Data Collection is the Job

Data Collection is the Job

Nobody goes into philanthropy thinking, 'I can't wait to become a professional spreadsheet archaeologist.'

You imagined working with communities, making strategic funding decisions, and being in the field.

Then you spend Tuesday hunting down three-year-old 990s to answer a question about operating reserves. You pull financials from multiple years. You build a spreadsheet to track trends. You cross-reference budget files and audit reports.

If you want to make informed funding decisions, data collection is unavoidable. And after you collect it all, you still have to find the insight you actually need.

Sometimes you know what you're looking for. More often you don't.

Data archeology should not be part of the job. Data collection, curation and analysis is not philanthropy and should not be solved by each organization individually.