Data fellowship - Frequently Asked Questions

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Data fellows volunteer their professional skills for good by helping nonprofits around the world accelerate their impact. Data fellows work in small teams with successful nonprofit grant recipients to answer interesting questions using data.

There are many ways to get involved with Delta Analytics, such as volunteering, making a donation, or attending one of our events. Please visit our website for more information.

We expect to have about 20 Fellows, and about 4 Project Leads.

Fellows are selected based on their previous data and analytics experience and their demonstrated passion for assisting nonprofits. Typical applicants are professionals who have had some experience working with data as part of their full-time jobs. Alternatively, applicants may bring data experience from schooling (e.g., as part of a program for economics or statistics), research projects, or internships. Data experience may vary widely, and there is no definitive list of skills required to apply.
Past volunteers have included economic consultants, data analysts or data scientists at tech companies, data visualization specialists, economics PhDs, program managers, software engineers and financial analysts who have only worked with Excel. Most important is commitment to our mission and an interest and enthusiasm to apply and expand your data capabilities. 

We previously only accepted applicants in the Bay Area. Since 2022, we have been accepting remote fellows nationally for the Data Fellows program.

Full-time undergraduate students are not eligible to apply for either the data or teaching fellowships, but students concurrently enrolled in a Masters, PhD, or professional program (e.g., MBA) who have data experience are eligible to apply.

The project engagement itself lasts 5-6 months (January/February - June).

Most fellows will spend 5-10 hours a week.

Delta Analytics does not offer stipends to data fellows, but fellows will be provided mentorship and training opportunities. Additionally, we provide a small budget for monthly activities with your team.

Applicants are considered on a rolling basis.

We are not actively recruiting for project lead positions. However, if you are interested in this role and have led projects as part of your full-time employment or other organizational involvement, please describe your relevant project management experience in your fellowship application.

Matching is done based on:
(1) Interest: We aim to give you a project based on what you’re passionate about in your application.
(2) Need: We aim to give you a project that you will succeed in with your skills.

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. You will hear back about project staffing and teammates in December.

For the Data Fellows program, we use the best tools based on the requirements of the project and the skills within the team. In the past, Delta has used R, Excel, Tableau, Stata, and SAS. Note that Delta does not provide any software. Previous project teams have relied on open source software such as R or pre-installed software on fellows’ computers (e.g., Excel). In your fellowship application, please feel free to describe what statistical or data analytics software you are more experienced with. You and your team will decide together what common language to use for the project.