Data journalism isn’t just for data journalists anymore. At least, that’s what Megan Kilgore hopes to see change. Kilgore is the digital marketing manager at the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas, and her panel Why Nonprofits Should Embrace Data Journalism is looking to expand the core concepts of data journalism and meld them with nonprofit work.

Kilgore isn’t just a local Austinite presenting at SXSWi, however. She’s both an alumna of the Texas State master’s program in mass communication, and an alum of the SXTXState program. After attending SXSWi last year with SXTXState, Kilgore submitted her idea for a panel, and data journalism in nonprofits is now on the SXSWi docket.

“Data storytelling is essentially finding the true meaning behind sets of numbers. You see a data set, it could be a huge Excel spreadsheet of numbers that you think doesn’t mean anything, but in reality it tells you why a particular health program is failing in a particular part of the state, for example.“

This sort of numbers based storytelling is already catching on for many news organizations. “The Texas Tribune take sets of data and they research it and tell a story that affects the public and individuals and their everyday lives.”

Kilgore wants to see this practice extend past journalism and into the nonprofit realm. Because data is becoming more and more prevalent, Kilgore thinks now is a perfect time for nonprofits to act. “In 2014 we are reaching a point where most information can be quantified and digitized in different ways.”

This saturation of data makes it an excellent time for nonprofits to strike. Kilgore believes it is especially important for nonprofits to share their data as stories. “There is an ethical concern, specifically with social service nonprofits, and since I work for Capital Area Food Bank we provide food for low income, central Texans. That is essentially a social service.”

Because nonprofits don’t see the same oversights that governmental agencies must go through, there is a need for nonprofits to be more transparent. “Nonprofit organizations … could be and should be more transparent with their data, especially nonprofits that perform some kind of social services because they’re essentially private organizations performing public services. And a lot of times they collect all this data that they don’t really use, and the community isn’t benefiting from it and they’re not benefiting from it. “

Coupled with the ethical concerns, there is a genuine need to tell these success stories. “Our impact often times is measured in these huge numbers that don’t really mean anything to people when they hear them. At the Food Bank we say that we’ve served more than 48,000 central Texans each week. And that’s true and accurate according to our records, but that doesn’t mean anything.” Using data journalism would allow for a better understanding of just exactly how much of an impact a nonprofit is having. “There is a strong benefit to using these tools and these technologies that we have and talk about our impact in a more compelling way.”

Kilgore’s role on the panel will be the nonprofit expert. “Essentially I’m coming from the nonprofit angle, where I’m going to be talking about how various nonprofits have done data storytelling projects that have been really interesting and really compelling.”

Joining Kilgore on the panel will be Becca Aaronson from the Texas Tribune. “Becca Aaronson … will be presenting data journalism strictly for the sake of journalism. We’re also going to try and talk a little bit about how nonprofit organizations can work in collaboration with news outlets.”

Also on the panel is Javier de la Torre. “Javier de la Torre is the founder and CEO of Vizzuality. Essentially, they’re a private organization that does data visualization and interactive. He’s going to be coming in and talking about this as someone who is hired … to contract to create these pieces.”

If Kilgore is right, a new era of storytelling will come to light for nonprofit organizations. It will “combine data journalism principles to nonprofit data to be beneficial to both the organization and the community.”