Excel Essentials for Humanitarians

Excel training customised for humanitarian and impact oriented teams -
to improve data confidence, using examples that make sense to both programme and support teams.

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Starting 8th October 2025

Learning and development professionals commonly tell us at the Humanitarian Data Academy that ‘Excel and data analysis skills are the top-requested skills from our teams.'  

Spreadsheets are crucial to managing our projects and organisations, yet so many people feel under-skilled.

This course is designed to be a key response to that capacity gap, aimed at a beginner to intermediate level, pushing into the most common skills desired and needed for humanitarian teams:

  • data enry and validation techniques - making sure data is clean
  • table and data formatting to bring clarity and consistency
  • basic data analysis using the most common functions & formulas
  • data visualisation with charts
  • pivot tables and VLOOKUPs that allow users to combine data from multiple tables

This course allows you to offer consistent and comprehensive Excel training to your staff and partners on developing, maintaining, and using existing Excel spreadsheets in the aid sector.

Participants will learn simple to intermediate techniques to create and manage spreadsheets necessary for programme accountability and management.

Who is this programme for?

Aid, development and impact-driven organisations and social enterprises. 

Even for people who consider themselves ‘not a numbers-person!’ 

We have 2 streams in this course.  The key Excel skills are common between the 2 streams, but the application is different - so we use different assignments and examples to teach the same skills, which run the breadth of project management, monitoring and evaluation, logistics, and HR roles. 

‘Programmes/Technical’ stream: 

  • Project assistants, officers, and managers 
  • Programme quality and advisor roles 
  • Monitoring, evaluation, learning, impact, information management, and research roles 

‘Support’ stream: 

  • HR and logistics roles 
  • Fundraising and finance roles 
  • Project management

Maybe you're a...

Programme Manager

reviewing activity data across multiple partners. With pivot tables and charts, you can spot trends in delivery, compare coverage across locations, and present findings to your country team.

New M&E Officer

who's been asked to clean up a messy survey spreadsheet before a donor report is due. With stronger Excel skills, you can quickly reformat the dataset, calculate key indicators, and share clean visuals with your manager.

HR Administrator

at head office tracking staff data. With structured tables and conditional formatting, you can highlight missing information, manage updates, and generate quick summaries.

Finance Manager

preparing budget reports or donor compliance tables. With Excel’s formulas and formatting tricks, you can streamline repetitive calculations and ensure outputs are professional and accurate.

What Learners will put into Action

  • Enter data into Excel using 3 methods: 1) data entry from paper formats, 2) from a digital platform like KoboToolbox or a CRM, 3) from a public data repository like the Humanitarian Data eXchange (HDX)

  • Present data in both a ‘dataset layout’ and a ‘summary layout’ understanding which layouts are easier for computers to analyse and for humans to understand

  • Learn the most common formulas - to enable you to show a table of basic descriptive and summary statistics for a dataset

  • Use best practices to manage Excel worksheets - including sorting and filtering data, freezing rows & columns, pasting ‘special’ formats, using conditional formatting, and applying print layouts

  • Create pie charts, line charts, and bar/column charts to display data in a visual format

  • Create and manipulate pivot tables to summarise long datasets into summaries.

  • Layout a basic ‘visual’ report in Excel, an overview ‘dashboard’ that presents information to a reader in an informative and clear style

Outputs and Outcomes

Excel is used by two primary types of users in humanitarian teams, those who work directly in programmes and those who work in support functions. We support both types of users by 'streaming' examples and assignments. Here are the practical outputs each stream will produce by the end of the course.

Stream 1: "Programme/Technical"

By the end of the course, you will produce:
  • A clean, formatted Excel table originating from a training sign-in sheet, ready for analysis
  • A summary table of basic descriptive statistics about your staff team
  • A PDF-printout of a warehouse stock count worksheet showing your control of print layouts
  • Three to five visual charts (pie, line, bar) showing the breakdown of your latest fundraising campaign
  • A layout that shows your skill of connecting multiple datasets using VLOOKUP and using pivot table
  • A PDF output of a simple report (tables + charts) that shows your budget and project progress

Stream 2: "Support/Operations"

By the end of the course, you will produce:
  • A clean, formatted Excel table originating from a survey, ready for analysis
  • A summary table of basic descriptive statistics about the community where the project is being run
  • A PDF-printout of an Excel worksheet showing your control of print layouts
  • Three to five visual charts (pie, line, bar) showing the outcomes of a community project
  • A layout that shows your skill of connecting multiple datasets using VLOOKUP and using pivot tables
  • A PDF output of a simple report (tables + charts) that shows coverage of assistance compared to population need
So what's included in the Training Programme?
~Course Curriculum~

Loading curriculum…

When you enroll as a Skill Builder Member, you'll also get access to these bonuses for a whole year....

Getting Started with KoboToolbox

If you're a beginner, brand new to KoboToolbox, then this course will get you all set-up in seven easy steps, ready to take on the more advanced topics in "Mastering Form Design". You'll get access to this course when you enroll, as a bonus to help you get started.

Getting Started in PowerBI

Does your data come from KoBoToolbox, ODK, Ona, or another XLSForm-based data collection software? If so, this course will teach you how to use Power BI to visualise your data!

Community Support

An online community to get help, support others, share your ideas, ask questions - all about using KoboToolbox, Power BI, Excel or QGIS in the humanitarian, development and social impact sectors!

Prerequisites, Methodology, and How it All Works

Here's a bit of helpful info

01

This is a 4-week training programme covering 6 course modules delivered in English.

02

It is delivered as a live-course, with one 1.5-hour live training session each week on Zoom (Wednesdays, 1pm-2:30pm UK time).

03

For anyone who cannot make the live sessions, the replays will be posted within 24 hours to our e-learning platform, with course notes and timestamps so they can jump directly to any topic within the replay.

04

A weekly practice-workbook in Excel will be provided to cover the key topics of the week as a download.

05

Participants will take a weekly quiz to demonstrate their knowledge of the topics covered.

06

Participants will submit a weekly assignment through the learning platform, which will simply be a screenshot or a PDF printout of their own practice workbook, showing their work.

07

Participants will use our learning forum helpdesk to ask questions and get support through the week from our trainer.

08

Participants will have ongoing access to the course content online, including all videos, downloadable resources, and support discussions.

09

Learners can expect to spend about 2-3 hours per week on the course.

10

Certificates will be delivered through the course platform for any participant completing the course (including submitting all assignments and completing all quizzes).

Prerequisites, Methodology, and How it All Works

  • This is a 4-week training programme covering 6 course modules delivered in English.
  • It is delivered as a live-course, with one 1.5-hour live training session each week on Zoom (Wednesdays, 1pm-2:30pm UK time).
  • For anyone who cannot make the live sessions, the replays will be posted within 24 hours to our e-learning platform, with course notes and timestamps so they can jump directly to any topic within the replay.
  • A weekly practice-workbook in Excel will be provided to cover the key topics of the week as a download.
  • Participants will take a weekly quiz to demonstrate their knowledge of the topics covered.
  • Participants will submit a weekly assignment through the learning platform, which will simply be a screenshot or a PDF printout of their own practice workbook, showing their work.
  • Participants will use our learning forum helpdesk to ask questions and get support through the week from our trainer.
  • Participants will have ongoing access to the course content online, including all videos, downloadable resources, and support discussions.
  • Learners can expect to spend about 2-3 hours per week on the course.
  • Certificates will be delivered through the course platform for any participant completing the course (including submitting all assignments and completing all quizzes).

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Do I need good internet access to the course?

    Yes. The live sessions are taught via Zoom and replays are available on our Thinkific Platform online, so access to internet is necessary for accessing the course materials.

    If you have some staff that do not have good access to internet, there are alternative ways of delivering the course material, which can be arranged.

  • What language is the course in?

    The course is taught in English, however has been designed with the knowledge that almost all learners may speak English as a second language.

    Written materials, captions, and video-based step-by-step tutorials are used to explain all concepts.

    If you have capacity-building needs in another language, please get in touch directly at [email protected]

    Multi-lingual training resources are in the plan for the future.

  • What if I can't afford the course?

    Depending on the size of your organisation and the availability of funding for professional development, you might not be able to afford the course.

    If you work for a local or national organisation, with less than $100,000 annual turnover, you may be eligible for subsidized access, so please email [email protected]

    Otherwise, if you cannot afford the full fee, please email [email protected] to explain your circumstances and a subsidy may be possible, depending on your international funding partnerships.

    If you work for a larger company or international NGO or donor, and would like to subsidize access for staff of small/local organisations, social enterprises, governments, or students who have self-selected that they want and need this course, please do get in touch directly at [email protected]

  • Can I pay for someone else to take this course?

    Yes! In the spirit of the social sector, by all means, please enable smaller and local organisations to access this course by either subsidizing their fee or paying the full amount on their behalf. Please contact [email protected] for help in arranging this.

  • How can I pay for the course?

    If you use the payment method through this website, it allows you to pay by credit card or PayPal.

    Most organisations prefer to receive an invoice and pay by bank transfer. If this is your preferred method of payment, please contact directly [email protected].

    If you are a team based in a field location, and a headquarters office will pay for your access, please email [email protected] and cc the relevant contact who will arrange payment by bank transfer.

  • If I pay for 6-pack or 25-pack access, how will those 6 or 25 people gain access to the course?

    If you want to sign up multiple participants, we have discounts for groups of 6 or more and 25 or more. Please email [email protected].

  • Can I pay by invoice?

    Yes you can! If you'd like to receive an invoice for your purchase and pay by bank transfer please email [email protected].

How do 'streams' work?

The live sessions will use a mix of examples for teaching the key Excel skills - programme & support examples. All participants will be in the same teaching sessions.

However, there will be 2 different ‘practice workbooks’. You will be able to download and use both or either. One practice workbook will be focused on ‘programme/technical’ data in Excel. The other will be focused on ‘support/operations’ data in Excel. You will complete your ‘practice’ in your chosen workbook.

When you are asked to submit an assignment as a PDF or screenshot of your practice work - you will simply take the screenshot from your chosen workbook and upload it as your assignment submission.