid like if there’s ums

48:12and there’s AZ and there’s all these types of things you know that’s okay right that separates you that the on the

48:19for-profit side they’ve spent millions billions of dollars trying to replicate

48:25nonprofit storytelling and like a lot of big brands have become very good at it

48:30and they’ve made your lives a lot harder because you feel a lot of people feel the need to like match you know Kim

48:36Kardashian or Pepsi or all these types of things it’s impossible right so so

48:42focus on the authenticity piece of what you do and don’t be afraid of ums and Oz

48:47and weirdness and things like that because that’s who you’re dealing with that’s the reality and so if you commit

48:53to authenticity that demonstrates transparen y like by by definition and

48:58so I think you’ll always you’ll always you know make sure that you’re you’re on the right track if you commit to

49:07that I love that it’s a rant a little bit I can go deep no that’s fine I could hear you rant about that any day and I

49:14do every day no just okay um we have um time for one more question and H this

49:21one is for Sherry um and I know you touched on this but maybe we can expand a little bit more but the question is

49:28funders often have a perception that the bigger the numbers the better the impact and that relatively means that smaller

49:35scale um or less impact means less effective and uh what are some effective

49:42ways to present the data with all of its nuances yeah I think that’s where we

49:47recommend that cost per success metric because first off just sharing the

49:53number of people you serve because that’s often where people are Sensational right like we serve 10,000

49:58kids well that doesn’t mean anything in terms of quality um I’ve unfortunately evaluated programs that made kids worse

50:07um and of course you know you if you find that you’re doing that you will do the things you can to put yourself on

50:12the right path but when you talk to a funer about and we’ve seen nonprofits

50:17change the landscape of their communities when they started telling a fun hey you know we’re 75% successful at

50:24getting children education proficiency for example and our cost per success is $2500 per kid right it cost us $2,500 to

50:32get one kid to um English proficient I’m just making that story up but now the

50:37funer when they’re being pitched by another nonprofit they’re gonna say well what’s your cost per success right what

50:44your success rate and then that nonprofit’s left going um I don’t know I served a thousand kids we don’t measure

50:49that yeah so if you lead with that story if you lead with those numbers if you’re

50:55proactive about it now you’re changing the criteria of which that funer may start evaluating other

51:05organizations okay yeah yeah I love that and like I said before we’re gonna send those slides out so I know that that was

51:11kind of overviewed on one of your slides so yeah I hope that some people um will put that into action um and you know

51:18what I lied I think we have time for one more question so I know Chris you already relaxed but guess what I’m going

51:23to hit you with another one I’m never relax this one this question’s from Ashley um

51:29and the question is how can an organization be sure that they’re collecting the most effective type of

51:37stor well that’s a question yeah that is a tough one um but really it’s it’s like

51:44I recommend just sticking to the system I know this sounds like kind of obvious but like stick to the system that we

51:51kind of pitched a little bit earlier um I know it sounds super easy and like a little dumbed down but like it is not

51:57like it is really an effective tool start with the outputs then one are the

52:03inputs and what are the call the actions and like have that be your foundational piece um to to make sure that you’re

52:11collecting these these this Quant or this qualitative data um and then and

52:17then go from there but like keep it simple you’re very busy so like use Simple Frameworks for everything and

52:22then and you’ll see the results I think that’s great advice okay well those were a lot of the

52:31great questions you all submitted and again thank you so much for doing that um but now I’d like to it back over to

52:37Sherry she’s goingon to share a little bit more specifically about what Sher impact can do for your nonprofit so

52:43Sherry take it away thank you Carly um let me quickly share my screen here um

52:50and I’m just G to do really quick overview because we talked a lot about the importance of a logical model and so

52:56what sure impact is it is a Lo it’s a online um cloud-based tool that helps

53:02nonprofits capture what they do um through their normal workflow so to prioritize data collection but able to

53:08then think like a program logic model so when um our sh impact users log in they

53:14have at their fingertips uh how many clients they served what they did with those clients how many hours of service

53:20so your outputs but then they also get to see how they’re at a quick snapshot

53:25how are they’re moving the needle on the different outcomes that they want to collect so they get to see for example

53:30if academic positive behavior change was one of your goals you quickly could see the beginning we had 69% of our clients

53:37had academic positive behavior change currently 100% of our students have and 100% have been able to maintain so it’s

53:44it’s giving that story that you need to tell to your funders or to drive decisions it’s giving all of that

53:50information at your fingertips when you need it um when you need to write grants we also have powerful analytics again

53:57that are um giving you interactive views related to your work so you have the

54:02information to tell that high level story but then from a program accountability um everyday datadriven

54:09tracking realm you have robust data and information that um hopefully will come

54:14up here soon uh but it’s giving you interactive tools to look at your again

54:20very much based on a logic model where we know you have clients that are enrolled in your programs um that get

54:27services and then you’re trying to achieve outcome measures so you’re able to see you know Trends over time related

54:33to who are you serving everything is broken down into an equity analysis so you can break things down by a male

54:40female race gender a lot of the reporting that you need to make sure you’re creating Equitable outcomes

54:46you’ve got all that information related to all of your outcomes here um in your measures Tab and then every how is the

54:53data getting inputed is the question question we often get so you’ll have all this great data related to your outcomes

54:59is that it works the way your nonprofit works so your staff are in here every single day just making interactions to

55:06their clients you’re going in recording again what you’ve done with a particular client so if this client came in and

55:13they got a bus stop uh you know had a this session you just record that make any notes you can track attendance of

55:21lots of people at once if you have many multiple people you’re saving it and then you always can go in and see

55:27that individual’s history so if you want to just manage the outcome of one person to tell one person’s story you can see

55:33everything you’ve done with them as well as how they’re moving the needle on key outcome measures so you’ve got the

55:38individual story but all of that information you’re putting into sure impact is rolling up and filling your

55:44your dashboards and um your analytics tabs and so it’s very intuitive to use

55:51for your line staff but then it gives the development directors the executive directors the fundraisers what they need

55:56to go tell a story um and so I know we shared a lot today I believe Laurel in

56:02the chat was going to put in some information related to our ultimate guide of impact measurement so it kind

56:08of outlines how to leverage technology to have impact measurement as part of your organization’s culture and have

56:14that data at your fingertips we need an ultimate guide that is pretty cool I’ll think of

56:20something to be the ultimate guide for a qualitative impact measurement that’s what it be um okay cool let me throw up

56:27my screen uh just real quick so you guys can see it um little bit about memory

56:33Fox so it’s a DIY software that helps you collect stories from your community keep them all organized in a story bank

56:40that tracks consent and who’s in it when they sent it Etc and then design all that content in amazing ways um either

56:47using our video editor that we built our story presentation tools or our amazing

56:53integration with canva hope hopefully everyone here uses canva it’s free it’s amazing um so if you don’t have it I

57:00would recommend going going to check it out um it’s a great way to show your impact you can create a ton of content

57:05on it um and look we know that you’re very busy so we actually have the ability to just run the account for you

57:12um if you want if you want to just offload your entire storytelling and qu qualitative storytelling uh uh tasks

57:19onto us um we can’t go to your events unfortunately but everything other than that um we do that as well so yeah

57:27really really excited to uh connect uh with you

57:33all well thank you both Sher and Chris for joining us today you both Le you

57:39left us with so much information I’m so excited to send it out to everybody so

57:44I’ll set out the recording um in both slide decks so people can take a look and learn more later um maybe compare it

57:52to the notes we took and as well as those resources that were shared in the chat um so yeah thank you so much for

57:58coming any last words any final words like pean butter and jelly

58:04qualitative and quantitative yeah absolutely I love that what do what what

58:11did you do how well did you do it and how people are better off very simple framework for measuring impact that’s it

58:17that’s the CP that’s the move yeah okay thank you all for coming thank you all

58:22for being here appreciate it bye