Hawai‘i Data Collaborative Helps Nonprofits Make Better Decisions

Hawai‘i’s large nonprofits generate a ton of data but struggle to make sense of it all. Enter the experts at HDC.

Imagine running both a baseball team and a football team. The baseball team requires data on pitch counts and launch angles, a fielder’s range and a hitter’s ability to get on base; the football team needs information that reflects a player’s strength and speed and quickness off the line. Now merge the two datasets.

This scenario – having datasets that are siloed and difficult, or impossible, to compare – is exactly what many nonprofits face. And it inhibits progress on big challenges facing Hawai‘i’s households.

“Much of what we do in the social services sector is mandated by or commissioned by the government,” and whether a service contract is federal or state funded, each is unique in terms of reporting requirements, explains Ryan Kusumoto, president and CEO of Parents And Children Together. Meeting those requirements is a tall order for an organization like PACT, which serves 17,000 people a year statewide, focusing on such issues as early education, domestic violence, at-risk children, mental health and economic opportunity.

Yet, says Kusumoto, “we also have a responsibility because we are holders of key information. We can’t just hold onto the data and not look at it deeper.”

That’s where the nonprofit Hawai‘i Data Collaborative comes in. “HDC helped us figure out how to pull together the information to better understand what is happening on the ground,” says Kusumoto. Finding Solutions in Numbers

The Power of Data

HDC works with government, nonprofit and private sector organizations. It recently released its 2024 Data Landscape Report, sharing how data is being used to improve outcomes for Hawai‘i households. It features case studies on four organizations that

HDC has partnered with: PACT, Hawai‘i’s Department of Human Services, the Hawai‘i Foodbank and the Hawai‘i Community Foundation. HDC does not charge for data support. Its funding comes from the Omidyar ‘Ohana Fund at the Hawai‘i Community Foundation and is supplemented by other funding sources on a project-by-project basis. To prioritize requests coming in, HDC looks for organizations that want sustained data capacity, says Nick Redding, HDC’s executive director. “That way we can transition out and those systems and processes can remain,” he says. “We give them resources and the time of our team but it’s a tremendous amount of work for them too. So, we co-create.”

Some nonprofits turn to HDC because they want to collect data, while others seek to stand up the systems they already have to better use their data. “And then we look at how insights can be shared with other organizations, so it’s more efficient, effective, useful and timely,” says Redding. “It’s getting out of the recordkeeping mindset to see the bigger picture.

“We have deep conversations with their teams about what we call data strategy: What are you trying to do? What are you trying to transform, and where do the data fit into that? What will you need to be able to do with the data? And then we get to the analytics and talk about frequency, format, dashboards.”

He notes that in the human services sector, providers such as caseworkers need to have a lot of input about the kind of data collected and how it’s collected. “Organizations need to be asking, ‘What matters about that?’ rather than simply focus on collecting more information,” he says.

HDC is also building capacity to teach Hawai‘i’s nonprofits the ins and outs of data, and sharing with leaders how to think about it and how to design processes accordingly.

Better Understanding of Food Insecurity

Hawai‘i Foodbank works with 225 local partners to distribute more than 17 million pounds of food annually. “I love the model because we are able to get people food where they are, especially in an island community, and can really tailor the support,” says the nonprofit’s president and CEO, Amy Miller.

But the reporting side is arduous. Many of the partner agencies are run by volunteers, some of whom aren’t particularly tech savvy. The food bank receives some reporting in Excel, while other reports are created using pen and paper. “We might get 50 pages of sign-in sheets faxed to us,” she says, and for the bigger picture, “we were missing out on knowing who we were collectively serving.”

Alongside a team from HDC, Hawai‘i Foodbank is implementing Service Insights, a data collection and reporting system sponsored by Feeding America. Miller says several agencies are already working with the food bank’s new system, and that it will take a few more years to get everyone on board. “But we’re already getting data in from the early pilot group,” she says.

This data collection and processing will help the nonprofit determine food needs more precisely, end data redundancies and better serve the community. “For example, we might determine that people are driving quite far out of one area into another ZIP code to receive food.” In that case, Miller says, the food bank could set up a new distribution point, closer to where the need is, “or get a refrigerated truck to offer produce where it’s needed.”

The streamlined data system means Hawai‘i Foodbank can share data dashboards with agency partners. It will allow the organization to help connect its clients with other agencies on overlapping issues, such as having tables at food bank locations that can help with rental assistance or SNAP outreach.

Most importantly, the data will help Hawai‘i Foodbank better understand the complex and interrelated factors driving food insecurity.

Fuller Pictures of a Community

PACT’s partnership with HDC has helped it centralize data.

Says Kusumoto: “We have a client file, and some contracts require we put that into various databases. It could be in 10 different places for an agency of our size. HDC helped us build a system that sucks up the data from all the systems and puts it all in one place, and that system is designed to spit out the aggregate.” Now PACT is working with HDC on how to report that data in a way that is valuable to the funders, and how “to use the data for more thoughtful leadership.”

Kusumoto urges groups across the state to follow suit. “Let’s collect better data, flow it from agencies like ours, analyze it, and provide better data to government and the philanthropy sector,” he says. “That can drive policy and lead to positive outcomes for the health of our community.”