Every arts and cultural project has a unique story that deserves to be understood and shared. However, many organisations struggle to transform the intricacy of creative work into clear, communicable evidence. A structured data collection template can be a valuable tool to assist in this process. By establishing ongoing data habits, you can save time, reduce stress and make your work more visible to those who fund and support it.
Understanding the difference between inputs and outputs are a useful place to start. Inputs are the resources you invest to make your work happen, including funding, staff time, equipment, venues and in-kind support. Outputs are the immediate, countable results of that activity, things like the number of performances delivered, people employed, workshops run or audience members reached.
This template provides a set of suggested core metrics to help you track what goes into your projects and what they deliver. It also includes practical guidance on how to collect the data, where to source it and who in your team is best placed to manage it. You can build on these core metrics by adding your own, or by using the additional metrics in the second tab, creating a more comprehensive set of measures tailored to your organisation’s needs.
The template also takes into account the requirements of funding bodies and philanthropic foundations, which increasingly expect organisations to demonstrate not only what they have produced but also who was involved and what resources were used in the process.
Try the provided template as a tool to gain valuable insights into your organisation’s activities and cultural influence.
