WHAT THE FUNDRAISING
128: Clean Data: Transforming Data Collection to Decision-Making with Tim Lockie
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“Data doesn’t matter by itself. Who cares if you just have a pile of data in the back? It doesn’t matter.”
– Tim Lockie
Episode #128
Overview
In this episode of What the Fundraising Podcast…
Have you heard the myths that data management in nonprofits is too difficult, too expensive, and too time-consuming? Don’t believe everything you hear! Join this conversion with Tim Lockie to learn the truth about developing a sustainable relationship with data in your organization.
As Tim reminds us, data becomes information, and information becomes insight.
Hailing from Bozeman, Montana, Tim’s expertise lies in the intricate relationship between data, technology, and human behavior. As the Founder & CEO of The Human Stack, Tim has demonstrated a strong commitment to helping nonprofit leaders harness the power of data to make informed decisions.
Throughout his career, he excelled at combining data, technology, and human relationships. However, during a conference in 2019, Tim was struck by a statistic: While 90% of organizations collect data, only 5% use it to make decisions. This realization led Tim to question his entire approach to helping organizations, ultimately prompting him to develop a new method that focused on teaching people how to effectively utilize their data.
There is so much to learn from Tim’s unique perspective and extensive knowledge in the world of data management so dive in to this episode and meet Tim!
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
- Introducing Tim Lockie
- Fear and Perception of Data
- The Value of Data
- Trusting Your Data
- Building Trust with Data
- Prioritizing Data Cleaning
- Creating a plan to clean data consistently
- The Relationship Between Data and Insight
- Investing Time in Data
- Understanding the Data
- Importance of Digital Maturity and Digital Literacy
- Digital Driver's Ed for Small Teams
- Decreasing Overwhelm and Improving Relationship with Data
- Drop the Data Shame
Follow
Tim Lockie & The Human Stack
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
- Many thanks to our sponsor, Keela for making this episode possible. Our friends at Keela offer nonprofits like yours comprehensive fundraising and donor management software, equipped with powerful tools to expand your reach, increase fundraising revenue, and foster a dedicated community of supporters. Want a user-friendly platform that provides actionable data? Look no further than Keela. Check out Keela at keela.co/mallory.
- If you haven’t already, please visit our new What the Fundraising community forum. Check it out and join the conversation at this link.
- If you’re looking to raise more from the right funders, then you’ll want to check out my Power Partners Formula, a step-by-step approach to identifying the optimal partners for your organization. This free masterclass offers a great starting point
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TIPS AND TOOLS TO IMPLEMENT TODAY
- Assess your organization's relationship with data by asking a scaling question, Do you trust your data? What would you give that on a scale of one to ten.
- Work on repairing your relationship with your data by focusing on human relationships first, especially within your team.
- Evaluate the quality of your existing data by looking at accuracy and the processes used to collect it, and work on improving those processes. Slowly but surely - it does not all need to happen at once.
- Complaints about your data system is a sign of hope - it indicates that people are engaged and want the system to be better.
- Set specific targets for data cleanup and make it a regular part of your organization's operations.
- Prioritize the data that matters most to your organization and focus on improving the quality of that data first.
- Remember that having clean data is not an end goal, but a means to gaining insights and making better decisions for your organization.
FAVORITE QUOTES
- “Data doesn't matter by itself. Who cares if you just have a pile of data in the back? It doesn't matter.” - Tim Lockie
- “Data becomes information - Information is just data with context and meaning in it. And information becomes insight. And what actually matters for organizations is insight.” - Tim Lockie
- “Data is the foundation of your ability to extract meaning and to make decisions from it.” - Tim Lockie
- “Not all problems are equivalent, right? And because data starts to feel like a monolith...you look at data as a vector image, not a PDF flat image.” - Tim Lockie
- "Data doesn't matter by itself - its value is relative to what else you're going to do with it." - Tim Lockie
- “It is not a number of records. It is more about the amount of energy you give it. And you give it more when you've got more. You give it less when you've got less, and you just set the target so that it is reasonable for the month that you're in.” - Tim Lockie
- "The value of data is relative to what else you're going to do with it." - Tim Lockie
- "Get an outcome that you're curious about, create the report that would help you, and then work from there to go set that up in the system to track it." - Tim Lockie
RELATED CONTENT
Get to know Tim Lockie:
Tim Lockie is the Founder and CEO of The Human Stack, co-host of the Why IT Matters podcast, and uses he/him pronouns. His history with the nonprofit world and technology seems to be intertwined. Tim has 20 years of organization experience as a volunteer, youth worker, camp counselor, music instructor, foster parent, getaway driver for teens in danger, board member, finance director, bookkeeper, recruiter, and community administrator…the list goes on. He has seen system deficiencies range from missed opportunities to damaged relationships in these capacities. Tim believes that Digital Transformation is affordable and scalable with nonprofits of all sizes and is obsessed with The Human Stack. You can hear more from him and his co-host Tracy Kronzak on the Why IT Matters podcast.
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I teach nonprofit fundraisers to bring in more gifts from the RIGHT donors… so they can stop hounding people for money. Fundraising doesn’t have to be uncomfortable.
- CEO & Creator of the Power Partners Formula™
- Disruptor in the funding sector, changing lives everyday
- Relentlessly committed to the movement of money into the nonprofit sector
- Focused on win-win partnerships that allow fundraisers to be authentic and empowered in their work
- Over 15 years working in nonprofits (managing director and ED of multiple fast-growth organizations)
MALLORY ERICKSON
