Kate Bender (Class of 2020) has started a consulting firm focused on helping organizations leverage their data to improve operations and outcomes.

Porchlight Insights, co-founded by Kate Bender and Julie Steenson, will support customers in the public, nonprofit and private sectors with tools such as data visualization, performance management systems, and survey development.

“Data and continuous improvement have been our way of doing business for many years,” said Steenson. “We’re excited to be part of the dynamic best practice community supporting data-driven management in the local government and public service arena.”

Steenson and her co-founder Bender are former co-leads for the DataKC office in the City of Kansas City, MO. They collectively bring 30 years of experience in performance management, continuous improvement, and data storytelling, working collaboratively across three mayoral administrations and four city managers. As co-leads of DataKC, they designed and coordinated Kansas City’s award-winning public-facing performance management program, KCStat.

PorchLight Insights will build on this expertise by helping local governments and other organizations identify what data is important to them, how to analyze it, and how to tell the story of the insights derived from it. The firm will assist organizations in gathering important feedback through surveys and community engagement, and help integrate data into operations through performance management and strategic planning.

“We have implemented data-driven efforts and experienced the positive results,” said Bender. “We believe that all organizations have the capacity to apply these types of initiatives in order to help their communities, customers, and employees.”

For more information about PorchLight Insights’ services and the co-founders’ background, visit www.porchlightinsights.com. Congratulations Kate and best wishes for success!