US Non-profit organizations are legal entities that are organized and operated for a collective, public, or social benefit. Many different types of organizations may operate as non-profits, including charities, business associations, churches, social service providers of various sorts, consumer cooperatives, private schools, and even some political organizations. Non-profit entities are tax-exempt in the US, but still must file an “informational” tax return with the Internal Revenue Service each year. As a matter of federal law, these informational returns are public records and freely available to anyone who wants to see them.
This article is a primer on how to tabulate, organize, and document data for people who don’t have much experience with it.1 I will introduce you to some basic concepts and terms that are common to data work and data organization. Any examples will have an educational tint, but that’s just because I often work with educators. The framework sketched here will apply to most other kinds of data. I’ll assume spreadsheet software is the tool you will likely use for entering and organizing the data, because spreadsheets are widely available and familiar to most people.
“Evidence–based practice” has been a buzz word in education for some years now.1 However, understanding just what constitutes evidence, and what doesn’t, can be challenging. In Randomistas, Andrew Leigh digs in to one of the most important forms of evidence in the educational, social, and medical sciences, the “randomized controlled trial”. He spells out in plain language just what it is, and why it is considered the gold standard for evidence of what works in education and many other areas of research.