Event

Data Day for Nonprofits

About Data Day

Data can help nonprofits tell their stories to better support their communities. Attend Data Day for an opportunity to deepen your understanding of the power of data and test drive new tools for nonprofits.

This half-day event offers you an opportunity to:

• Learn the value of your data and how it can help support your organization’s strategic thinking
• Build a better understanding of how data can connect and support nonprofits to achieve their missions and deepen their community impact
• Collaborate with other nonprofits and try out new data tools and resources

Data Day will offer two sessions to showcase new approaches nonprofits are taking toward data:

Session 1 – The Power and Potential of Data: Learn about how data can deepen your engagement with the communities you serve – equitable and effectively – with speakers from Community Ingenuity, and the City of Toronto and Ontario 211 Services (and their associated nonprofits).

Session 2 – Making Data Work for You: See and try out new tools and resources from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, Powered By Data/Ajah, the Rural Ontario Institute, and Ontario 211 Services.

Data Day for Nonprofits is being hosted by ONN in collaboration with: City of Toronto, 211 Ontario, and the Rural Ontario Institute.

All registered participants will receive a recording and a curated list of resources within one week of the event. If you have any questions about Data Day, please contact john@theonn.ca.

Session 1: Speaker Bios

Kosal Ky is the Director of Strategic Partnerships and Opportunities Development at Findhelp/211 Central. Kosal has over a decade of grants development, management, and evaluation experience in the not-for-profit sector. The core of her work in the community is guided by community impact, strategic investment framework, and knowledge mobilization and learning culture, as the backbone, guided by evidence informed research and community engagement as best practices. Currently she leads the Data Equity Initiative as Host for the City of Toronto’s Data Equity 2.0 Pilot where the collection and use of sociodemographic data is being assessed.

Gaone Matshameko, Data for Equity Manager, City of Toronto. Gaone leads the City of Toronto’s first ever Data for Equity Strategy, where she is building the City’s capacity to collect and use data to drive more equitable outcomes for Toronto’s diverse 2.9 million population. Prior to joining the public sector in 2021, Gaone worked with reputable Canadian companies and start-ups where she led strategic workforce initiatives and people analytics research projects to address systemic barriers and promote inclusive practices and policies within private sector organizations. Her 10 year career journey spans Financial Services, Management Consulting, Technology, and board advisory in Education and Social Services sectors.

Karen Milligan is the Executive Director for Ontario 211 Services, the coordinating body for 211 services in Ontario. Karen is a values-driven, empathetic leader who is passionate about working with others to develop solutions to complex community challenges. Prior to her work with 211, Karen held senior roles at United Way Ottawa in Communications, Capacity Building and Resource Development and began her career in the hotel industry and then the automotive sector, spending 10 years in progressive leadership roles with Ford Motor Company of Canada. Karen is also a proud Ivey Business School Community Shift fellow and a Certified Six Sigma Green Belt.

Sarah Owens is the 211 Program Manager & Data Analyst with 211 Central East Ontario and has been working with the organization for the past 13 years.

Nelson Rogers, MSW, Ed.D., Founder and Principal Consultant at Community Ingenuity, is a researcher and consultant in areas related to community development, program review and strategic planning, postsecondary education, applied research and innovation – with particular expertise in rural contexts. Nelson has a doctorate in Educational Administration with a specialization in the study of rural colleges. He has worked with community groups, non-profit and social enterprise organizations, local governments, and colleges. Nelson was recently involved in developing the Canadian Standards Association’s Indicators for Rural Well Being. Nelson is the co-author and lead proponent of Big Data for Small Places.

Session 2: Speaker Bios

Jesse Bourns, Powered By Data/ Ajah. Jesse is the COO of Ajah and the co-founder of Powered by Data. He has deep expertise in technology and applying it to solve real-world business problems—with a focus on the social sector and international development. As part of his work at Ajah and Powered by Data, he consults with institutions and collaboratives on how to design and deploy technology to support their strategies. Jesse has an extensive background in technology, startups, and the social sector—including information architecture, open data, user experience, software development, business analysis, and change management. He specializes in complex, long-term systems and the design of effective governance for those systems.

Danielle Letang is a Data Analyst with the Rural Ontario Institute. She has a Master of Science in Forestry from Lakehead University. Danielle has previously worked for federal and provincial governments on projects related to natural resource management, knowledge mobilization, and sustainability reporting. Danielle is currently working on several data analysis projects at ROI, including the Focus on Rural Ontario factsheets, the Rural Housing Information System, and their new dashboard.

Dave Montague is the Director of Technology and Digital Solutions at Findhelp / 211 Central. He has helped create a number of tools that help utilize and share 211 data including APIs, natural language search, mapping and much more.

Laura Smith is the Data Analyst for Ontario 211 Services. Her work is primarily in building data reporting solutions (such as PowerBI reports) and working with data partnerships. Laura has worked with 211 for 10 years, first in a regional centre (211 Central South) and with Ontario 211 Services. She is certified as a Community Resource Specialist – Database Curator (through AIRS) and has a Master’s degree in Information Studies from the University of Toronto.