We invited Kathleen Owsley, president, Bosch Community Fund (BCF) and CMF Trustee to talk with us about the new way BCF is using infographic-style dashboards to communicate their COVID-19 response efforts, and impact, to their executive management team, board of trustees and Bosch associates. Check out our Q&A for fresh insights as you consider your own evaluation efforts and opportunities to enhance your reporting tools.

What are the key data points you report on through the dashboard, and why did you choose those areas of focus?

Owsley: There are five data points featured: (1) number of grants that have “pivoted” due to COVID-19, (2) indirect and (3) direct dollars invested in COVID-19 relief efforts, (4) themes and (5) testimonials. We knew we wanted to keep it concise and “bite size” for our busy executives so picked the points that are most meaningful, like total dollars invested, but also shared that we are making two waves of investments—the quicker, short-term relief plus the more strategic, targeted relief in key communities that are really feeling the negative impact of the pandemic. As a data driven company, the quantitative information is essential, but it’s always so positively received when we add in the personal testimonials to see the people behind the investments and how it makes a difference to communities to have Bosch’s support.

What are you hoping this new dashboard helps to achieve?

Owsley: We are using this dashboard for internal communications to our executive management team, our BCF board of trustees and Bosch associates. It’s both data driven in terms of grants, dollars and strategy but also has a human interest element that is important for our colleagues to hear. We want to be able to share with them the human side of the data—that we are talking with our grantees who, predominantly, are engaging with students and in many cases, students coming from underserved communities. It’s important we share that we are responding to and pivoting where need be. In many instances, that has been in replacing programming with food assistance or digital divide assistance and then both short-term relief and longer-term relief.

Can you tell us more about focusing on human interest in your dashboard?

Owsley: We have had BCF dashboards that we use to round up our year and report out on our work internally. We published one that was pure data and one that was pure “human interest.” It’s interesting how some people gravitate toward one versus the other. For Bosch, we are very data driven and key performance data driven so our board favors that approach with our typical year-end wrap up. But with the COVID-19 dashboard, I think we all needed to get behind the data to make that human connection in this time when it’s so hard to do because we are all isolated, but also to see the people that really have been impacted by the investments – particularly the feedback we’ve received from those grant recipients that had to change their plans. To know the grants were still there for emergency assistance—people have been so relieved and grateful. We need to let our leadership hear that our flexibility has been appreciated almost as much as the initial grant itself. We have always taken the angle that we are more than transactional in our work and this really has been a time of listening and responding, and we are proud that Bosch has supported us.

What tool is used to build the dashboard and how it is populated?

Owsley: The COVID-19 dashboard is simply a PowerPoint template managed by our communications firm, and we feed them data updates. It’s distributed as a PDF. It’s purely informational for our executives that may have external questions asked about our relief work, but also as an easy to digest update for any associate. We are very aware reports are too time consuming; this is a format that has worked well for us in the past with our standard dashboard.

What do you see as the future of your evaluation and data sharing work related to COVID-19?

Owsley: It’s definitely helped us to appreciate that (a) our associates want to hear about this relief work, (b) this format is manageable to create and distribute and (c) it’s a format that is manageable for our associates to consume.

What advice would you give to a foundation staff member struggling with what to report regarding their COVID-19 response, or how to report it?

Owsley: First, behind the dashboard is a strategic playbook that we developed in concert with the fund, our corporate social responsibility and crisis management teams that provides guidelines, strategies and parameters for community disaster response. The playbook ensures we can act fast, decisively and with continuity each time we are faced with a crisis in one of our communities.

Second, we want to strike a balance reporting the points that are meaningful without getting too into the weeds with details. Of course, the details are available as it relates to Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and evaluation, but we wanted something that will resonate with our associates and hit the main themes. I think each foundation knows there is a threshold between too much information and not enough. Although our team and our board get into the details, we appreciate that not everyone has the time or inclination to dive into details but has a keen interest in knowing the main points.

Want more?

If you'd like to view the fund's dashboard, please connect with CMF. 

To foster continued learning, connections and shared understanding about Michigan philanthropy’s response, relief, recovery and reform efforts connected to COVID-19, we encourage you to share your organization’s COVID-19 response with us via this online form. All information submitted by our members will be populated in COVID-19 Resource Central for you to quickly access the latest approaches, strategies and collaborations underway around the state.