Ops Insights #004 Ask the Purpose of a Data Request
April 28, 2023 | Read & Video Time: 3 minutes | Written by Jenny Kleintop
Take the next step - know the purpose of a data request.
When receiving a data request, ask for the purpose. Here are a few ways how you can ask:
What is the purpose? It will help me draw out better insights for you.
What will you do with the data I provide? It will help me understand how to prepare the data for you.
Who is the last-step audience, as in who will end up receiving the data? It will help me understand how to present the data to you.
When you know the purpose, it guides what data you pull, how you pull the data, and how you present that data so it is most helpful.
It also helps you learn how to provide next-level insights to the requestor. To them, it will be like you provided information they wanted, but may not have known how to ask for it.
Example: A leader asks for a 10-year report showing fundraising results year over year. The leader says they will use it to present to the advancement committee.
This tells you to provide 3-5 bullet points with the narrative for that leader.
Here is the 10-year history and a few things we can derive from the numbers:
We have been trending downward the last 5 years over the first 5 years.
It looks like the drop is mostly in major gifts.
Also, there is a spike one year in our annual giving numbers - that looks to be because we sent out 5 mailers instead of 3 mailers.
In summary, ask “what is the purpose?” If it does not come through in the data request, you may have to follow-up to draw it out of the person.
You got this!
Sometimes it helps to hear the message.
Would it help to hear this by video? I got you covered… go to this video posted on LinkedIn
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