Here’s what I’m going to do in 60 seconds today:
Give you three percentages. They might be the type of percentages that you share in proposals, reports, your website, or in social media posts.
Give you the backstory on these percentages.
Convince you to think carefully next time you want to present a percentage.
Here goes.
#1: Two percent of clients in Program A dropped out in the first three days of the program.
#2: 60% of first time donors in March made a second gift.
#3: 25% of people who attended our XYZ event said that they were unlikely or very unlikely to recommend the event to others.
And here is the backstory on each of the percentages:
#1: Two percent of clients in Program A dropped out in the first three days of the program. Backstory: There were 50 participants in Program A. That means only one person dropped out.
#2: 60% of first time donors in March made a second gift. Backstory: There were 5 new donors in March. That means that 3 made second gifts.
#3: 25% of people who attended our XYZ event said that they were unlikely or very unlikely to recommend the event to others. Backstory: Eight people attended XYZ event. That means two people provided the low rating.
Did the backstories cast a different light on the percentages for you? Perhaps you were imagining more people were involved? When the numerator or the denominator is fairly small, it’s usually best to present both in raw numbers rather than give a percentage. The raw numbers present a clearer understanding of the situation that you’re trying to describe. In fact, when numbers are small, percentages can be downright misleading.
Let’s talk about YOUR data!
Got the feeling that you and your colleagues would use your data more effectively if you could see it better? Data Viz for Nonprofits (DVN) can help you get the ball rolling with an interactive data dashboard and beautiful charts, maps, and graphs for your next presentation, report, proposal, or webpage. Through a short-term consultation, we can help you to clarify the questions you want to answer and goals you want to track. DVN then visualizes your data to address those questions and track those goals.
