More Than Just Numbers: Strengthening Data Integrity Through a Community-Academic-Funder Partnership in Housing Services

Human service organizations rely on high-quality data to demonstrate program effectiveness, comply with funder requirements, and inform continuous program improvement. However, persistent challenges remain in strengthening agency-based data collection and reporting, particularly across multi-site initiatives. Using a case study design, this article explores lessons learned through a community-academic-funder partnership aimed at improving data quality and integrity, outcome reporting, and the utility of program evaluation in a grant-funded, multi-site housing intervention. Mixed-methods data from surveys, administrative reports, and member-checking sessions across 20 grantee sites revealed substantial variation in data collection practices, limited internal congruence in reporting knowledge, and delays that reduced data completeness during early implementation. Findings underscore the organizational, relational, and technical nature of data quality and integrity challenges and identify strategies, such as communication-focused training, client-centered data practices, and iterative funder feedback loops, that improved data quality and integrity over the three-year funding cycle.