Our Approach

data.org is putting the power of data and AI into more hands for a better world. We do this by enabling social impact organizations and social entrepreneurs to apply data and AI efficiently and effectively to solve complex social challenges.

• We act as a sector facilitator, bringing together philanthropy, private enterprise, and civil society to drive capacity building. This systems-level engagement strengthens the human, technical, and data governance infrastructure needed to ensure the capacity to use data and AI to benefit people and planet at scale.
• We operate programmatically 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 effective intervention and enduring impact.
• We engage with and learn from historically marginalized and underrepresented people and communities, centering localized 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 train professionals in a range of disciplines on open-source tools, and extend this investment to bolstering a community of contributors, with support for storytelling, community management, and events.
• We share community success stories and generalize learnings so that others can take action. We draw lessons from any given initiative to scale its application and adaptability in local settings, e.g., to other geographies and sectors. We do this by ensuring outputs of any initiative include accessible, easily replicable, and scalable playbooks, guides, and insights and use our global network to drive adoption.