Intended audience: DataKind Volunteers

Article: Managing the Project Champion Experience

The Project Champion is the point-person at the partner organization who coordinates activities within the organization and partners with the DataKind team throughout the project’s lifecycle. They are often an end user and/or the data specialist, and someone with deep knowledge and expertise on the problem and/or available data.

As a DataKind volunteer, always treat partners with the same professionalism as you would in a consulting engagement. Here are a few tips for how to maintain a positive relationship with the Project Champion:

Provide clear and consistent communication.

Try to strike the right balance between knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and friendly. Be clear about expectations for each interaction, including the target outcome of each call. Understand the technical level of all the people involved at the partner organization, and don’t overload your communication with technical details or jargon - you may know a lot about APIs and SDGs, but don’t assume other people understand the alphabet soup; explain everything! Ask lots of questions - but after you’ve read the documentation, done your research, and ensured the answers aren’t already out there. Link the work you are doing to the outcomes that they care about - draw a dotted line to their key metrics.

Provide timely responses

Respond to messages from the Project Champion in a timely manner - even if the response is “I’m very busy at work this week and won’t have time to look at this until this weekend, but I just wanted to let you know that I received this and look forward to reviewing it and responding by then!” Recognize that each organization and individual has their own communication preferences (e.g. email vs. Slack), so make sure you ask about these preferences before the start of the project. Even if a task is supposed to take a couple weeks, check-in with them, let them know you exist and are still working on it. This maintains a cadence to keep the project going strong.

Treat them as a true partner; not just a passive “recipient” or “beneficiary” of the project.

While DataKind volunteers may have data science skills, the Project Champion comes with an indispensable mix of domain expertise and institutional knowledge. Make sure the Project Champion knows that we genuinely appreciate their input and guidance. Start your initial meetings with introductions to get to know each other and take the time to learn about their organization structure if needed. Keep track of milestones and where you are on the roadmap with the partner organization, so they know that progress is being made.

Set Expectations early

Potential Project Champions come in with a range of expectations, depending on (a) their prior experience with data science, and (b) their prior experience with volunteers. If their expectations are unmet, they’re unlikely to have a good experience. At the beginning of your project, make sure that the Project Champion is on the same page about at least the following items:

• Data science is not magic. Things may or may not work out, but we won’t know until we try.
• In order to steer the project in the right direction, there will need to be frequent and regular communication between the partner organization and the DataKind team. We’ll need the Project Champion’s help to facilitate these communications.
• Since this is a volunteer-driven project, we’ll need to be reasonably flexible about project timelines.
• If necessary, identify additional team members who need to be included in conversations with the Project Champion. For example, an individual working in IT/technology may be the best to address questions regarding data sources.
• Respect their work/life balance boundaries - volunteers consulting with professionals is a difficult balance. It's likely that you might work on the project at a time when the Project Champion is already off for the day. Be patient and prepare for the project to take a little longer than in a normal consulting engagement because of these constraints.

To learn more about real DataKind volunteers and the types of work they do, check out the “volunteer spotlight” series in our blog.

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Volunteer Requirements

If you have little to no data science experience, that’s ok! We highly recommend volunteering for our DataDive events. They are a great way to learn or test new skills, and all skill levels are welcome.

For more specialized volunteer roles like a DataCorps® project, we typically look for volunteers with specific skills in data science, statistics, coding, data engineering, data visualization, and/or project management.

Benefits of volunteering with DataKind

Besides the warm fuzzy feeling you get from helping others, benefits of volunteering with DataKind include:

• Engaging with your local community, leaders and volunteers toward impact.
• Networking with peer DataKind Chapter members, volunteers, and staff globally.
• Presenting on behalf of DataKind at data science and social sector conferences.
• Learning lots of cool data science solutions.
• Contributing to DataKind’s mission of positive social impact locally and globally.
• You may be able to double or even triple your impact! Some companies match their employees’ financial donations and/or volunteer time to nonprofit organizations.

Questions about volunteering?

Feel free to email us at community@datakind.org or schedule time with our office hours to discuss.

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Contributer(s): Nicole Kidman