Dashboard Design Cohort

We are seeking 8-10 members to co-create a public intersectional dashboard of nonprofit leadership trends in the US. Data for the project will be sourced from the Demographics via Candid Dataset with the possibility of additional contextual data. WFN will provide comprehensive Tableau training to enable the cohort to bring their ideas, questions, and insights into an interactive tool.

Goals and Intended Outcomes

• Create a publicly accessible tool that benefits the social impact sector.
• Facilitate a positive feedback loop between Candid and members of WFN.
• Challenge standard practice of reporting and visualizing race and gender as separate aggregates. Mainstream intersectional analysis in database design, reporting, and visualization, and provide guidance to the field.
• Increase and sustain demographic data sharing as standard practice in a way that is not burdensome to nonprofits.
• Bring attention to the knowledge and expertise of WFN members in areas of data and research.
• Boost data visualization expertise within the network and build community.

Participant Expectations

• Commit 25 hours to the project, which includes trainings, meetings, critiques, discussions, and self-guided exploration and analysis.
• Participate in the majority of Tableau trainings/design sessions
• Collect user feedback on the prototype
• Sign-on as a partner to the Demographics via Candid initiative

Optional

• Conduct and publish research that uses the tool as a source
• Join us on a panel to promote the tool and discuss the design process in 2025

Advisory Role

For those who would like to participate but can’t commit to 25 hours, we welcome advisors who will provide guidance and input.

Benefits of Participating

• Comprehensive Tableau training ($1200-$3000 value). We will be using the Demographics via Candid dataset at the primary training source, which means that we will be centering the training on what members of the cohort would like to be able to do in Tableau with the dataset. The training would cover the equivalent of a Tableau Desktop Level I Bootcamp, with the possibility of covering topics from Tableau Level II and Visual Analytics, depending on the needs of the dashboard and the interest and engagement of the cohort.

• Named credit for all participants and their organizations. We will ensure that you are personally credited on the tool. We will also name participating organizations.

• Mentions in national media campaign. WFN and Candid will be promoting this tool and the cohort in a national media campaign, on social, in research findings, and at conferences. Our goal is to promote the tool while also amplifying the expertise and innovative perspectives of members in the area of data and research. In 2024, WFN and Candid will be promoting this project at the United Philanthropy Forum Conference in July and the UN World Data Summit in November. We will work with the cohort to identify a list of potential conferences for 2025.

• Local media kit and campaign. We want to support you in leveraging your participation in this national collaboration with donors and local press.

Timeline

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I share the workload with a colleague from my organization?

Because the trainings will build on each other and be central to the design of the dashboard, we ask that one person commit to being the primary participant. We would welcome additional colleagues as advisors to the project.

Do I need to come to every training session?

The training sessions will be doing double work of training you on Tableau’s capabilities while also exploring possible visualizations for the prototype. The dashboard will be best served by your full participation; however, we understand that life happens. We ask that you commit 25 hours to the project. If you miss a training session, please identify another way you can contribute to the project’s development. For example, you might do analysis on your own or collect extra user feedback on the prototype.

What are the responsibilities of advisors?

We will work with you individually to determine how you might play an advisory role to the project based on your expertise and availability.

Do I need to have Tableau experience to join this project?

No. The trainings are designed to bridge the technological gap between your ideas and how to implement them in Tableau. This means that we will accommodate participants with no Tableau experience as well as participants who already have Tableau experience but want to take their skills to the next level.

What experience are you looking for?

We encourage everyone to apply who is interested. At the most basic level, you should have experience with data and spreadsheets in some capacity. We see many ways your experience could contribute to the project. Examples may include using data to advocate for change, using data to tell stories, conducting analysis, developing surveys, writing research reports or policy briefs, managing or administering databases, working with intersectional demographic data, working with sexual orientation and gender identity data (SOGI), implementing accessible design, or not seeing yourself fully represented within many datasets. Diversity is important to this project, and we will be applying an intersectional lens to the cohort creation.

Can more than one person from the same organization participate?

It is unlikely that we would bring on more than one person from the same organization. If several colleagues from your organization would like to participate, please identify who will be the primary participant and who will serve in an advisory capacity.

What if I’m not selected for the cohort?

We welcome you to participate in an advisory role. We also encourage you to partner with Candid. That way you will have access to Candid’s dataset and will be able to conduct your own research.

Application Process