In social enterprises, data is more than numbers on a spreadsheet. Each piece of information represents a life, a story or an opportunity for positive change. One of the most significant examples of data-driven social enterprises are animal welfare organizations. Each shelter tries to collect data from the animals, their volunteers, and also their daily operations.
Inherent data challenges in small social enterprises make judicious use of data a difficult task for shelters. These challenges include those related to data integration, standardization, and democratized consumption. The causes of these challenges are the usual suspects: lack of dedicated resources to process data and lack of a data-driven culture in the organization.
However, in the animal welfare space there are some organizations that are making a conscious attempt to get things going. One such organization that is redefining how data is managed at animal shelters in the US is Shelter animal count (COAT). Those who work with data in smaller organizations will recognize the challenges SAC faces as silhouettes of their own challenges. In this article, I provide a high-level focus on how SAC is evangelizing data use through action.
Fundamentally, the SAC data team recognizes the importance of having a simplified data collection process, Develop the technology to be as simple as possible and automated for non-technical applications. shelter employees and providing Self-service ability to use analytics to democratize a data culture. Within the US animal welfare system, it is not surprising that these are also strategies that work well for other small organizations (for-profit and non-profit).
This article would not have been possible without the kindness of the people at SAC for agreeing to answer my questions, especially Samantha Hill (Director of Data and technology, SAC). Samantha spearheads SAC's vision to collect, standardize and provide housing data on a national level.
