In Conversation with Read to Grow: Nonprofits as Data Infrastructure

On September 22nd, Suzannah Holsenbeck and Paula Grimm from Read to Grow joined us for the next installment of In Conversation with Nonprofit Data Leaders to discuss Nonprofits as Data Infrastructure.

We've pulled out a few key moments we think will resonate with you below.

Data that stays internal is only doing half its job.

We started the conversation here. Read to Grow collected a lot of programmatic data and kept it internally, mostly to power operations (no small task!) and support grant writing. The decision to publish it came out of a strategic aim: to strengthen their status as the leading early literacy source in Connecticut by being seen as a source of truth for what’s happening on the ground.

Combining programmatic data with public data allows you to see a fuller picture and ask better questions.

Suzannah described a trap that many nonprofits fall into, where the only questions on the table are what we did and what came of it. Seeing Read to Grow's reach alongside public data on community needs changed that conversation entirely, shifting it toward which communities aren't being served and what else is happening in those places. Mapping makes those gaps immediately visible, and much easier to act on.

Nonprofits can become the data infrastructure their field relies on.

Three realities came up in the conversation, and together they make a case.

• Public data is under threat, making it more important than ever for nonprofits to share what they hold and help fill the gap.

• Public data is often hard to find and even harder to make usable, so making it more accessible is hugely valuable to others.

• AI is lowering the costs of creating sophisticated data tools, which means nonprofits can now build real platforms to collect their data, make sense of it, and share it with their field.

You can watch the entire webinar recording here.

PS: The Early Literacy Data Hub launches soon and will have the library map and the Book Access Index on it. We'll let you know when it's live!