On February 16, 2014, the Washington Post published an article on how new skills are needed to work on the “Internet of Things”.  But the article was really about the importance of data analysts. In the thirteen years since our business has been providing technology consulting and database implementation services to nonprofits, we have seen this position move from being unheard of to indispensable.

Why? Because data is critically important to guide action and evaluation / improve performance, and enterprise information systems are becoming affordable and in wide spread use across the sector.

What does a data analyst do?

Well typically, they are in charge of the information system that houses the data.  What data? Your donor data, your services data, your financial data, your contacts, or your program data as a few examples.  The data analyst knows your system(s) inside and out, and is typically the organization’s “super user” – the one people ask questions of, funnel changes to, and who is responsible for the hard tasks. They can create that “one off” report that slices the data one way, and dices it another. The data analyst is the liaison with the vendor(s), and provides user training.

Visit us at booth #229 at NTC’14  for a sample job description of a data analyst!