Over the last few months, the Good Data Institute partnered with the Pathways Foundation, a wonderful Australian organisation that assists young people to make a healthy and timely transition into adulthood.
The Pathways Foundation model is unique — the organisation has led the resurgence of contemporary Rites of Passage Programs throughout Australia for 30 years. As a result, thousands of young Australians have experienced an empowered journey into adulthood and developed connected resilience through self-awareness with quality assured, cutting edge programs and camps. Furthermore, the Pathways Foundation provides young people and their parents a real, tangible experience that paves the way for deeper bonds, insights and communication.
In traditional societies where a village helped raise children, they invested more time and energy into the Rite of Passage (marking the transition from child to young adult) than any of the other events that made up the rich fabric of village life. The village knew that their very survival and harmony depended upon having healthy men and women as community members. Today, we know that these events make a difference. Independent research has confirmed that benefits of such a program include increased confidence, stronger more respectful and supportive family relationships, increased respect for women as well as motivation to set goals, finish school and to participate and give back to their community.
Indeed, members of our own GDI community had been participants in Pathways Foundations events across the past decade — we were thus excited to partner with the organisation from the inside to explore how we could benefit, grow and support the organisation using data and analytics.
The Good Data Institute was engaged to help the Pathways Foundation with three key important data-related challenges they were facing; data cleaning, BI/dashboard development and CRM guidance. A GDI volunteer was allocated to each of these three areas.
1) Data cleaning (Python)
Our newest GDI Fellow, Hamish McLean, did some amazing work cleaning existing CRM data to assist with online marketing campaigns, as well as guiding the Pathways Foundation on how to re-engage with their network.
2) BI/Dashboard
Long-standing GDI volunteer, Michael Berry, created an incredible Power BI Dashboard that allows the Pathways Foundation to easily navigate through their database, and quickly gain insights on their previous camp participants. This can also be used for future marketing campaigns by targeting select sub-groups of their network.
3) CRM guidance
Lastly, CRM guru, Kane Lo provided Pathways with perspective and guidance on choosing their future CRM provider to ensure it aligns with their data strategy.
This GDI team was led by GDI Fellow Andy Smith. Andy remarked that the project was very fulfilling for the entire team. “From the outset, we were excited and really pleased to be able to undertake a range of high impact D&A and strategy work for the Pathways Foundation. The GDI team highlighted the strengths of our organisation in being able to assemble a crew with depth and breadth of skill sets, for example, across dashboarding, CRM development and data cleaning in Python. It was a real pleasure to see the project move forward and provide tangible value for the Pathways Foundation in a way that will have an ongoing influence on the operations and success of the organisation”.
Peita Charman from the Pathways Foundation commented that “GDI is a team of people with exceptional knowledge in big data and analytics across a variety of projects. They are also consummate professionals with qualifications that are esteemed in any industry. The fact that they assist, in their own hours, those who need help (not for profit organisations), is a credit to these individuals and their team goals.”
Research shows that the major impact on a child’s self-esteem is the relationship they have with their parents, family, peers and community. The Pathways Foundation has planted the seeds for the reclamation of our Children’s future — and we are pleased to have helped watered these seeds with data & analytics support. It is a cause well worth supporting.
Get Involved:
If you’d like to engage with a team of data analytics volunteers for a pro-bono project with your not for profit, please reach out via our website to tell us a bit about your organisation, how you currently use data analytics and we can set up a call to explore your needs and how we think the Good Data Institute will be able to assist. Our community of professional pro-bono volunteers work for leading consulting firms, data science firms (Quantiful, Servian etc.), and technology giants and have a diverse set of D&A skills.
Ends.
About GDI:
The Good Data Institute (established 2019) is a registered not-for-profit organisation (ABN: 6664087941) that aims to give not-for-profits access to data analytics (D&A) support & tools. Our mission is to be the bridge between the not-for-profit world and the world of data analytics practitioners wishing to do social good. Using D&A, we identify, share, and help implement the most effective means for growing NFP people, organisations, and their impact.
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