Cultural Data Project Orientations

Free | Easy | Attend In Person or Online

Why does data matter? The Cultural Data Project (CDP) can help your organization view, analyze, and talk about your internal data in new (and even exciting!) ways. Our training sessions set the groundwork for you to use data thoughtfully and effectively, always with the goal of strengthening your organization's ability to do what you do best.

Getting Started with the Cultural Data Project - New User Orientation 
In this introductory session, we'll discuss how consistent data collection can help your organization make decisions, plan for the future, and build convincing cases to stakeholders. Our new user orientation will also provide an overview of working with the CDP, including:
-registering your organization
-navigating the CDP website
-entering your organization's data into a CDP Data Profile

Designed with first-time users of the CDP in mind, this session will also provide tips on how to help your organization get the most out of the CDP through our useful reporting tools and other resources.

"Data + Stories = Impact" Workshop 
How many times in the past month have you told a story about your organization to report out to a board member, appeal to prospective patrons, apply for a grant? How many data points did you need to gather and analyze in order for your stories to have impact? In our interactive, hands-on workshop, learn how the CDP's reporting features can help you combine your organization's story and data to: -effectively communicate with stakeholders
-highlight accomplishments for funders
-raise important issues with policymakers

From recruiting new board members to embarking on capital campaigns, this session will demonstrate how to use data to support your talking points and effectively make your case.

New User Orientations
Monday, July 21, 2014 10:00am - 11:30am CT - Chicago Cultural Center

Data + Stories = Impact
Monday, July 21, 2014 1:00pm - 2:30pm CT  - Chicago Cultural Center

CDP sessions can be attended by executive directors, board members, development directors - anyone with an interest in strengthening your organization.

Unable to participate? Click here for additional training opportunities.

Questions? Visit www.culturaldata.org or contact the CDP Help Desk at info@culturaldata.org or 1-877-707-3282.

IL Cultural Data Project Orientation Webinars

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New User Orientation
We recommend a New User Orientation if your organization is new to the CDP or if you need a refresher on data entry. This training session will provide an overview of the history and goals of the Illinois CDP as well as an introduction to the types of data collected. The New User Orientation will walk participants through the process of entering data, applying to participating funders and generating reports. Please feel free to attend with additional staff and board members.

Reports Orientation
The Reports Orientation will give an overview of the available reports and is most useful for organizations that have already completed a Data Profile and are ready to use the reports. Now that more than 1000+ arts and cultural organizations are participating in the Illinois Cultural Data Project, you are able to run reports comparing your organization against others throughout Illinois, as well as California, Massachusetts, Maryland , New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania!
Why use comparison reports?

Looking to cut costs? Want to prove that you need more staff? Need a quick report on fundraising for your board meeting? These reports will help you make operational decisions, build the case for support and facilitate long-term planning. To protect your organization's privacy, all the data used in the reports will be in aggregate and will never include organization names.

Get Started. Register Today.
You can participate in this WEB-BASED CDP Orientation session from your home or office computer. Once registered and one day prior to the training session, you will be sent a link to connect to this training session online. During the online session, the CDP associate will conduct the CDP New User Orientation, during which you will be able to ask questions and learn more about the CDP.

Click here for more information and to register for a session.

Cultural Data Project

OK – this is the greatest thing. I heard about it a few years ago and thought it would never really come true, but then I heard it was in place in Pennsylvania and I was hearing good things about it and THEN, I heard it was coming to Illinois and NOW it is. What it does is simply this: it provides a data collection system. But…WE will be able to use the data. We will be able to compare our data against other organizations of the same size or different size or geographic location or whatever. Things like salary averages, average ticket prices, annual budget, all sorts of information. Of course, the information will not be attributed to a particular organization (i.e. you will compare yourself with other theatres with budgets of between $250,000 and $500,000, as an example, not against a particular theatre). We will also be able to benchmark our own progress over the years. Now here’s the really cool part, a lot of funders are on board with this and what will happen is that we will put the information in to this system once and then we will only have to click a button to generate a financial report for that particular funder. Uh-huh, no more rearranging the budgets to fit the particular funders needs for a report. Uh-huh click a button, that’s right. The data project WILL DO IT FOR US. The folks in Pennsylvania love it. I don’t want to oversell it but really, it sounds awesome. More in next week’s broadcast about the roll out.

Deb