Services

The Pivot Approach

Integral to the Pivot approach is how well we get to know our clients. We take a strengths-based and people-first approach to every project.

At kick-off, we take the time to get to know your concerns, challenges, and pain points, along with the fun stuff, like what your team members are currently binge-watching.

Knowing your team well helps us get a clear sense of the project’s scope and your organizational goals. Together, we build a tailored approach to harness the power of your data.

Pivot’s bottom-up approach works in three ways:

  • We begin by understanding your organization’s strengths and goals, along with those of any involved grant partners. Then we create a trust-based program customized to all the participants’ strengths and objectives. 

    Programs include evaluation capacity-strengthening skills such as:

    • Developing a plan to measure impact

    • Taking a culturally responsive approach to collecting quantitative & qualitative data

    • Developing data collection tools (e.g. surveys, interview protocols)

    • Analyzing data using Excel

    • Telling visually engaging data stories

  • Hands-on data storytelling workshops and learning modules tailored to your organization. Topics include:

    • Fundamentals of data design

    • Using data equitably

    • Storytelling with data

    • Chart selection and design

  • Data analysis and visual design services that turn data into engaging stories for diverse audiences through:

    • One-pagers

    • Dashboards

    • Charts

    • Slide decks

After we deliver the final product, we send along all editable source files, along with recorded training sessions that walk you through making edits, updating the data, and constructing the file. 

Evaluation Capacity Strengthening*

We begin by understanding your organization’s strengths and goals, along with those of any involved grant partners. Then we create a trust-based program customized to all the participants’ strengths and objectives. 

These programs may include a combination of synchronous instruction, like hands-on workshops, and asynchronous instruction, through online learning modules, and they may be coursed out, depending on your timeline. We also build in opportunities for peer networking and community-building, so that participants can share knowledge and resources with one another. 

What do we mean by capacity strengthening?

Where possible, we’re shifting to the term capacity strengthening, rather than the more conventional phrase “capacity building,” because capacity-building practices have historically been rooted in uneven power structures — perpetuating the false notion that communities of color and low-income communities need direction, rather than support. As the authors of the report “Reimaging Capacity Building” write, “The limitations of models that do not consider dynamics of power and issues of equity have never been more apparent than they are now.”

Part of our work internally and with our clients involves recognizing how we may be unintentionally perpetuating racial inequities by doing data evaluation-as-usual. Our goal is to truly listen to our clients, learn about the communities they’re serving, and create reciprocal data evaluation and design practices that center cross-cultural understanding, racial equity, and community-building.

“It's not powerful because you have the data, it’s powerful because you use the data... that's where the good stuff is going to happen from this capacity building. I’m excited about that.” 

Who We Serve

Funders

We work with funding organizations to serve both their internal evaluation and design needs and those of their grant partners, through large-scale capacity-strengthening programs that reach even the smallest community grantees.

Nonprofits

We work with individual nonprofits, offering data design training, product design, and capacity-strengthening workshops customized to their needs. 


Evaluators and Researchers

Evaluators and researchers already know the basics of data and evaluation. We provide design and training services to help them learn to tell visually engaging stories with the data they collect.


  • "Pivot is the partner you want to help you bring order to chaos, and to separate out the signal from the noise. Jenny makes data come to life with creative, expressive visualizations, and has a rare ability to organize complex team tasks into simple, replicable processes. I would want Jenny to accompany me on any strategic journey, not only for her brilliance, but also for her deep caring and compassion, and her wonderful sense of humor and camaraderie. "

    — Melanie Greenberg | Managing Director or Peacebuilding, Humanity United

  • "Jenny is an exceptional communicator and translator. She can easily take threads of ideas and package them in a way that others can understand and build on. She is such a warm and energetic person and is a pleasure to have in any room whether it is virtual or in-person. She approaches her work with curiosity and an appetite for both sharing and learning."

    — Wendy Sedlak, Ph.D. | Strategy Director for Research and Evaluation, Lumina Foundation

  • "Pivot's visual communication and data storytelling skills are top-notch. Their smart designs and data visualizations allow our team to produce deliverables that effectively communicate our evaluation findings to our clients. The data visualization training sessions have been invaluable for our team."

    — Victoria J. Bigelow, PhD | Evaluation Coordinator, CEDER, University of Michigan

  • I honestly didn’t know what was missing until I learned from Pivot how to use intentional graphics to tell a story. They taught me to build products that visually capture the key takeaways. I have returned to Pivot time and time again, and I will continue to do so."

    — Ann Cohen, Chief Strategist | Ann Cohen & Associates

Work with us

If you have any questions or comments, please contact us via email or fill out the contact form.

Email
hello (at) pivotdatadesign.com