Getting the Big Picture: Using Dashboards to track your data agenda Top Three Takeaways for Session: • 1. Learn what a dashboard is • 2. Understand what kind of data to track on a dashboard • 3. Review best practices and how to develop a dashboard Session Outline: • Intros of speakers (5 minutes) • Orientation to Dashboards (25 minutes) • Hands-on Exercise – Break into 2 or 3 small groups. Each group will be given a scenario around a nonprofit organization and be asked to design a dashboard – (30 minutes) • Show & Tell – share ideas and discuss (30 minutes) NTC 2008, New Orleans 2 what is a dashboard? • • • • NTC 2008, New Orleans visual tool graphics performance measures at-a-glance 3 why should I care? • why do you care? • Effective tool for Board members & senior management • Forces focus on what's important • Efficient analysis NTC 2008, New Orleans 4 what data should I track? • relevant to the audience • Board members and senior leadership • Program leaders • Advoacy • Development • Donor • tells the story • timely NTC 2008, New Orleans 5 what is a dashboard? Program 1 VP of Programs Overall program goals Program 2 Board & Sr. leadership Organizational goals Online Fundraising VP of Development Fundraising goals Direct mail NTC 2008, New Orleans 6 let’s look at some examples… Unfortunately, I was not able to get permission to distribute the dashboard samples I showed in the session. However, you can find plenty of examples within the Resources listed on the last slide. NTC 2008, New Orleans 7 best practices Design to a single screen/page Ensure adequate context Use an appropriate level of detail Keep design simple •Don’t make the user scroll to see the whole picture •If it’s too big to fit, maybe you need change the level of detail and create sub-Dashboards. •Don’t include measures without something to compare against •e.g. goal, time, another measure •Don’t make it so detailed you can’t see the big picture •Don’t clutter with unnecessary information •Limit to key indicators relevant for that level of dashboard, e.g. the organization’s overall health and performance at the top level. •Don’t distract the user with extraneous design elements •Don’t go crazy with color •Maximize your “data/ink ratio” •Usability is key! “Data-ink ratio” is a concept defined by Edward Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information NTC 2008, New Orleans 8 resources • Chronicle of Philanthropy article about Kaboom www.philanthropy.com/free/articles/v19/i01/01mg0601.htm • Results Accountability Implementation Guide www.raguide.org • Benchmarking for Nonprofits: How to Measure, Manage, and Improve Performance Jason Saul, Fieldstone Alliance, 2004 • Information Dashboard Design, The Effective Visual Communication of Data Steven Few, O'Reilly, 2006 • The Nonprofit Dashboard, A Tool for Tracking Progress Lawrence M. Butler, BoardSource, 2007 • The Visual Display of Quantitative Information Edward Tufte, Graphics Press, 2001 • State of Maryland's dashboard: http://mdreportcard.org • Dashboards by Example: www.enterprise-dashboard.com NTC 2008, New Orleans 9 let’s build one… We spent the rest of the session breaking into teams to build dashboards for a series of imaginary nonprofits. NTC 2008, New Orleans 10 Presenters: • • NTC 2008, New Orleans Lynn Labieniec, CEO Beaconfire Consulting lynn.labieniec@beaconfire.com Rusty Burwell, VP Data & Technology American Lung Association rburwell@lungusa.org 11