Proposals 101 Series: Session 4: Telling Your Compelling Story: Blending Data and Narrative

 

Jenny:

Well, hello, hello. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Proposal 101 series, session four, Telling Your Compelling Story, Blending Data and Narrative. We are glad that you’re here today and hoping that you all are ready to get started. So let’s do it. Today’s session is hosted by the California Stronger Connection Tech … Sorry about that. Stronger Connections Technical Assistance Center. We provide support to local education agencies to foster safe, healthy, and supportive learning environments. 

Some of you today are stronger connections grantees, and some of you are from other district schools or organizations. This session actually is open to anyone new to proposal writing and those who want to just strengthen their knowledge and skills or have a refresher. Today’s facilitation team includes Lora Markel, Shannon McCullough, and myself, Jenny Betz. We also have Rebecca Serna, who you will probably see in the chat as well. 

Okay. So here’s where we’re going to start. We’re going to do a little reflection to get us in the spirit of storytelling. So first … And you’re not going to have to type anything in the chat or share anything about this. This is just for yourself right now. So I want you to think back to a moment in your life inside or outside of school, it doesn’t matter. Something that’s really stayed with you and maybe something that you have frequently retold the story of. 

So it could be something totally joyful, unexpected, challenging, or deeply meaningful. So think about some story. For me, one of the things that I think about, and I’ve told the story a million times is in second grade when I broke my arm and I was borrowing my friends down the street, their Popples, roller skates. I slipped down a driveway that I swear was wet and not my driveway. And then, I threw the skates after I saw my arm was broken and said, “I’m going to sue your skates.” 

Because that’s what we did in the 80s. We said things like that. So those pieces of that story are just always some of the parts that I share and that I think about. So think back to some story, something that happened that’s really stayed with you. Now, take a minute to really recall it clearly. Where were you? Who else was there? And what shifted for you because of that moment? Did it have some sort of impact? I didn’t do a lot of roller-skating after that. 

But I knew also that I was strong because I survived the broken arm. So where were you, who else was there and what shifts maybe came from that? And as you revisit that, notice … Again, think about how you would normally tell that story to someone else. So what’s the opening moment? Where is the tension or challenge, like the broken arm? What is the turning point or the meaning? 

And really what are the pieces that you share? So now in the chat, please share a feeling or a word that best describes the story that you just remembered. For me, thinking back to the broken arm, I feel some pride actually, and it’s just funny to me now. That’s the overwhelming thing. So what feeling describes the story that you just remembered? Loss of fear, defiance, excitement, elated. 

Yeah, and as they still come in … So the reason that you remember those moments likely isn’t because of data points. I’m not remembering how fast I was skating, what the slope of the driveway was, or what time of day it was, right? I remember the pieces because of how it made me feel, like how important it was. I see also Tracy, surprising and hilarious. So humorous, it was funny then, but years later, it’s a story my sister and I tell because the whole incident seems ridiculous and funny now. 

Yeah. How it felt then, how it feels now can be totally different. So when you’re thinking about and you tell those stories, you have an instinctual way of really choosing what really matters, picturing the people involved, sensing where that turning point was, thinking about that for that memory. Those are the exact instincts that we want to use when we’re crafting compelling stories in grant proposals. 

Because strong proposals don’t start with the programs and activities, they start with people, with lived experiences and with moments like the ones you were just thinking about or my broken arm. Today, we’re going to really tap into that natural storytelling ability and learn how to bring it into the ways that we describe need impact and possibility in our proposals. So this is just to situate us here. This is where we’ve been for the series, where we are right now and where we’re headed. 

We started with some overall insights in session one from a few California Department of Ed proposal reviewers and grant directors. Then session two, focused on really setting yourself and your project up for success by identifying important information and thinking about things like community needs and strengths, key data, partners, all of that. Last week, session three, we worked on logic models and database planning. 

And then, today we’re going to start making deeper connections between the data and the narrative to make your proposals as compelling to funders as possible. So if you missed any of the three sessions or you wish you could just find the resources from them, we have you covered. Lora is going to put in the chat in a moment, a link to a Padlet. It’s I think maybe already been in the chat, but the Padlet has a column, thanks, Lora, for each of the sessions. 

The first three are pretty full. We have only the beginning things of four there, and then five we’ll get to when we have that session, but it has … The ones that have already happened have the slides, recordings, transcripts, and other ancillary resources for each of the sessions. And that’s also where if you want to follow along with the slides today, you’ll find the session four slides there as well. So today’s objectives, right? 

And I talked about a little bit already, but we’re talking about balancing stories and the numbers. We are going to talk about how to align with funder priorities and school or district goals or whatever those sort of points along the way that are important to connect to. And then, we’re going to talk about storytelling strategies. We’re going to come back to those stories that you were thinking about just a few minutes ago and think about really what inspires reviewers to act and to select your proposal or to pay more attention to your proposal when they maybe are reading lots and lots at the same time. 

And we have focused a lot on data and we often do in this work, and when you do a grant proposal, you have to speak to the data all the time, right? That’s all necessary. It helps us plan. It helps us measure all of that. The data tells us what’s happening, but the stories tell us why it matters. And so, that’s why we’re going to talk really a lot about storytelling today. So now, this is our example logic model that we used in session three. 

So you may remember it if you were here, but if you weren’t, that’s totally okay. Let me give you a very quick recap. So there’s a high school that’s applying for grant funding to launch a targeted mentoring program for students who are at risk for not graduating on time. Many of the students lack access to guidance and exposure to post-secondary pathways. So the school is really trying to pair them with trained community mentors, to mentor them and help them hopefully get to college. 

And they’re doing structured weekly mentoring meetings and then, organizing college campus visits. So those are the things that are going on. So they’re asking for $150,000. They’re going to be recruiting and training volunteers. They have 25 students who’ll be matched with mentors, lots of mentoring hours, all of that. And then, they’re really hoping in the outcomes that it’s going to improve GPA and all of those things. 

So when you look at that, I’m curious, and you can unmute or put it in the chat. What are the storytelling opportunities there? What might be an interesting thing that you would share in a proposal that isn’t just the numbers? Yeah, the context as to why the program is needed, absolutely, right? What’s going on? What are the needs or gaps? Why this particular group, a case study of success? 

Yeah, there’s only 25 students, so how can you get the reviewer to feel like they know even one of them? Yeah. It could be more of an explanation of what one of the trips to a campus is like, or something like that, where it’s like giving a little piece of that there and finding the moment. Equity barriers. Yeah. What does this really look like? It’s likely not just because there’s something wrong with these students that they aren’t going to graduate likely and aren’t thinking about college. 

There’s a lot of context, a lot of history, likely a whole bunch of things and potentially related to equity that are important to tell. So stories from students about what the program has meant to them. Absolutely. Put some quotes in there or little snippets. All of those things really bring the numbers to life. Interview a student. Yeah. “What will this mean to me? Make something up.” All media is a projection. Okay. 

Valerie is saying, if they’re wanting to model this program after another school or district, they could describe the successful things they’ve implemented and what their outcomes were. Right. Yes, Valerie. Why did you choose to do a mentoring program? Out of all the things you could have chosen to support these students, what is it about a mentoring program and are there stories or some examples? So this is sort of the path we’ll be on here for our time together. 

And with that, I’m going to pass it to Shannon to keep us going about balancing those numbers and stories. 

Shannon:

Thanks, Jenny. So I am going to have us take a little trip back to session two. And for those of you that might not have been there, we went over and talked a little bit about the difference between quantitative methods and qualitative methods. And we shared this cartoon that showed different approaches to finding out what people were doing when someone was offering them free ice cream. 

And so you might remember this slide. We have quantitative on the left side and then qualitative on the right side. And it’s not really an either or thing when you’re deciding which research to use or which numbers or data to use. We don’t have to choose one or the other. Both types of data can kind of help us tell the story of what’s going on in our schools and why maybe those things are happening. 

And so, the real question here becomes what’s the best way to use the numbers so that we can provide evidence, but also infuse those stories that Jenny was talking about. And so, that’s kind of where a mixed method approach comes in. And so, we blend the numbers with the stories, and that can help us get a much clearer picture. So usually the numbers can show a trend of something increasing or decreasing, and then the stories can show us why those patterns are happening or why that’s showing up. 

And then, when we put those pieces together, we can start coming up with the solutions, like the programs that you saw in the logic model that kind of match with what we’re seeing from our students and staff. And so, we know from our first session with that panel of experts and funders that they do really still want to see the solid evidence, but they also want to understand the human experience going on behind that evidence. 

And so like we just said, the numbers alone aren’t going to tell you everything, and the stories alone maybe can’t show you the scale of what’s going on. And so we do really need a good balance of both numbers and stories. And mixed methods can help us really answer three key questions that I think every good proposal should be able to address. And so the first one is what’s happening? 

Specifically, can we count how often something is happening? Can we see a trend of it increasing or decreasing? And that’s that quantitative data piece. And then, the second piece is why is it happening? So the stories, the questions that we’re going to be asking people, and that’s the qualitative data that digs a little bit deeper. And then, the third piece is what is this project aiming to do and what is it going to change? 

And this is where a blended insight starts to show up. And so again, when we put the numbers and the stories together, it helps us really make a much more compelling case for the change that we’ve come up with or the program that we’re putting together. So there are lots of different ways that folks can do, mixed methods work. You can read whole books on it, but for today, we’re really just highlighting a few of the approaches that might be the most useful when you’re putting a proposal together. 

And you don’t have maybe the time or the capacity to do these huge pieces of research, but you can piece together a little bit of what you have. And so these are the really practical strategies to help you blend those numbers and stories together. The first one is called convergent or parallel approach. And this is basically when you’re taking quantitative data and qualitative data that was collected around the same time, maybe without even realizing that they were going to come together and tell a story. 

But you notice there’s a pattern there and you bring them together to show some kind of unified finding. And so the example here is let’s say we have an annual school climate survey like Cal Schools, and that shows us that maybe 48% of students are feeling like they’re not safe at the school. And then at the same time, you have students that are reporting to teachers that when they go in this specific bathroom or this specific hallway, that there’s lots of bullying occurring. 

So maybe even though you didn’t intend for those two data pieces to go together, people were hearing them and you were learning pieces from the survey and you could bring those together to put something into a proposal like students reported feeling unsafe and identified bullying hotspots in the hallways. And so, this parallel data that’s happening at the same time highlights the need for a targeted climate and supervision strategies. 

So you’re taking those two data points that happen separately and bringing them together. Another approach that can be really powerful in proposal writing is called explanatory sequential, or basically what I like to call the numbers then story approach. So again, lots of ways to do mixed methods work, but this is one of the … I think it’s one of the most practical for schools and districts because you almost always have quantitative data available. You pretty much always have attendance, discipline, achievement, survey data. 

So for this approach, you would start with those numbers and see if you could find a pattern. So for example, here you have folks noticing that absenteeism increased from 12% to 20%. So that’s a pretty clear quantitative finding. It tells us that something important is going on, but it doesn’t tell us why, it doesn’t tell us anything about what’s actually happening. And so the next step is to dig a little bit deeper using some qualitative methods. 

Things like listening sessions, talking to caregivers, interviewing students, maybe focus groups with school staff. And so, through those listening sessions or interviews, you might be able to get a little bit more information for this more blended insight that you could put in your proposal, something like listening sessions with caregivers revealed that there are gaps in transportation as one of the root causes of increased absenteeism. 

So we knew that absenteeism was happening, and then the stories were able to tell us a little bit about why. And then, you guessed it, you flip those around and we get the exploratory sequential approach, which is where you have stories first and then number second. And so this is really helpful when you know something is happening, but you don’t know the scope of it. And so, this helps you figure that out. You have people closest to the work noticing something like anxiety among their students. 

And they’re reporting that to school leadership. It’s observational. It helps surface issues that maybe aren’t showing up in your data or on your dashboards. And then once you hear those stories, maybe you follow up with a mental health screener or some other tool to tell you exactly what the scope of that is. And so for this … if we’re blending those together in our proposal, it might say something like teacher observations pointed to rising anxiety. 

And screening data confirmed the scope of the issue and that validated the need for more targeted mental health supports. And so to see how this kind of works together, we’re going to go back to that example that Jenny mentioned in the beginning with a logic model where we have, Riverside High School, again, is applying for this grant funding. They want to create this mentoring program to help students have more access to college experiences and to improve their GPAs and hopefully graduate on time. 

And so if you’re looking at this example, I’m curious if in the chat or if you want to come off mute, if anyone can think of first, what kind of numbers or data, quantitative data might be helpful to include in your proposal to help tell this story. All right. Yeah, we have the college and career indicator. That’s a great one. You can use the dashboard, percentage of students meeting the graduation requirements, graduation rate, counselor to student ratio, that’s great. 

Yeah, all of those are awesome. Percent of students doing dual enrollment. Maybe you could have a little bit about current GPA if we are trying to improve GPA. Yeah, there’s a lot of different quantitative data that you could collect. What would we need in order to tell those numbers a little bit more deeply? So what about the qualitative piece? And Amy is one step ahead of me. Listening sessions with students and empathy interview to find out why exactly. 

Yeah, maybe why is their attendance falling? Why are they not as interested in attending college? Yeah, student surveys and exit surveys. Is there any other folks you might want to talk to, to get a little bit more of the story? Counselors, parents. Yep, absolutely. Maybe he’s someone who has a great experience with a mentor that can pop that in there. Some good quotes like folks mentioned in the beginning. 

Yeah, a little bit about parent education levels can be helpful. We know that can impact students’ future plans for sure. Awesome. Family liaisons, great. Advisory class teachers. Yes, all of these are great. And again, this doesn’t have to be a formal, make a protocol list of questions, sit down, answer them. This could be just a quick chat with your counselors, get a little bit more information, maybe talk to them. We’re seeing this 12 to 20% change, or whatever your quantitative data is. 

And ask them if they have any thoughts about why that’s going on. Great. I also wanted to touch a little bit more on one other piece of information that can be really critical putting in your proposal, and that’s external evidence or bringing in research or studies from outside of your own school district. Now, we don’t want this to become the whole proposal, but it actually can really strengthen your proposal in some important ways. 

So first, it shows funders that your approach is really grounded in a strategy that we know works. It’s not just your good intentions. It tells them we’re not just guessing, this is something that has worked somewhere else, and here’s all of the research that backs that up. It can also show that what you’re proposing aligns with a research fact strategy. The funders really love seeing that connection. They love something that’s evidence-based. 

And it reassures them that your project fits into a broader evidence-based, and it’s not just some isolated idea. And then finally, they can help validate that the problem you’re seeing is real. It’s widespread. It’s something that other folks have tried to solve and have been successful maybe solving. So maybe if the national or statewide research is showing similar patterns, it can really help strengthen your case that this is something that needs attention. 

And so, the best way to do that is to do it pretty effectively, but what’s the best way to pull this research into your proposal? So we want to try to use some high quality sources like meta-analysis, federal clearinghouses, like what works clearinghouses, or studies that are pretty well-designed. They tend to be the most credible research and often what the reviewers are really looking for. And I think a key thing that folks often forget is that you can use evidence to support both sides of your case. 

So you can use evidence to show that there’s a need, but you can also use evidence to show that there’s a solution. So for our example, we might cite research that there’s maybe guidance gaps that disproportionately affect first-generation students. And then for the solution, you can bring in evidence that shows that these mentoring programs have been successful in other areas. 

And so when you start to use external evidence this way, it can really, again, show the funders that you understand the research and that you understand that this is maybe the best route for you to go in order to approach the situation. So I’m going to pass it back to Jenny, and we’re going to talk a little bit about aligning your narrative with funder and district priorities. 

Jenny:

Awesome. Thank you so much, Shannon. There’s so much good stuff in there, and it’s fun to work with you, Shannon, because you are the researcher and evaluator, and I do more of the technical assistance sort of piece. And so, we’re talking about really how these two things go together, but we also are doing that and balancing it ourselves, which has been really a fun process. So we want to get a little bit into the realities, what do we really do with some of this? How does it apply? 

How do we make things align with what the funder is asking for, the application, whatever it is? And the first thing that I wanted to do was look at some sample requests for proposal narrative questions. Things also could be called an application, a request for application, a request for information. There’s lots of different ways and things that they’re called. But looking at some of these. 

And then, we’re going to think about how we might answer it using either thinking about the logic model from that other school or from your own experience. So I’m going to read a couple of them. And some of them are straight out pulled out of RFPs. Some of them are combined a little bit, but they are all realistic. So what specific student, school or community needs does your proposed project address and what data or evidence supports these identified needs? That is asking for a lot of things, right? 

And it would have to be answered with using both quantitative data, qualitative data and the storytelling, right? In particular, the needs are really pieces that have … when you have a storytelling component to it, are really powerful. Just saying X number of … Only X number of students get to have this good thing, this good outcome, but actually putting some stories is powerful. 

As you’re looking at these, another one is provide details as to how the proposed grant will compliment and enhance your existing programs, actions, or services identified in your LCAP. Oftentimes, these questions make you answer multiple things at a time. And sometimes it’s like, “Oh, wait, if they’re asking that, I need to go figure out where is my LCAP? What does it say?” Sometimes they’re asking more, how will you meaningfully engage partners and for the design implementation and evaluation of the project? 

Now, you may have already thought about, well, once we get the money, we’re going to do the thing, I’m going to reach out to young people and their families to try and get them to participate in this thing. And what funders want to see is that when you’re planning and designing it, you have the voice of the people that you’re going to be supporting, that while you are implementing, you’re maybe checking in along the way, how’s it going? Not just taking your own view of seems like it’s great. 

And then as you are looking at findings, so you may say, “Oh look, we reduced chronic absenteeism by 10%. Great. And let’s go back and add those stories in again. What changed? What happened?” So the questions are often asking for both for you to balance. I’m wondering if, as you look at those, are there any questions that either seem really familiar or that maybe have stumped you before? 

There are definitely ones … we have to write proposals for things all the time and there are certain ones where I’m like, “Oh, they asked that.” That’s always so much work to figure out. So we can keep going on and hopefully some of those are making you think like, “Oh, I have this project.” Some of you are writing proposals or know that you have to plan for something currently. Yes, Chad, thank you. You’re needing a minute to read. 

That is reasonable. So I’m actually going to take a minute to stop talking. And as you’re reading, consider also what stories might you tell in this section or answering that question or what data might you use? Okay. So one good thing is that we have the slides available for you, so you can go back to these. And even if you don’t have a proposal right now you’re working on, they can be really good sort of prompts with your team to be like, “If someone asks us about this, how are we going to answer it?” 

Sometimes very similar things come in reports that you have to answer to. So I’m going to keep us going. Yes, these are just examples. And so yes, thank you, Rebecca. It’s good to think about it. So Chad, I think sometimes with the time bound nature of the application process, I’m intimidated by collecting data and wrapping my mind around meaningful engagement, 100%. All of this sounds great. 

And then you’re like, “Oh, I have three weeks to figure this out and I also have to do a budget and I have to get this approved and I have to do that.” So yes, and the more you can do in preparation and the more times you do this, the better off you are. There may be something that is you have to do lots and lots of work for this one proposal and what you find from that and write for that may very well be useful for the next few proposals. 

So some of those things you only have to do a couple of times, that are like really deep dive and then you can sort of build on it and next things. But yeah, sometimes really you find out about it even a couple of days before, someone tells you, “Go write this thing, it’s due tomorrow,” and then you do the best you can. So I want to get us to the next part really that is about data visualization and pretty awesome. 

So just wanted to remention here that sometimes our proposals and narratives can feel sort of like a puzzle or a math equation. We might be looking like, “Okay, I want to go find funding to improve student sense of belonging.” But when I Google grant opportunities or I go look at CDE’s funding opportunities list, I don’t see anything that says belonging or anything like that. Nothing that mentions that. 

But there are likely other terms and concepts that your project does align with still. Could be school climate, community schools, student engagement, wellness or wellbeing, any of those things that you can use. So maybe you call it something at your school, but if you need to call it something else for a proposal because that’s how the funder talks about it, then that’s what you do. 

Also, these things are often kind of like buzzwords, right? Sometimes a whole field will have a year or they’re only talking about … everything is about engagement or everything is about attendance or everything is about what, and those cycle through. So oftentimes, it’s similar work, but called a different thing. I’m curious, what are you all seeing as the current buzzwords being used in terms of projects or funding or where you’re supposed to be putting your priorities? 

Please in the chat or unmute, community schools, absolutely. Special in California, right? We have a major investment, MTSS, SEL, underserved communities, and that is a term that changes all the time of how we talk about certain communities, CTE, social emotional support, a lot about chronic absenteeism, absolutely equitable outcomes. And when COVID hit and right after COVID, there was so much talk about equitable outcomes, but really equitable access and those sorts of things, right? 

And then, it was like mental health supports and then, it moves on to other things and equity in California, but of course, there are some limitations to how you can talk about that if you are applying potentially for federal funding, given the requirements and the different way that things are described lately. And those things change all the time. What one group wants or the other, or what the priorities are, what’s allowed, all of that does change in little or big ways all the time. 

So like with logic models, if you take … And we talked about it last time, that the logic model also … especially if they’re not asking you for a logic model, can take a lot of time. It makes you be really thoughtful, really clear about what you’re doing. So if you take the time to do that work upfront, assuming you don’t have to turn the thing in a day, it’s really going to help you on later down the line, both for … will help making your proposal stand out, but also help with implementation, communication, reporting, all of those things, right? 

You can go back and follow that roadmap that if you sort of don’t take the time to do all that, then the potential is when the funding … if it actually comes in, things get real messy and just are going to be harder for you in the long run. It also means if you do that work ahead of time, that you have something to pitch and back up for it for additional funding down the line. You’ve already done some of that work and can use it in other avenues. 

And really, if you follow the tips that we’ve been talking about in terms of logistics and details and alignment and logic, all of that, then what happens is the people reading it, they don’t have to wonder themselves if it aligns. They don’t have to connect the dots because you’ve connected the dots for them. So then they have fewer distractions, kind of like typos. A typo can be a very little thing, but can make a reviewer go off on a mental tangent and it just distracts them. 

So the fewer distractions there are, the more mental space they have to really understand your compelling story in a deeper way. So sometimes putting all that information in is also to make sure that whoever is reading it doesn’t have to worry as much about the details. They see why and how, and can focus on more of the content and the story. Okay. Can you speak to trigger words that have been online that encourage folks to avoid per DEI and grant applications like diversity, intersectionality, female, LGBTQ, et cetera? 

I think actually that’s not something that we should answer right now. There’s definitely things, and they change all the time. There have been a big change in the last year or so in what is acceptable to say or talk about, and that’s impacted a lot of schools, it’s impacted states, it’s impacted a lot of organizations. And I would lean towards your district guidance or state guidance or whatever to have more info on that and to really strategize. It’s all about strategy, really. 

Yes. Thank you, Rebecca. Whatever language the RFP is using, that’s what you should use, for sure. Okay. So a few things that help make your proposals stand out, I want us to go back really quick. We’re switching gears a little bit here. So the last few things were sort of, how do you make your proposals easier to read so that the reviewers or readers can really focus on your story? Now, we’re going to talk a little bit about what really helps bring out your story. 

So these are the tips that … they’re also in the Padlet. These are the tips that came out of session one, which was a panel of conversation with three CDE reviewers. And you can see a lot of them were about logistics, like write to the rubric, not just the narrative and story. So you can’t just write a good story, pay attention to the language and organization, check that all the things are in order. But they also said, be sure that the data you’re sharing relates to the story that you’re trying to tell, right? 

Knowing that the strongest application are those that reflect the authentic voice of the school and its community, and that behind every data point is a student, a classroom, a community with a story to tell. The people reading your proposals are reading sometimes dozens at a time in a very short period, and the more you can show them the story and the voice, the better. So one of the things that we can think about is taking cues from Storytelling 101, regardless of the topic. 

So the way our narratives need to work is to bring together all those technical pieces and data pieces and the impact that we want to have and wraps it up in a blanket of curiosity and connection. One of the things that can be helpful, and what I like about this graphic is really thinking about how you can motivate the reader to approve your project or motivate them to move it onto the next step or whatever. 

So the graphic here at the top says, “Good stories compel people to change,” in the bottom, “And drive them to action.” It’s a call to action if you’re telling a good story in your proposal. What do you really want that reader to feel, think and do? So when you’re writing, even before you submit it, one of the things you can do at the end is go back and be thinking about, am I making a compelling story? 

What do I want them to do with it? What do I want them to be thinking? And does my proposal align with that? But stories also don’t only come from that straight narrative. It is the balance. And so, I’m really excited actually to turn it over to Shannon, who’s going to talk about really another way to engage a proposal reviewer that isn’t just writing in a narrative form. 

Shannon:

Yeah, thanks, Jen. So it seems a little strange to shift over this way to data visualizations when we’re talking about storytelling, but I do think that data visualizations are a type of storytelling. And especially we know that these … like Jenny was saying, these reviewers are going through dozens of applications. Honestly, they’re probably not going to read every paragraph closely and every single word exactly, but a lot of times they will look at visuals. 

And so the visuals can really make your key points visible. They can also help you take what might be several paragraphs and put it in a smaller space so that you have a little bit more leeway in the rest of your application to tell those stories and to include more voices. So we want to make sure that we’re using these data visualizations effectively. A clean, nice chart can really highlight trends. It can highlight disparities much more clearly than a huge block of text that again might not be as closely read. 

And then, when you pair a visual with a quote or some qualitative context, then you really get that mixed method storytelling that shows not just the numbers, but the story behind the numbers. And so, how can we make these effective? First, I know everyone wants to make a really cool visual and there’s so many tools to make them very cool, but choose the easiest one. Choose the simplest one that communicates your point. So if a bar chart works, use a bar chart. 

You don’t need to have fancy graphics. You don’t need a complicated layout if a bar chart does the job. Second, you want to make sure that your titles, your labels, and scales are clear and consistent. So you don’t want the reviewers to wonder what they’re looking at or not be able to figure out what’s going on. Third, try to keep your color choices minimal and purposeful. Having a lot of different colors can be distracting. 

But if you have just one or two colors, it can draw attention to what is most important and what you want reviewers to notice. As a side point, they might not even be seeing the colors, depending on how they’re reading this. It might be in black and white, on a gray scale. So don’t make the whole point of your graph, whatever the color is. And then finally, you want to aim for one big message per visual. You don’t have to put every data point in the same visual. 

You can make one graph to really send one point home, put the rest in text or make separate visuals, but they don’t all have to go together. You want to be thinking, what’s one thing I want the person reading this to get from this chart or this graph and make that the key focus. So on the flip side, there’s some common mistakes that we see in data visualizations. They’re really easy to fall into these traps, especially when your … Everyone wants their proposal to look polished and be impressive and stand out. 

But again, if it’s too complex, like you’re trying to make a 3D chart or throw a dashboard in a document that’s just going to be read on paper, that’s probably going to be more distracting to a reviewer. If they have to work really hard to understand it, it’s not doing what you want it to do. It’s not helping your case. It’s not saving you space and it’s not telling the story that you’re trying to tell. Again, another big mistake is not labeling things. 

I would say as much as possible without making things too cluttered, at least label your skills and your axes. If you can put any other data points in there, make it very clear. If someone can’t immediately tell what the numbers or the categories are, they’ll probably just skip right over it because it’s too hard. And you want every piece of data to be there without an explanation behind it. 

I also tend to see a lot of visuals that again, just have too much data going on. So you want to highlight that one single story. You don’t need to put your whole dataset in a single graphic. So the easy rule of thumb is basically if you need to really explain the visual, it’s probably not doing what you want. You want the visual to be able to speak for itself. Your reviewers don’t have time to be reading a whole paragraph about a visual just to understand it. 

So in the chat, I think Lora’s going to be adding, this will also be on the Padlet. There’s a website called DataCamp that has some amazing resources. You can pay for part of it. For most schools and districts, I think there’s plenty there that you can access freely. You’ll see a link to visualizing data in Excel and then, just kind of a data visualization cheat cheat sheet. But I’d encourage you, if you’re interested in this piece to poke around that website because there’s some great stuff there. 

So I’m going to show you two different ways of displaying similar data and see if we can pick apart what’s going on here. All right, here’s the first one. In the chat, tell me what you notice. If this is our scenario school from earlier that’s trying to get students to attend school and graduate as they move on as seniors and graduate to go to college. Do we think this is effective? Why or why not? What’s going on here? Too many bars. Yes. 

You’re guessing, that’s our first problem, right, Amy? There’s grade levels comparing what’s happening in the areas at each grade level. Eli, I like that. Data but not a story. Exactly. Yeah, we have … Basically what I did when I created this is I just put some data in Excel and just picked the first chart that it gave me. So you’re exactly right. It is data, but it’s not a story. It’s not showing you … You can kind of see there’s something going on, but it’s not telling you a specific story. 

All right, let’s look at this next one. This is the same exact data. It’s not all of the data, but this is the same exact data. And what do we think about this one? What do we notice that’s different here? I can see a trend. Yeah. Yes, you’re right. I didn’t label the grade on the bottom, but it does say by grade on the top. So someone reading it should hopefully be able to tell that it’s by grade. It’s easier to understand. Yeah, it is just the attendance data, but for this graph … this is the story we want to tell. 

We want to be able to see that the attendance rate is changing by grade. So hopefully that kind of shows you … rather than putting everything you want to share all in one visualization, you can break it up a little to make the most impact. All right, let’s pass it back to Jenny to wrap us up. 

Jenny:

All right. Thank you, Shannon. So as in our last few minutes here, I’m curious, what are the stories about your work that you think are compelling or are coming to your mind? So please do put that in the chat. So it would be helpful for all of us to see. Really, what are those stories that hopefully you’ve been inspired to talk about or you know are really important? And then, we want to really wrap up this session by talking about some of the key takeaways. 

And again, the Padlet has the slides with all of this, so you don’t have to take notes, but really key takeaways, right? Blending numbers and stories helps create a compelling and credible proposal. Choose the right mixed methods approach, align your story and data with funder priorities and district goals, use stories that illuminate the need and connect emotionally, and then keep visuals and data clear and simple so that they can be more powerful. 

Thank you, Amy. I see. I’m working on a teacher residency grant, and I just had a talk with someone about visuals versus narratives and creating a balance of the two. Glad we could be helpful. That’s awesome. Sounds like a great project. And we’d be remiss if we didn’t remind you that you can find all sorts of great info at strongerconnections.wested.org or use this QR code. So thank you for your time today. And of course, thank you to Lora and Shannon and Rebecca, and we are glad to be able to support.