Developing data capability as a grantmaker

This framework reflects our experience working with hundreds of grantmakers across Australia and New Zealand who use SmartyGrants, from small community foundations to larger philanthropic foundations, corporate funders and all levels of government – each keen to understand and measure the impact of their funding programs.

We identified the six types of data that grantmakers most often work with – such as needs, grants, and impact data – and then mapped these onto a hierarchy of what organisations can actually do with the data.

The resulting matrix can help frame an organisation’s efforts to identify its strengths and weaknesses, as well as shape its longer-term data strategy and goals.