Data for Decision Making
DanceWorks Chicago
DanceWorks Chicago had a hypothesis: there are Chicago residents who were not traditional dance supporters, who would be attracted to their mission to support early career artists.
To test their theory, they conducted market research and it confirmed their hypothesis. The results yielded a suite of possible new outreach activities that might help them reach potential new supporters. But where to start?
The board and staff used a ranking process to weigh each idea by the amount of effort it would take, potential impact, and cost. This information gave them the clarity they needed to prioritize activities and act upon the data from their research.
Next Steps
- Take our free online course, Looking as We Leap, to discover how to use data to make a decision.
- Participating organizations can use data from their Cultural Data Profile to evaluate their own fundraising with DataArts' fundraising report (sample below).
- Sample Fundraising Trend Report.pdf
- Blog Post: Starting Your Market Research
- Free online curriculum: Data Literacy for Arts Professionals
- Blog Post: Getting Smart with Arts Data
Related Videos
Data for Financial Resilience
Sones de México
"Data helps you be successful."
Data to Grow Your Audiences
Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble
“We want to get new younger people involved now, so they can follow us through the rest of our lives.”
Data to Build Your Community
Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP)
"Collecting demographic information at the front helps us to bring in audiences, to do outreach."