Optimize Our Process for Tracking Citations and References

Our organization needs your help measuring and tracking the impact of our research and publications! We are looking for a volunteer who can update our current database of scholarly and other professional citations and references, then recommend a process for a) keeping the database up to date, and b) possible uses of the data to demonstrate breadth of relevance and impact.

This pro bono work will ideally be a donation of 2-5 hours per week for 3 weeks by a volunteer. Tasks completed during this project may include:
- Familiarity with our organization's publications and other materials that may be cited or referenced.
- Review of current citations database, web and social media analytics, and partner mapping documentation. Assessment of our current use of data collection approaches.
- Update the existing database of citations and add data about (or illustrative examples of) references of CDA approaches, methodologies etc. This might include a broad search of key terms in scholarly literature, possibly using Google Scholar a similar platform, and also researching technical associations/networks in the humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding sectors.
-Research low level of effort approaches for maintaining the database and high impact/low level of effort options our nonprofit could employ for using the data.
-Present recommendations for moving forward

CDA is in our 31st year of listening to and learning with practitioners around the world, helping humanitarian, development and peacebuilding actions be more effective and accountable. Their work is our impact, so it's tricky to track and and we want to improve the feedback loops so we can get better for the increasingly complex challenges. We are also in the process of integrating CDA and our sister-organization, the Kenyan international non-profit Local Capacities for Peace International. As we plan for integrating our program and fundraising activities, we want to be sure we can accurately convey the breadth and depth of our work. This project is a key part of that goal.

Our organization has had great experiences working with Taproot volunteers before and we will be ready to provide all existing information useful for the volunteer. We are eager to get expertise so we're collecting the right information and in the right ways and be able to make best use of the information. We have identified a member of our team to be your point person on this project and this is a priority for CDA's leadership.