Testimonials

We're working with non-profits, news organizations, libraries, and community groups around the world. Here are some testimonials from partners that have helped guide the project.

For the first time, the numbers [from our grantees] were consistent. The nonprofits were paying attention. We asked them to describe how they're collecting data, and they were able to articulate how they collected data much better than in the past. This helped us create a better reporting process. Erika Lapsys, Telluride Foundation Read the Full Case Study

Participants started looking at the different sides of an argument and how you build that based on your audience and what’s more relevant, like which piece of data is more relevant for which type of stakeholder. Maryna Taran, World Food Programme Read the Full Case Study

The DCP program helped us look at data in a different way, especially through WordCounter, which visualizes text into word clouds. Instead of teaching us to just spout statistics, this workshop gave us the opportunity to tell our story in a new and visual way. The program was accessible to people of all levels regardless of their background and initial comfort with data analysis. Our staff members are now able to use data more effectively whether that be for social media or for grant reports. Jennifer Connolly, Junior Achievement of Western Massachusetts Read the Full Case Study

The Data Culture Project allowed us to change a mindset about data. More than a Project focusing on learning ‘tools,’ it allowed us to go further, by going to the basics, and most needed: a data culture. Now we are working with different local journalism organizations — and different sections within them — for cooperating and start working towards more data-journalism. We are grateful for having being part of the Pilot, and we look forward for continued as part of an increasing community of a Data Culture Project. Andrés Felipe Vera Ramírez, El Mundo/Radio Clarin

The DCP program helped us have conversations about how we use data as an organization. The tools were accessible and the pacing of the workshops was great. Doing workshops with Rahul and Catherine helped us carve out time to really focus on data analysis and discuss how we could use it better internally to hit our goals. DCP really helped us begin building better habits around data-driven storytelling. Michael Morisy, MuckRock

After conducting the DCP program with our partner companies, I saw a big change in how our partners treated data. In addition to more consistent data analysis and reporting, they were able to articulate how they were collecting data. Our partners enjoyed using WordCounter because it was highly accessible and enabled them to tell better stories. I’m still getting feedback from people who are trying it out for the first time and helping them apply it to their organizations. Erika Lapsys, Telluride Foundation

As a health research funder, MSFHR has many staff who work with data on a daily basis, but others in the organization are less familiar with how data informs the work we do. The Data Culture Project was a fun, accessible opportunity for teams across the organization to practice working with data, and got everyone talking and thinking about data in new ways. We were excited with the level of participation and particularly happy to see folks who don’t typically use data in their day-to-day roles being engaged in the sessions. Participating in the project helped boost our thinking about organization-wide data-mindedness, and we’re inspired to keep this good work going. Whether you’re a non-profit looking to spark more interest in data, promote data literacy in your team, or reflect on the role data plays in your work, the Data Culture Project is a great place to begin. Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research

Among the available definitions for data literacy, we thought that yours and your colleague's was both concise and thorough, explaining in a very straightforward way a difficult concept and making it applicable to any discipline. Your definition fits our goals at educating other librarians and our community about data literacy and what it means to be data literate. Thank you for allowing us to reuse and adapt your rendition for our purposes. The Data & Digital Literacy Group – River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester