The Association Blog

This Monday we’re playing by the numbers, courtesy of this tip from Shelter Animals Count.

Whether you love spreadsheets or hate them, analyzing data can be overwhelming. That’s why, in their recent webinar, Decisions, Decisions: Using Data to Evaluate Programs & Identify Opportunities, Stephanie Filer and Samantha Hill of Shelter Animals Count recommended that you start out by focusing on a single calculation.

A good one to start with: Intake Types as a percentage of total intakes

Shelter Animals Count defines an intake as any animal taken into or born during the organization’s custody of the animal. Intake types include stray, relinquished by owner, transfer and seizure.

In the above example, 21 animals came in through owner surrender, and that number divided by the total number of intakes (in this case, 100) gives us a rate of 21 percent of animals taken in by the organization came in through owner surrender.

As Filer and Hill explained, “This rate allows you to understand what your organization’s intake consists of, and if those intake types are shifting. You can compare your organization’s rates to the national rates as well.”

What is your organization’s intake data telling you?

You’re invited to join Shelter Animals Count this Wednesday, December 7, at 3 ET, for the last webinar in their Strength in Numbers series, What’s the Story with Your Data?

More Data Tips

Apples, FUCs & Percentage Change
Tip of the Week: Leveling Up
Tip of the Week: Doing It By the Numbers
Strength In Numbers Webinar Series on Data

Top photo: Unsplash