This spring, more than 50 nonprofit organizations from across the Houston region came together to celebrate their journey toward becoming more data-driven. The cohort of Houston Endowment grantees gathered to share insights, support one another, and reflect on their progress after participating in Harnessing the Power of Data, a program launched in June 2023 by Houston Endowment’s Learning & Evaluation team to strengthen how nonprofits use data to deepen their impact.
For many, the program marked a turning point in how they thought about their work — and their potential.
At Alief Votes, the support provided by Pivot Data Design, a collaborative training studio, helped the team turn big ideas into a focused, actionable strategy.
“When we first started working with Pivot Data, we were still a very young organization,” said Abby Triño of Alief Votes, which encourages youth civic engagement. “We had a lot of ideas, but we weren’t really sure how to put pen to paper and then to programming.”
Through coaching and collaboration, Alief Votes re-created its logic model — a framework for understanding the relationship between a program’s resources, activities, and intended impact — and theory of change, tools that helped anchor its programming and evaluation efforts.
“Now we’re able to figure out our programming with [our mission, vision, and values] in mind and making sure that we have that compass to follow and then go back and evaluate and see: Did we follow through and did we create meaningful programming for the community members?”
The impact was clear. Youth engagement efforts surged, voter turnout targets were not just met but exceeded by more than 700 percent, and a foundation was laid for even deeper civic engagement.
“When we got the data from that, we were like, wow, maybe we’re doing something right,” said Triño. “Turns out the students loved it … now we’re seeing, OK, how can we look at the data, capture this momentum that we’ve activated, and then start to think of different types of ways to engage either returning voters or even new voters.”
For Bridges to Empowerment, the journey toward embracing data began with learning the power of a simple logic model.
“A logic model is basically a power map,” explained Koretta Brown of Bridges to Empowerment. “It is a structured sheet that helps you identify what your organization is doing, why you’re doing it, how you’re gonna get to your goal, and why you want that goal.
Early on, Brown and her team realized that data wasn’t just about numbers — it was about telling their story more effectively and demonstrating their impact to supporters and funders. They turned to video storytelling to get their message out.
“We didn’t even know why data was important,” Brown said. “Once we realized why data was important, we started doing the videos, and then in 2024, the videos were a lot more pointed. It was a lot more focused.”
Brown emphasized that building a data culture isn’t optional: “You have to start out with the logic model … Then you have to have your theory of change … Your data dictionary is important because the data dictionary helps you define the reason that you’re collecting your data to start with.”
Ultimately, a strong data foundation allowed Bridges to Empowerment to better communicate the value of their work. “You invested in us and we gave you a great return, and you can see it right here.”
The initiative was designed not simply to improve technical skills, but to transform organizational cultures, building environments where data isn’t an afterthought, but a core part of learning, strategy, and growth.
The program offered a carefully designed sequence of activities, ensuring organizations could build knowledge, practice new skills, and grow together:
- Online Learning provided flexible, foundational training.
- Workshops gave hands-on, collaborative spaces to practice and refine data use.
- Coaching from Pivot Data Design offered personalized, one-on-one support.
- Peer Networking created a community of practice where organizations could learn from one another.
- Progress Partners paired organizations for a year-long relationship centered on deep peer learning and collaboration.
Harnessing the Power of Data was designed to extend beyond the implementation of new tools, seeking a lasting cultural shift where data becomes a catalyst for continuous learning, stronger community impact, and sustainable growth.
“What we learned today is that data and evaluation is becoming a big part of the culture of a lot of these nonprofit and grassroots organizations,” said Houston Endowment Learning & Evaluation Officer Robiel Abraha. “It’s helping them both focus their work as well as making sure that they have a North Star for what they’re doing. They’re targeting specific outcomes and focusing on what they can achieve.”