3 Simple Statistics for Nonprofits (2 Minute Guide)

Understanding mean, median, and mode is crucial for interpreting your nonprofit's data and making informed decisions.

Who cares?

• Mean, median, and mode are 3 simple, powerful statistical measures that summarize your data. 

• This information can then be used to identify trends and communicate your organization's story effectively. 

• However, it’s important to know when to use each measure for accurate and impactful reporting.

Go Deeper:

• Mean (Average): Best for numerical data (e.g., age, income). It’s easy to calculate (sum all values, divide by the number of values), but sensitive to outliers (extremely high or low values). 

• Median (Middle Value): The median is the middle value in a list when you arrange them from low to high. It’s ideal for skewed numerical data (e.g., wealth) or ordinal categorical data (e.g., educational attainment). The median is less affected by outliers than the mean.

• Mode (Most Frequent Value): Suited for categorical data (e.g., race, primary language). Identifies the most common category.

How to choose mean, median, or mode

The measure of central tendency you choose depends on:

1. Your data (especially the level of measurement)

2. The messages you want to convey 

In general, you will:

• Use the mean for numerical data with no outliers. 

• Use the median for skewed numerical or ordinal data

• Use mode for categorical data. 

Learn more about choosing the right measure. Check out our more detail post that will help you know when to use mean, median, or mode.

The Tech is Easy, so Focus on the Concepts

Spreadsheet software (e.g. Excel) has built-in functions to calculate these statistics. Most nonprofit data management software (e.g. countbubble) provide these metrics. 

Focus on understanding the concepts and choosing the right measure, not the calculations themselves.

Are you a small growing nonprofit? Check out countbubble.

The Standard Plan is ideal for smaller nonprofits. that are ready to upgrade past spreadsheets. countbubble's free plan is perfect for small nonprofits that aren't ready to pay for better program tracking software.

Ryan Brooks 

Founder, CountBubble, LLC

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