Capacity building goes beyond improving organizational functions—it’s about aligning strategy, community accountability, and systems awareness.
Watch this webinar with Jasmine Williams-Washington, “A New Way to Build Capacity,” where we explore a systems approach to strengthening nonprofits and their ecosystems.
What You’ll Learn:
- How to identify and operate from your organization’s “sweet spot”
- Strategies for mapping your ecosystem and bridging silos
- Applying a systems lens to deepen your impact
This webinar is for nonprofit leaders, funders, evaluators, and anyone interested in sustainable, community-driven change. You’ll walk away with practical strategies to help your organization become more resilient, reflective, and connected.
Your Host
Jasmine Williams-Washington, Ph.D
Managing Associate
Community Science
Jasmine specializes in the implementation and evaluation of community organizing and organizational capacity building initiatives. Current projects include evaluations and capacity building support for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and Public Welfare Foundation.
Webinar Video and Deck
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Welcome, powerful people. I’m Jasmine Williams, Washington, from community science. And I’m so glad that you’re here with me today. This is part 2 of our 3 part Webinar Series on strengthening strategy and impact during uncertain times, whether you’re a Funder intermediary or nonprofit leader. This conversation is designed for you.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: my colleague, Amber Trout kicked us off with a session on sustaining momentum through disruption.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Today we’re building on that by exploring how we realign strategy stay rooted in our missions and understand where we sit in the larger ecosystem.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: I’ll walk us through 6 practical steps grounded in our work at community science tools. We use to help organizations and networks build capacity. That’s sustainable, strategic and system. Aware.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Here’s what you’ll walk away with today.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Alignment is the foundation of impact when your purpose. Strategies and relationships are in sync
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: capacity. Building work becomes transformative.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Your sweet spot where passion, skill, and community need intersect is where lasting value and energy live
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: ecosystem thinking helps prevent burnout and fragmentation.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: When we work in right relationship with others, we build collective power, not just organizational strength.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: So a little bit about community science. We have to go through this today like we will every time community science works with
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: philanthropy, government, nonprofit and grassroots organizations to strategize research and evaluate initiatives that build healthy, just, and equitable communities.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: We bring systems, thinking, equity and accountability into everything that we do.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: As you see, I am one voice of many.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: And again, I’m Jasmine Williams, Washington. I specialize in organizational development power building and system change work.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Before this work. I spent years as a community organizer. So that lets you know I’ve seen firsthand how critical alignment, trust, and ecosystem awareness are when trying to move real change.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: I work with partners and organizations alike to align strategy with purpose and power, and as my clients and partners have always heard me say, I don’t want to be right. I just want to get it right, whatever it is. So that’s the lens that I’ll bring into today’s conversation.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Today’s discussion is brought to you by the organizational effectiveness practice area at community science, where we partner with mission driven organizations to strengthen their capacity, responsiveness, power and impact.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: So enough about community science and what we do. All that good stuff. Why are we here?
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Many nonprofits are navigating heightened demands, limited resources and complex challenges.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: funders and intermediaries are also asking, How can we support our partners in ways that go beyond short term technical assistance and lead to lasting, meaningful change
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: today is an invitation to reimagine capacity building as a strategic systemic and values aligned approach.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Not just a set of trainings or tools.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: It’s about helping organizations work from a place of clarity, alignment and purpose.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: This is not a checklist. We are not here to quote its organizations. We’re here to help them connect the dots between mission strategy operations and ecosystems, so that they move with greater confidence and collective strength.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: So let’s start with the framework we often use to make sense of strategy across the 3 horizons, as I’m sure that many of you are familiar with Horizon one which we heard from amber before in the 1st webinar is the what it’s the urgent day to day work, keeping programs, running, staying, compliant and managing current operations.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Horizon 2 is the how.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: And that’s where we’ll focus most. Our our efforts today.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: This is the missing middle. It’s where organizations iterate, innovate, and begin to align their work across functions is where the shift from reacting to strategizing begins.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: and then horizon 3 is the why your long term vision for systems change. What kind of community or world are you ultimately working toward
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: capacity building when done well connects all 3.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Oh, I’m sure many of you know exactly what capacity building is.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: but capacity building isn’t just about internal improvements. It’s about alignment.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: This approach supports more sustainable operations and more meaningful community impact
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: mapping. What matters is about stepping back to see the whole picture, not just the programs you’re running or funding, but the full story of your strategy, capacity, and connection to the whole ecosystem.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: When we support organizations in this mapping process. Here’s what we’re really enabling
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: for funders more intentional grant making rooted in what is working or what actually works, not just what fits the form for intermediaries, stronger, more aligned cohorts and networks and collaborations, not just a collective of partners, but a coordinated force
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: for nonprofits, clarity on their purpose, confidence in direction and partners they can strategize, strategize, with not just survive. Alongside.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: for example.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: a youth organization might be funded to offer job readiness, but they recognize that transportation is a barrier for participation. So they partner with a service provider to remove that obstacle. They’re doing the work they were funded to do, but with more impact because they’ve aligned strategy with real world needs.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Our job is to help surface and support those critical connections. Bridging the gap between intention and implementation
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: is the foundation for every step that I’m going to share with you today.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: So step one.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: As an organizer, as a capacity builder. I always start by doing my homework. So what do I mean by that? That means go in, find what’s visible? Look at your websites, your bios, public statements.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: what an organization highlights externally often shows us where they feel most confident.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: It also gives us early signals, like, what programs are they most proud of, or how they describe their mission.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: but as an organizer and as a capacity builder. I treat this only as a starting point, not a conclusion. It opens the door to more meaningful conversation about who they really are, and what matters the most?
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Step 2. You want to dig deeper.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: What’s beneath the surface?
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Where do you look for those things so well. I personally look at local community papers, those publications. So I’m here in Atlanta. So not necessarily the Atlanta Journal constitution, but more like Decatur-ish social media. Linkedin updates local events. These places often tell a richer story.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: For example, an organization we supported was funded to do hospitality training but
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: when doing my homework, looking deeper, local press showed that they were piloting youth coding. Why? Because they saw that tech was a path to livable wages that was not in a Grant report, but by doing your homework. The information was there. These are breadcrumbs to help understand where an organization true value lies, and where their passion is
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: speaking of passion.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Next that step 3 is naming that sweet spot.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Where’s your sweet spot?
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: When organizations operate from their sweet spot.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: they build power and clarity. So when we’re supporting a partner, I often ask them, what’s the work you feel most passionate about? What do you feel compelled to do, even if there was no funding attached. Why.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: another example, for instance, an organization I worked with was funded to do food distribution, but they constantly offered health screenings at those events.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: I’m sure you’re like, well, that makes sense food distribution.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: health screenings. Well, it was more about context there. It’s because they knew that many community members wouldn’t otherwise have access to that kind of care.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: So that was their sweet spot. That was their passion in action. They were responding to the data and from the community and what their community showed them they needed week after week.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Our job is to name that intersection of values, strengths and lived community need and bring it into the strategy. So that your strategy, that passion, all of those things align.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: So then we move into step 4 invite in evaluative thinking. So now we pause, and we reflect when working with organizations.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: is your strategy leading to the outcome you care most about.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: I am a mirror as a capacity builder. My job is to just reflect back to you what you’re sharing with me and asking questions. Coming from a place of curiosity.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: So if
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: a goal of yours is economic mobility, and you’re training people for jobs that don’t offer livable wages. What has to shift
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: earlier.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: I shared the story about the group funded to do hospitality training. But when we looked deeper through local press and
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: talking to community members we saw them piloting that youth coding. Why? Because they recognized that Tech offered a more sustainable wage path.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Okay, they really wanted to lean into that evaluative thinking helps us to test these assumptions, adjust strategies and partner differently.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: As a capacity builder, we help our partners to walk backwards from their desired future states.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: clarify those misalignments and find the courage to adapt.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: It’s really important.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: So next, okay, here it goes. Y’all, I love football
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: again. I told you I’m in Atlanta, girl from the South so we’re gonna zoom out a little bit, and I promise you, if you’re not a football person, just bear with me.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: you’ll understand.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: So we’re going to zoom out for a minute.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Who else is trying to solve a related problem?
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: What are their roles, the gaps, the dependencies?
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: So now let’s bring this all together, using a football analogy
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: on the field. You have you your organization, you might be, might be the playmaker on the field. So this position is the quarterback position. This is the strategy leader or a backbone organization calling the plays and keeping the vision clear.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: but depending on your role in the ecosystem. You may be playing a different position.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: and that’s just as critical.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Next you have your coaching staff.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Your coaching staff is guidance that shapes, your direction, your mission, your board, your mission statement, your Board trusted advisors, funders, or even those community leaders.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: They’re calling the plays, and they’re providing strategic guidance
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: at the end of the field.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: That’s your long term goal systems change. For example, your system change may be better. Childhood outcomes, it may be family sustaining wages.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: That may be what you’re running toward.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Then we have these yard lines on the field. So every 10 yards represents a short term or a medium term outcome or a target.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: What will you do in the next 6 months, the next year, the next 3 years, to let you know that you’re headed down that field. Towards system change.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: But then, if you’re the quarterback, you’re on the field, you’re in this ecosystem. You have your team. That’s the ecosystem. So those are maybe funded by a same funder. These also may be service providers, partners, you already know, and ones you haven’t even met.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: They’re on the field with you, even if they’re not, even if you’re not coordinated with them yet. So in football terms, running backs, you are direct service providers. You’re moving the work on the ground every day. You’re filling those gaps while receivers capture and advance new ideas. Think of innovation advocates or pilot programs that may support your work.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Then you have your offensive, offensive linemen capacity builders, infrastructure providers. They’re protecting and supporting the work.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: You may also be one of these players on the field and understanding your role helps align better with others on the field.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Then we have your opponents.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: They’re not just political or external actors. They’re internal barriers as well. So this looks like staff burnout, limited resources, gaps and services which we’ve not identified a partner to fill yet anything that slows your progress.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: And then we have your fans, the community they’re in the stands watching and waiting to see your strategy and execution turn into real lasting change.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: This metaphor helps organizations. See where they are.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Who else is playing
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: on that field? What needs to happen to move forward together, and when everyone knows their position and plays it well.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: The whole ecosystem moves the ball forward together, because in reality no one organization can get to the end. Zone
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: tourist systems change. We’re all interventions in it.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Okay? So in this same area, when mapping the ecosystem, this is where we also have to ask those hard, honest questions.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Do you have the capacity to do what you’re trying to do when I say capacity? I mean staff time relationships. Capacity comes in all forms. Are you holding too much that could honestly be shared with another organization, whether that be an intermediary, a service provider, or maybe there’s someone out there you don’t necessarily know of yet, but may want to check your your relationships to see.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: And then what’s truly yours to lead? And where can you pass the ball for lack of better words.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: When organizations get clear on their lane they reduce burnouts.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: I can’t tell you how many times I work with organizations that were, was doing something that they really weren’t passionate about doing
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: and it got in the way it got in a way. So it’s not either, or it’s both and
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: right. So when you’re able to do that, you’re able to reduce burnout, focus your energy on where you’re the strongest again, knowing when to pass the ball. It is not your responsibility to hold everything, but being clear about what you hold.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: This is how we move from protecting turf to building a coordinated team.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Because, again, the truth is, no single organization can achieve systems change alone.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: That’s why understanding your ecosystem investing in the capacity of the ecosystem is so critical.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: It’s not just about knowing who’s out there. It’s about building shared capacity across players.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: So as a nonprofit is knowing who’s in your ecosystem as a Funder is knowing who else is in this fund in this place, funding this work, and what are they funding?
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: So when we map the ecosystem, we identify gaps, we align efforts and strengthen the field overall. That’s not just organizational capacity. It is collective power. Again, I’m an organizer. I can’t help myself. But to talk about power.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: And that is what ultimately moves the needle.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Next, we’re gonna talk about applying a systems lens. So we help organizations zoom out
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: and ask themselves questions. So we’re bringing them along into a systems. Len. Although a systems, lens or systems thinking, although we, as the capacity builders some on this call, are keeping this, that systems thinking alive throughout the whole entire time. So we help organizations to zoom out and ask what policies
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: funding flows. Power dynamics shape this issue, whatever that it is.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: who is trusted in this space?
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Who can convene without creating conflict?
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Not every organization, when we’re thinking about when we think about coordinated efforts or collaborations or partnerships should lead this coalition or collaboration. But every organization does play a role.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: So if you choose to make this an official collaborative partnership or coalition before convening any meeting convening before any group convening. Excuse me, we talk to each partner individually, clarify distinctions and prepare for trust, building what we know that trust is built over time, and we all know it can be lost in a second.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Again, systems change takes time, but it starts with clarity relationships and shared purpose.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: So I want to ask you, I know that wasn’t a lot of time today. But let’s pause here.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Think about the organization’s grantee partners or other partners you work with on your own on your own or within your own organization
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: which step feels most urgent to you right now is the name in the sweet spot mapping that ecosystem, or realigning the strategy.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: feel free to drop your answer in the chat, and if you feel comfortable, tell us, why is it a clarity issue or a collaboration roadblock? Or you know what, Jasmine? I just hadn’t thought about my ecosystem. I’m carrying all the work myself.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: This reflection helps us build together.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: and it tells us where the work is most alive for you.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: So I know that this was a
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: a quick webinar today, and I’m hoping that you got something out of it. But today, we mapped the work we explored. How you can center your organization’s unique strength while staying in the right relationship with your ecosystem.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Our final session in this series is coming up on July 8, th when Michelle Haynes Brett will walk us through that 3rd horizon. How to measure what matters across all 3 horizons, your day-to-day work, midterm system, strategy and long-term impact.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: After this the series wraps amber, Michelle and I will follow up with a FAQ document addressing key questions that you all are sharing with us. That means from your registration list as well as anything that you dropped in the chat.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: And if today and if today sparks something you like to explore further and cannot wait for those Faqs. And it’s something specific to your organization and your context. There will be a calendar link in the follow up email and in the chat where you can schedule time to connect directly with me.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Until then stay anchored in your sweet spot.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Name your role, trust your lane, and let’s keep building towards systems. Change together.
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Jasmine Williams-Washington: Have a good day
By: Organizational Effectiveness Practice Area at Community Science
Uncertainty is the new normal. Whether due to shifting political landscapes, funding cycles, or burnout, many mission-driven organizations are struggling to maintain clarity and momentum. This summer, we hosted a three-part webinar series titled Maintaining Strategy Momentum in Uncertain Times. Amber Trout kicked us off with a session on sustaining momentum — when everything seems urgent, how do we keep going and work toward the long game? We then heard from Jasmine Willams-Washington, who invited us to reimagine capacity building as a holistic approach and means to achieve strategic alignment as we work toward lasting change. Michelle Haynes-Baratz rounded out the conversation by talking through the measurement process — how can we measure what matters so that we know what’s working, what’s not, and where we might need to pivot?
Below, we respond to your most pressing questions and share relevant takeaways and practical strategies that funders, nonprofits, and ecosystem partners can implement right now.
- How do we integrate goal tracking into our daily work?
Many organizations set ambitious goals, but those goals often sit untouched until the year-end report. The key is making goals a living part of your organization’s culture and routines. That means building them into decisionmaking. Specifically:
- Define your unique value. Ask: What can only we do in our ecosystem, and who are we accountable to? Centering both your role and responsibility makes goal setting relevant and grounded in purpose.
- Use three horizon thinking. Break down goals into short-term actions (H1), strategic tests (H2), and long-term vision (H3).
- Assign clear roles for each goal — someone to track progress, troubleshoot, and keep it visible.
- Create check-in rhythms (weekly, monthly) where teams reflect on what’s working, what’s not, and what’s changed.
- Keep it visible. Use a whiteboard, dashboard, or team tracker that everyone can access and update.
- Where do you start with the data you are collecting outside of reporting?
Start by asking what decisions do we wish we could make more confidently? That helps reframe data from a compliance obligation to a strategic asset. Many organizations collect valuable information but don’t always connect it back to decisionmaking, learning, or impact. Here are some practical starting points:
- Revisit the original intent.
Look at the data you’re collecting and ask why it was gathered in the first place. Was it to inform program adjustments? Track client outcomes? Understand equity impacts? Also ask: Whose voices are missing from this story? What is not being measured that matters? Clarifying the purpose helps you focus on the right data. And if it’s not the right data, stop collecting it. - Look for patterns over time.
Even simple trend analysis (like changes in participation, engagement, or outcomes) can spark useful insights. Instead of chasing statistical perfection, ask: What’s increasing, decreasing, or stalling — and why might that be happening? - Prioritize meaning over volume.
You don’t need all the data — you need the right data. Focus on what’s most meaningful to the decisions you’re trying to make. Often, a few strong indicators are more useful than dozens of disconnected metrics. - Bring data into conversations.
Facilitate regular discussions where staff or partners review data and reflect together. It can be framed as sensemaking, rather than evaluation. Ask: What resonates? What is most surprising? What else do we wish we knew? - Pair numbers with stories.
If you’re looking to use data beyond reporting, integrate qualitative insights from community members, staff, or partners. Their perspectives add depth and help turn numbers into action.
The shift begins when you see data as a tool for reflection, learning, and alignment — not just funder reporting. Start with the questions that matter most to your mission, then pull the data that helps illuminate them.
- How can we protect margin when everything feels urgent?
where power builds. It’s protected time to step back and ask: Are we responding to real community need or reacting to urgency shaped by funders, headlines, or internal pressure? Taking that pause helps you lead with strategy, not stress.
- Acknowledge urgency addiction. Talk openly about the pressure to always say “yes.”
- Revisit your mission. Use it to decide what not to take on — margin starts with focus.
- Block margin time on calendars for strategic thinking, staff development, or pause weeks.
- Build habits of reflection. Try a “margin moment” at the start of each meeting to ask: What are we rushing into? What needs space?
- Normalize saying “no,” even to well-funded or high visibility opportunities if they pull you away from your core work. Protecting your margin isn’t avoidance; it’s how you stay focused, grounded, and able to respond when it matters the most.
- How do I shift a crisis-minded leadership team toward strategy?
When everything feels like a fire drill, strategy takes a backseat. Leaders who “save the day” might feel effective in the moment — but this cycle creates instability and confusion. Strategy isn’t a luxury, it’s a form of care for your staff, partners, and community. It brings coherence in moments of chaos.
- Name the pattern. Use non-blaming language to observe and ask: We’ve been in response mode a lot — is it helping our long-term goals?
- Ask traction questions. What’s ours to lead? Where are we most trusted? These re-center the conversation on purpose.
- Link wins to systems. After a quick win, ask: How do we make this easier next time? Strategy is about building repeatable success.
- Model slow thinking. Encourage timeouts for reflection and intention before launching into solutions.
When you step out of reactive mode, the next step is to reconnect with your organization’s “sweet spot.”
- How do we strengthen our organization’s “sweet ?”
Your “sweet spot” is where passion, skill, and community need overlap. It’s the work your team is proud to lead, trusted to deliver, and energized to sustain. Strengthening it makes your impact more focused and your team more resilient.
- Ask your team: What work would we do even without a grant?
- Look for repeated signals. Where does the community consistently turn to you? What do partners rely on you for?
- Audit your current strategy. Does it build on what you do best, or pull you away?
- Align internal roles and systems to support that focus — not just funder demands.
- Revisit annually as your ecosystem and community evolve.
- Once you name your sweet spot, stay disciplined. Prioritize what strengthens your core contribution and turn down work that might grow your visibility but dilute your impact.
- As a funder, how do I support ecosystems, not just grantees?
Supporting systemic impact means looking beyond individual grantee performance to the health of the whole ecosystem. That includes trust building, coordination, and funding infrastructure.
- Map beyond your portfolio. Who are the connectors, under-resourced leaders, and key influencers in the field?
- Support shared infrastructure. Fund tools, systems, and roles that benefit multiple organizations.
- Make space for peer learning. Cohorts or cross-org strategy groups strengthen the whole field.
- Fund reflection and relationships — not just activities. Ask: What would it look like to fund not just organizations, but relationships and coordination across the ecosystem?
- Offer patient capital that gives organizations time to build trust, clarify roles, and move at the pace of real change.
- How do we measure capacity building — not just outputs?
Organizations are moving away from checking boxes to asking: Is this work making us stronger, clearer, and more adaptive? At Community Science, we measure capacity by how well an organization turns learning into action. That might look like shifting a strategy midstream, co-designing solutions with partners, or advocating for change in the broader systems they’re working to influence (e.g., education or housing).
- Define success based on alignment, clarity, and decisionmaking — not just completed trainings.
- Use three horizon-specific metrics:
- H1: smoother processes, clearer roles.
- H2: better cross-team coordination, quicker pivots.
- H3: long-term positioning and leadership in your field.
- Use qualitative tools like reflection prompts, team feedback, and case stories.
- Track behavioral shifts. Are people collaborating more? Are people making decisions with less confusion?
- Don’t hide the mess — show learning, iteration, and growth.
- How do we reduce bias in our data analysis?
All data work includes interpretation, and interpretation includes bias. The goal is not to be perfectly objective, but to be transparent, inclusive, and reflective in how meaning is made.
- Ask reflective questions before you start analysis: What assumptions are we making? Who’s not at the table?
- Include diverse voices in sensemaking — staff, partners, and community members.
- Disaggregate carefully. Don’t just show differences — explore why they exist.
- Pair numbers with context. Use quotes, stories, or historical background.
- Document your interpretation process and share limitations clearly.
- Close the loop with communities. Share findings and ask: Does this match your experience?
Also check out our Doing Evaluation in Service of Racial Equity, a three-part series for evaluation professionals describing how to incorporate racial equity as a core value, embedded in every aspect of the evaluation process Commissioned by The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) and developed and written by Community Science.
- What are your recommendations for tools and resources to get started or enhance one’s journey into data collection, analysis, and storytelling and visualization? What are best practices for survey development and deployment?
Great question! The key is to match your tools and strategies to your actual goals and capacity. Here is one resource many have found helpful in framing data collection in service of decision making. the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. This guide is designed for people with little or no experience with formal evaluation to help them become more familiar with evaluation concepts and practices, partner with independent evaluators, and use evaluation more effectively to continually learn from and improve their work. 
- How can we support partner organizations without overstepping?
Supporting others’ growth requires humility and trust. It’s about creating the space, tools, and relationships that allow others to lead. Some offerings for where to begin:
- Start by listening. Ask: What does capacity mean to you?
- Avoid one-size-fits-all technical assistance. Offer flexible coaching, tools, or funds orgs can shape.
- Support strategic retreats or learning cohorts where reflection is the goal, not production.
- Build relational trust through consistent, thoughtful check-ins — not just transactions.
- Respect ecosystem roles. Support partners name and protect their niche (their sweet spot) and collaborate more intentionally. Then invest in the relationships, time, and trust building it takes to make cross-organizational collaboration actually work and last.
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This session is ideal for nonprofit, philanthropic, and public sector leaders who want their data practices to reflect their values and goals.