This week, GovEx partnered with the National Association of Public Administration (NAPA) to convene city, state, and federal government, philanthropic, and nonprofit leaders for a virtual  discussion about clarified guidance to help public sector leaders from all levels of government finance integrated data systems. In opening comments, GovEx Executive Director Amy Holmes highlighted the opportunity to leverage a new guide, called the Field Guide for Financing Integrated Data Systems And Evaluation in the Public Sector, to establish connections between data systems on the local, state, and federal levels.

Brenna Isman, NAPA’s Director of Academy Studies, and Kathy Stack, a NAPA Fellow and Senior Fellow at the Yale Tobin Center for Economic Policy who co-authored the field guide with NAPA Fellow Pari Sabety, described the value and feasibility of using federal funds to integrate data systems and how integrated systems allow for more efficient and effective use of data, benefitting residents.

Participants discussed the Federal Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) updated Guidance for Federal Financial Assistance, released last April, which allows grantees to use federal grants to develop data, evaluation, and integrated data systems. As the field guide points out, this new guidance “gives grantees clear permission and encouragement to combine funds from multiple programs to build shared data infrastructure and analytics capacity, which many governments previously viewed as risky.”

In breakout rooms, local and state leaders from around the country led sessions, sharing their experiences integrating data systems and the benefits their residents have seen as a result. One room focused on applications related to health and human services and the other on applications related to education and workforce projects.

Results for America’s Patrick Carter facilitated a conversation with Jonathon Attridge, Chief Evaluation Officer, Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration; Erin Dalton, Director, Allegheny County Department of Human Services, Pennsylvania; and Weston Merrick, Research Director, State of Minnesota, sharing lessons from their experiences developing and executing evaluation strategies across programs and agencies.

Over lunch, data funders from Renaissance Philanthropy, Strada Education Foundation, the Gates Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation offered updates on their funding priorities and how they can support local and state entities working on integrated data systems.

Throughout the day-long convening, participants established connections and shared ideas, expressing excitement for the potential to explore new ways to finance integrated data systems and evaluate the results. In closing remarks, Kathy Stack and Amy Holmes summed up many of the themes that came up during the convening and promised to continue the conversation and chart future actions.