From Raw Data to Real Insight: Visualize Your Organization’s Survey & Evaluation

Day 1: From Raw Data to Meaningful Charts

• Explain how data visualization helps people identify patterns, comparisons, and trends in survey data more effectively than tables or text alone.

• Identify limitations of common survey data exports and determine what information needs to be cleaned, organized, or transformed before visualization.

• Select appropriate chart types for common survey questions, including demographic questions, Likert scales, multiple choice questions, and open ended responses.

• Apply basic data visualization principles to create charts that are clear, accurate, accessible, and appropriate for the size and quality of the data.

Day 2: Dashboards, Deeper Dives and Turning Data Into Action

• Interpret survey results by examining patterns, differences, variability, and relationships rather than relying solely on averages or individual data points.

• Identify common ways survey findings can be misleading, including truncated axes, inappropriate comparisons, hidden variability, and overinterpretation of small samples, and explain how to avoid them.

• Describe how dashboards and interactive visualizations can support data exploration, storytelling, and communication with staff, boards, funders, and community stakeholders.

• Apply a practical framework for determining which findings to visualize, which to summarize in text, and which require further investigation before drawing conclusions.