head spinning?

When I think about measurement I get excited. Maybe that’s just me, but you’re missing out if you don’t feel at least a tiny thrill when you think about the possibilities for your organization.

A moment after my initial excitement my head starts to spin as I think of how many different things I could potentially look at and how much information I need to have available and I start to feel stuck in a Catch-22.

Internal voice 1: “I can’t know how my audience would feel about X if I don’t have data on X already available!”

Internal voice 2:”How could I have known 2 years ago that I’d need to have information on X in my database?”

I don’t know what to measure because I don’t have “good” data available, and I don’t know what data to save because I don’t know what I’ll want to measure in the future.

How to make the voices stop and move forward? Start where you are with what you’ve got; it’s worlds better than not starting at all.

Friend at a small nonprofit: That sounds good and all, but can you be specific? My head is still spinning.”

Me: Take a look at Measuring the Networked Nonprofit by Beth Kanter & K.D. Paine, it’s the perfect place to start.

Friend at a small nonprofit: That looks good, but I’m still kind of overwhelmed…

If you’ve read the book and want to talk over your ideas, give me a tweet and we can chat.