Facilitated peer learning
Organizations learn alongside peers facing similar realities.
Initiative · Community Evidence & Data Capacity
2025–2026
Data to Power
Strengthening data capacity for Black-led organizations.
Data to Power is a capacity-building initiative led by IIBD to strengthen how Black-mandated, Black-led, and Black-serving organizations collect, understand, communicate, and use data — so the organizations closest to their communities can turn everyday information into evidence that strengthens programs, secures funding, and influences public decisions.
Led by IIBD · Funded by the City of Toronto through the Black-Mandated Funding Framework (BMFF) · Administered by UrbanArts Community Arts Council.
Why this matters
Data shapes public decisions — but capacity is not evenly shared.
Data increasingly shapes public decisions — funding allocations, program eligibility, policy priorities, and community investments — yet the organizations closest to communities often have the fewest resources to collect, interpret, and communicate evidence on their own terms.
Without adequate capacity, organizations may struggle to:
Demonstrate impact
Communicate community needs
Meet complex reporting requirements
Secure sustainable funding
Influence decisions affecting their communities
Data literacy is not simply a technical skill — it is a form of organizational capacity and community power.
What the initiative does
From reporting requirement to strategic tool.
Data to Power equips organizations with practical skills, tools, and confidence to move beyond reporting requirements toward using their own data strategically — for organizational learning, community advocacy, program improvement, and public accountability.
Throughout, lived experience and community context stay central. The initiative treats data as something communities own and interpret — not something done to them.
What participants learn
Practical, transferable skills.
- Data literacy fundamentals
- Identifying meaningful indicators & outcomes
- Improving data collection & management
- Organizing & interpreting organizational data
- Building evidence-based narratives
- Data storytelling
- Accessible charts & visualizations
- Stronger grant applications & impact reports
- Internal reporting tools & templates
- Sustainable data practices that outlast the initiative
Practical approaches organizations can maintain with existing resources — not complex technical systems.
Program delivery
An accessible small-cohort model.
Designed for organizations with varied technical experience, staffing, and digital capacity.
Practical exercises
Hands-on work using participants' own organizational data.
One-on-one coaching
Direct coaching and technical assistance tailored to each organization.
Templates & resources
Reusable tools organizations keep and adapt.
Ongoing support
Continued help as organizations put new practices to work.
The 2025–2026 cohort ran as a six-week asynchronous program with biweekly one-on-one coaching in place of live workshops, so participation could flex around each organization's capacity.
Data storytelling as a tool for change
Evidence decision-makers understand — without flattening community realities.
Participants learn to transform information into evidence that decision-makers can understand without losing the complexity of community realities — connecting data with community context, lived experience, organizational knowledge, program outcomes, and policy implications.
The goal is to communicate not just what happened, but why it matters.
Practical resources
A growing, reusable collection.
Designed to stay useful after formal participation ends.
- Data literacy guides
- Planning worksheets
- Indicator templates
- Reporting frameworks
- Visualization tools
- Storytelling resources
- Organizational assessment templates
- Coaching materials
- Recorded sessions
- Community examples
Emerging outcomes
Early signs of growth.
Qualitative and self-reported, from the 2025–2026 initiative.
Stronger understanding of organizational data
More confidence communicating evidence
More structured reporting and evaluation
Greater use of data in strategic planning
Improved grant and funding narratives
Stronger internal measurement
Data recognized as a strategic asset
"Organizations do not necessarily need more data. They often need better ways to understand, organize, communicate, and use the information they already have."
Looking ahead
Toward a stronger Black community data ecosystem.
The long-term vision is to strengthen Toronto's Black community data ecosystem so Black-led organizations can produce credible evidence, interpret community data in context, challenge incomplete or misleading narratives, strengthen their sustainability, influence funding and policy, and participate more fully in shaping the systems that affect their communities — contributing to more transparent, accountable, and equitable public decision-making.
Data to Power is a live instance of the Community Data Innovation Lab model, delivered under the Community Evidence & Data Capacity program.
Funding & administration
Data to Power (2025–2026) is led by IIBD and funded by the City of Toronto through the Black-Mandated Funding Framework (BMFF). The initiative was administered by UrbanArts Community Arts Council.
Partner with us
Building data capacity in your community?
We invite Black-mandated, Black-led, and Black-serving organizations, funders, and administrators to connect with IIBD.