Collecting & Using Demographic Data: Where We Are & Where We’re Going
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About the Event
Data is essential to philanthropy’s ability to understand its impact, advance equity and ensure resources reach the communities they aim to serve. But how can we balance the need for clear, accurate and complete data with the responsibility to reduce the reporting burden on nonprofits—especially when they report to multiple funders? Join us for a dynamic conversation exploring the critical role of data in philanthropy. Share your insights and experiences with the data landscape and discuss strategies for leveraging data to inform foundation decision-making while centering equity. We’ll also introduce a national and local philanthropic collaborative aimed to strengthen nonprofit demographic data collection and use while reducing the reporting burden for grant partners and improving the quality and consistency of the data we all rely on.
This session is your opportunity to:
- Explore why data is vital to effective and equitable philanthropy.
- Share and hear strategies on how data informs foundation work.
- Explore how you can contribute to co-designing a shared path forward.
This virtual gathering, hosted by the CMF Learning & Evaluation Peer Community, is open to all CMF members. Whether you’re deeply engaged in data or just curious about the topic, we welcome your voice!
Laila Bell
Laila Bell joined The Skillman Foundation in March 2023 as the inaugural vice president of learning & impact. In this role, Laila designs the Foundation’s approach to using data, evidence, and experience to inform investments in the power of Detroit youth to create and influence change. Laila works with the team to foster a learning culture where the voices of youth, grant partners, and the community inform ongoing work and drive grantmaking efforts to achieve greater impact. Laila previously held positions at The Duke Endowment and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, where she advanced equitable evaluation practices and promoted mindsets, practices, and infrastructure to support the continuous improvement of grantmaking and strategy. She has led evaluations of complex philanthropic initiatives in early literacy, K-12 education, and postsecondary success. Laila also served as the director of research and data at NC Child, a nonprofit that advances public policies to improve the well-being of children and youth. In that role, she led the North Carolina KIDS COUNT project and collaborated with partners to design and launch several policy and systems change initiatives, including the North Carolina Health Equity Impact Assessment and NC Pathways to Grade-Level Reading. Laila earned a master’s from the University of Texas at Austin Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and a bachelor’s with a double major in psychology and political science from Winthrop University. She is a member of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Child Advocacy Leadership Network. Currently, Laila serves on the Project Team of Building Movement Project, a national organization working to build capacity within the nonprofit sector to promote social justice. Laila previously served on the Youth Empowered Solutions (YES!) board of directors.
Huilan Krenn
Huilan Y. Krenn is the director of Learning & Impact at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Michigan. In this role, she supports foundation efforts to promote thriving children, working families and equitable communities. Krenn is responsible for leading and managing evaluation system building and activities in support of all WKKF programming areas. She works closely with WKKF program leadership in measuring and understanding the outcomes and impact of programming strategies and investments. She also partners with foundation program staff, grantees, external evaluators, data partners and other evaluation stakeholders to deliver high quality, evidence-based monitoring, evaluation and capturing of “lessons learned” around WKKF programmatic work. Krenn joined the Kellogg Foundation in 2002, holding positions of program officer for Education & Learning and evaluation manager. She was a also member of the former innovation and design team, creating a research and design platform for emerging bodies of work by helping to explore, prototype and assess issues and opportunities that could improve the impact of grantee partners and the foundation’s own philanthropic practice. Before joining the foundation, she was director of evaluation and research with a large child welfare agency, where she previously held the positions of director of research, assistant director of evaluation and research, research associate and program evaluator. She was also an adjunct faculty member at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, for six years. Krenn served on the board of American Evaluation Association from 2005-2008. She has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles on the subject of program evaluation and early childhood education. Krenn received both her doctoral degree in evaluation, research and measurement, and her master's degree in educational leadership from Western Michigan University. She also holds a master's degree in teaching English as a second language and a bachelor's degree in English and American language and literature from Nankai University in China.
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