Data are just summaries of thousands of stories...
The results are in 👏🏽
For the past week, I shared some news and a poll.
I’m changing the name of this newsletter soon (goodbye, Brand First!) — to correspond with the title of my upcoming book.
Same content and focus for you, new name for me.
And I asked: do you prefer one weekly newsletter vs. emailing you each topic as a daily newsletter?
Your votes were conclusive!
↳ 72% prefer a weekly newsletter.
So watch this space as I work on the new weekly format.
Your impact data isn’t the fundraising problem.
The issue is how to use it.
Because:
Everyone else is claiming ‘evidence-based’ these days.
Testimonials often outperform other forms of measurement.
You can’t raise money with a randomized controlled trial alone.
A monitoring and evaluation report (itself) doesn’t land you funding.
Here’s the deal. ⤵
Nobody has figured out how to solve poverty and injustice.
That’s why donors mostly place bets on you as a leader, your big idea, your organizational health, and signs of progress.
Not because of perfect impact data.
We train the Dovetail Impact Foundation early-stage portfolio. This funder is big on results. But we spend the entire first year guiding nonprofits on their theory of change, positioning, messaging, and pitch deck (or brand). Only in the second year do allies start training on impact measurement.
Why?
Sure, statistics matter to donors after the storytelling honeymoon ends.
Sure, measuring impact is how we stand accountable to those we serve.
And sure, data matters a lot more as you scale beyond the growth stage.
But many of you are still just trying to find sustainability. To get out of the nonprofit starvation cycle.
So let this sink in:
A fact wrapped in a story is 22 times more memorable. And data are only the condensed version of untold narratives.
“Tell a few of those stories to help make the data meaningful.” — Made to Stick
💪🏽💛
The daily bonus
Two related quotes about data that I’m thinking about for future newsletters.
“Numbers numb; stories stimulate.” — Jeff Brooks
“Data is like garbage. You’d better know what you are going to do with it before you collect it.” — Mark Twain
Need my help?
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As an impact professional for a community economic development nonprofit, this resonates! We are constantly wrapping data in stories to illustrate the human face behind the numbers. But at the end of the day, yes the funders want the numbers too!