• WHY do you want to present the data?
  
• TO WHOM are you presenting the data?

Why do you want to present the data?
Data is most compelling when presented with a purpose. Knowing why you want to share your findings will allow you to select the data that most effectively makes your case. The most common reason for sharing data is to raise awareness—of problems facing the community, the activities you have undertaken to address these problems, and/or the changes that have resulted as a result of these activities. Sharing data is a way to keep key stakeholders informed of what you have been doing, what you have planned, and why. If you used public funds to support your data collection efforts, a public presentation of your data may be mandated by your funding agency.

Data presentations can contribute to additional, less obvious, outcomes, as well. For example, they are an excellent way to justify why you spent “all that money” on data collection. They are also a useful way to mobilize support for different facets of your prevention initiative or involvement in program activities.

Common reasons for presenting data include the following:

• To raise awareness about an issue
• To obtain input into the prevention planning process
• To promote involvement
• To attract funding and in-kind resources
• To demonstrate program effectiveness
• To provide accountability to community members, trustees, and funders
• To create a “name” for your initiative
• To influence policy at the programmatic and/or legislative levels

Sometimes, you will have more than one reason for wanting to share your data. Consider, again, your situation in Smithtown . . .

When confronted with multiple reasons for sharing data, it is important to meet with key stakeholders, prioritize your reasons together, and decide on a primary purpose. Otherwise, your presentation may be unfocused and lack “punch.”

Some of your reasons for presenting data are going to be “proactive” in nature. You will be “asking” for something, such as input into how to make your program more responsive or suggestions for overcoming resistance. Other presentations will be more “reactive,” such as justifying expenditures and fulfilling grant requirements. Regardless of your purpose, your presentations will only lead to intended outcomes if you target the right people.

To whom are you presenting the data?
The composition of your audience should guide the way that you choose to show your data. Think about the health reporter on your local news station. Her job is to take detailed medical information from professional research journals and present it in a way that makes sense to the general audience. It would not be compelling to hear her read directly from the pages of the latest journal. Instead, she must transform and essentially translate the medical jargon into a readily accessible format.

Depending on your reasons for sharing data, you may have potential audiences at the local, state, and/or national levels. Examples of some typical audiences include the following:

At the local level:

At the state, regional, and national levels:

Each time you prepare to present your data, determine the information your audience will need and why they need it. For example, the make-up of your audience will determine whether you go into great detail about your evaluation results or simply highlight your findings—the school committee would need more detail, an audience of students, less. Be sure to explain possible implications the results may have for your audience. If the evaluation findings have led you to any particular conclusions about what your group should do in the future, talk about them. Always keep your reason for making the presentation to this particular audience in the forefront of your mind and use this knowledge to shape your discussion.

Keep in mind that there are many different kinds of problems that can crop up when you try to let people know who you are, what you are doing, and why they should care—however carefully you try to tailor your presentation. Some problems have to do with your presentation of your message, but others are dependent on other people’s perceptions of what you are doing and what you stand for.

Meanwhile, back in Smithtown . . .

With a clear understanding of your presentation’s audience and purpose, you can begin to explore different presentation methods. We will discuss this phase of the presentation planning process tomorrow.

You have completed your work for today.
Please proceed to Activity 2: Exploring Purpose and Audience.

References

Cummins, M. (2002). What Now? Effective and Useful Data Presentation. Newton, MA: CSAP's Northeast Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies.

Hampton, C. (2002). Communicating Information to Funders for Support and Accountability. University of Kansas: Community Toolbox. Available online at http://ctb.ku.edu/tools/en/section_1376.htm.