Skilled volunteers from CONA Services assisted Quality Care for Children by creating a business process roadmap to streamline data management protocols, allowing more time to focus on their mission.
Delivered and Funded by CONA Services
Quality Care for Children (QCC) empowers child care providers with proven and innovative tools, professional development and training, resources, and direct, individualized support to help them sustain and grow their programs, offering the children in their care the very best early learning experience possible. Additionally, they guide families in finding and accessing nurturing, quality early learning and care programs, and they’ve provided tuition scholarships to eliminate barriers for families in under resourced communities.
QCC had a lack of data collection protocols, so each program/department had different tools, reports, and data sources supporting their work. Leadership reporting for storytelling often required manual effort and email coordination across teams. Leadership sometimes had to request data on short notice for funder meetings, site visits, or community conversations, creating a massive undertaking for many employees. As Ellyn Cochran, President & CEO of QCC states, “When every department is collecting and reporting independently, it doesn’t build confidence in sharing the data across the agency. We want to better tell our impact story across QCC as a whole.”
Other pain points included:
- Lack of a centralized “source of truth”
- Heavy reliance on manual Excel processes
- Frequent report modifications
- Risk of key-person dependency
- Limited cross-program visibility into overall impact
The data was there. The impact was real. But the systems needed strengthening.
Nonprofit improves operational efficiency with data management processes
QCC came to Apparo to assist with better understanding of what data they collect, where it lives, and how it tells their story. Through a Community Impact Project (CIP) with Apparo, skilled volunteers from CONA Services partnered with QCC to assess their current data practices and recommend a path forward.
CONA Services volunteers conducted discovery sessions with QCC’s program leads and leadership team. Together, they mapped data flows, reporting cadences, software usage, and pain points. QCC’s team openly shared where processes felt messy or inefficient, allowing volunteers to uncover root challenges and identify practical opportunities for improvement.
After analyzing the current environment, the volunteer team delivered a detailed set of recommendations, including standardizing data collection protocols, implementing Excel safeguards and automation features, and exploring future centralized software solutions. The recommendations were structured into short-, mid-, and long-term actions, giving QCC a realistic implementation roadmap. As Ellyn noted, “This gives us a document we can use in our strategic planning conversations about what we should prioritize in year one, year two, and year three.”
Anticipated Outcomes of Project Include:
- Increased Operational Efficiency – Standardized processes and defined data ownership reduce last-minute data scrambles and manual cleanup. “If we introduce standardized reporting cadences and clear ownership, it saves staff time and reduces last-minute data cleanup,” states Lisa Belliston of QCC.
- Reduced Risk and Improved Accuracy – Documented procedures and clearer reporting responsibilities mitigate key-person risk and reduce reporting errors. “Identifying who is responsible for data collection and reporting was really valuable. It alleviates a lot of time and confusion,” states Monique Reynolds of QCC.
- Stronger Organizational Storytelling – When data is centralized and accessible, leadership can better articulate impact to funders, partners, and families.
- Enhanced Strategic Planning – QCC is currently entering a strategic planning phase. The CIP recommendations now serve as a foundational roadmap for operational and technology decisions over the next three years.
Participants Describe Their Experience
“I really enjoyed getting to work with QCC and Apparo. QCC is going to go off to do really big things, but I only had a short time with you. I love to see everyone grow and I’m here to help out in the future if you need to, so hopefully it doesn’t have to end here.” – Mark Bryner, CONA Services Volunteer
“We just can’t be more thankful for what this collective team was able to provide us. And now we’re able to move forward. We’re programmatic people focused on our mission. We knew the problems and the pain points, but we did not have the ability or time to look into them. This opportunity allowed us to look at it in a much deeper, thorough level. Apparo gave us the tools that we need to move forward and set ourselves up for the next step to improve our work. We are just indebted to you on a whole deeper level. So, thank you immensely.” – Angela Melton, QCC
