Intentional Data
Free Resource · Tool 2 of 3
Community Voice Audit
Who Tends the Garden
Seed Work · Tool 2 of 3
7 principles for community-rooted data practice. For each one, rate your intention and your actual implementation — and see where the gap lives.
Principle 1 of 7
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Principle 01
Community shapes what gets measured — not just what gets reported.
1 / 7
Intention
Does your organization believe community should have a role in defining what success looks like?
Implementation
Does community actually have a structured role in deciding what you measure — before data collection begins?
Gap identified
Your values point toward community-defined measurement. Your current process doesn't yet reflect that. The gap usually lives in the planning stage — measurement decisions get made before community is in the room.
Reflection prompt
Who defined your current metrics? When in the process did that happen, and who was at the table?
Your notes (optional)
Principle 02
Participation is only meaningful when it is designed to be.
2 / 7
Intention
Does your organization believe community participation should be substantive, not performative?
Implementation
Does your engagement practice structurally account for scheduling, language access, compensation, childcare, and transportation?
Gap identified
You value real participation. But if the logistics aren't designed for the people you're asking to show up, participation is performative by default — regardless of intent.
Reflection prompt
Think about your last community engagement process. Who was able to show up, and who couldn't? What would it have taken to change that?
Your notes (optional)
Principle 03
If you asked for their truth, you owe them a closing loop.
3 / 7
Intention
Does your organization believe you have an obligation to share findings back with the communities who provided them?
Implementation
Does your organization have a formal share-back process that tells community what you heard, what surprised you, what you're changing, and what you can't change yet?
Gap identified
The intention to be accountable is there. The practice of closing the loop isn't built into your process yet. Without a formal share-back, data collection becomes extraction — even when that's not the intent.
Reflection prompt
When is the last time your organization shared data findings back to the community that provided them? In what form, and how did they receive it?
Your notes (optional)
Principle 04
Numbers alone don't carry community voice. Make room for the warm and fuzzy stuff.
4 / 7
Intention
Does your organization believe qualitative data — the stories, patterns, and meaning from focus groups, interviews, and open-ended conversations — is as legitimate as quantitative data like counts, percentages, and survey scores?
Implementation
Does your data collection practice intentionally include both qualitative and quantitative methods — and do qualitative findings actually shape decisions alongside the numbers?
Gap identified
Many organizations gather qualitative data and then don't know what to do with it. It doesn't fit the funder template. It's harder to aggregate. So it gets summarized into a single quote in the appendix — if it survives at all. Community-defined metrics are powerful. So are the stories that explain what the numbers mean, and what they miss entirely.
Reflection prompt
When did a conversation, focus group, or open-ended response last change a decision your organization made? If you can't name an example, that tells you something about where qualitative data actually sits in your process.
Your notes (optional)
Principle 05
Community voice is architecture. Not a section in your report.
5 / 7
Intention
Does your organization believe community voice should be embedded throughout your work — not added at the end?
Implementation
Is community input structurally required at key decision points — not optional, not a review step, but a gate that cannot be skipped?
Gap identified
You believe community should be centered. But if community voice enters after the framework is built, it gets filtered through decisions already made. Structural embedding means it cannot be skipped — not that it usually isn't.
Reflection prompt
At what point in your planning process does community input actually shape decisions? Is there any point where the process cannot move forward without it?
Your notes (optional)
Principle 06
Proximity to community is expertise. Credential it accordingly.
6 / 7
Intention
Does your organization believe that lived experience and community proximity constitute genuine expertise?
Implementation
Does your organization compensate, credit, and formally include community members as decision-makers — not just as participants or subjects?
Gap identified
Recognizing community expertise in principle is different from operationalizing it. If community members are consulted but not compensated, credited but not in the room where decisions happen, the gap between stated value and actual practice is wide.
Reflection prompt
How does your organization currently compensate or credit community members for their expertise? What would it look like to treat their knowledge the way you treat a consultant's?
Your notes (optional)
Principle 07
The goal is a system the community can run — not one that requires you.
7 / 7
Intention
Does your organization believe your data and community engagement practice should build capacity that lasts beyond any single staff member or consultant?
Implementation
Is your current data practice documented, transferable, and designed so that community members or new staff could run it without starting from scratch?
Gap identified
Practitioner-dependent data practice is fragile. If the knowledge lives in one person's head — consultant, director, or data lead — it leaves when they do. Durable practice is documented, transferable, and structurally embedded.
Reflection prompt
If your most data-literate staff member left tomorrow, what would happen to your community data practice? What would be lost, and what would survive?
Your notes (optional)
Your Community Voice Audit
Intention — across all 7 principles
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Strong
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Developing
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Implementation — across all 7 principles
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Strong
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Developing
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Not yet
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