Sign up for our weekly newsletter, The Technopath Way Tips, here: https://www.technopath.ac-page.com/the-technopath-way-sign-up



Alexandra Mannerings is the founder of Merakinos, a data services and education company devoted to helping nonprofits sustainably access the analytics they need to grow and thrive. She earned her PhD in epidemiology and public health from the University of Cambridge in England. Studying the risk of disease spillover from fruit bats in Ghana, West Africa, taught her firsthand how to ask impactful questions and creatively leverage limited resources to answer them.

Today on The Technopath Way, Alexandra sits down with Sarah to discuss how our values and emotions are central to capturing good data in our organizations.

Key Takeaways:

* The Google Maps Policy:

* You have to know where you’re going and why you want to get there in order to choose the best route the software offers you. The same goes for your data. You can track anything. The numbers will be there, but without your intentions they won’t be meaningful.

* Emotions don’t cloud judgements, they are essential to making good decisions

* Not sure you believe that? Check out the massive body of brain research generated about the man behind the example Alexandra shared https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/phineas-gage-neurosciences-most-famous-patient-11390067/

* Collaborating with other nonprofits serving in similar capacities as yours is a great way to benchmark data and chase down more grants

* Just starting to benchmark a newer program? Look to other nonprofits who have done similar programs in the past to gauge appropriate benchmarks.

* Example: Your organization is starting a program to improve childhood literacy.

* What are the current levels in the population you want to serve?

* What other nonprofits have served similar populations in the past?

* What were their first year results like? Aim for similar levels in the first year and expand from there as appropriate

* Check out Alexandra’s interview with Sarah on her own podcast Heart, Soul & Data https://heartsouldata.com