Our Approach

Our platform connects funding, resources, tools, and data expertise with social impact organizations to harness the power of data for the social sector.​

How we Work

Guiding principles

  • We bring communities together through our platform to build the field of data for social Impact (DSI). We are a global convener, connector, and catalyst, bringing together people and organizations from different sectors and disciplines. Our platform serves not just our own grantees and partners, but the broader DSI community.
  • We operate with participatory design, rooted in trust-building. We co-create solutions with our global community, tapping into the power of their lived experiences. We believe that participatory engagement and trustworthy, responsible innovation are foundational components of intervention and product design.
  • We center intersectional approaches in everything we do. We engage with and learn from historically marginalized and underrepresented people and communities, centering empowering and intersectional perspectives in our work. We actively build capacity and centers of excellence in areas and geographies across the world that have been excluded from tech and data innovation.
  • We engage with and support the open-source and open knowledge community. We deliver open-source tools, and extend this investment to creating a long-term community of contributors, with support for documentation, storytelling, community management, and events.
  • We share community success stories and generalize learnings for broader impact. We generalize from any given initiative or tool to scale its adoption and adaptability in local settings, e.g., to other geographies and sectors. We do this by ensuring outputs of any initiative include metadata of playbooks, guides, blueprints and standards — and use our global platform to drive adoption.

Best Practices

Data principles

  • Security & Privacy​
    Uphold best-in-class security and privacy practices​
  • Transparency & Control​
    Clearly and simply explain how you collect, use, and share an individual’s data and give individuals the ability to control its use
  • Accountability​
    Keep consumer / user’s interests at the center of data practices​​
  • Integrity​
    Be deliberate in how you use data in order to minimize biases, inaccuracies, and unintended consequences​
  • Innovation​
    Constantly innovate to ensure individuals benefit from the use of their data through better experiences, products, and services​
  • Social Impact​
    Use data to identify needs and opportunities to make a positive impact on society​

Get Involved

Democratize data with us!

We’re eager to convene and connect the broader data for social impact community.

Find ways to get involved