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Field Notes

Responsible Data Vs Data Transactions: The Coming Culture Clash

This piece was originally published here by the Social Impact Lab (SIMLab). SIMLab is a recipient of a 2016 Digital Impact Grant as part of the Good Data Collaborative in partnership with the Center for Democracy and Technology, Future of Privacy Forum, and The Engine Room.  SIMLab’s recent consultation on responsible data in practice demonstrated […]

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Utilizing Social Media Data for Public Good

The new report from The Governance Lab includes twelve real-world case studies.

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Moving Society Into the Digital

“For too long, ‘partnership’ efforts have been far more about getting perceived ‘developing’ countries to be more like ‘developed’ countries.”

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Building Better Data Policies with Digital Impact

“For the first time, we had to develop organizational guidelines to distinguish between public and private data,” writes Kevin Clark—a reflection on the challenge of reworking his organization’s grants process and building new data policies to reflect its mission.

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Digital Policy and Practice for the Nonprofit Sector

On Jan. 17, Stanford’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (home of Digital Impact) hosted Digital Impact: Policy and Practice for the Nonprofit Sector in 2017, a panel exploring key questions such as: What are the key digital policy issues that matter to nonprofits in 2017? What are the most pressing challenges to nonprofits and activists? What should […]

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Leveraging Donor Data: Four Common Mistakes (and How to Fix Them)

Nonprofit technology is advancing rapidly, meaning that organizations are now better able to capture donor data than ever before. Not only does new technology make data capture a seamless process, but it can also provide nonprofits with a wider range of data points to draw off of when developing their donor stewardship plans. To remain competitive […]

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Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires

Most organizations seek to focus the majority of their spending on programs and services, with the result that infrastructure like IT is often neglected. It can be difficult to see any advantages of investments in technology until after entire systems have been implemented and integrated, but the disadvantages of inefficient IT can negatively impact the […]

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Measuring What Matters: A Hub for Impact Reporting Tools

Measuring what matters is a persistent challenge for a social entrepreneur. The emerging field of impact investing has increased demands on social entrepreneurs to report both financial and impact metrics to their investors. Social enterprises also need to track a variety of internal metrics that help them hone their products and operations. With an already […]

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The DATA Act: A Look Ahead

Considering the close working relationship between government and nonprofits, it is surprising how little is known about the details of that relationship. The DATA ACT could change all of that.

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Are robo-advisors the future of philanthropy?

The financial sector has benefited from tech innovation in the form of  ‘robo-advisors,’ which help individual investors manage their money.  Popularized as an innovative way to democratize investing, these services provide automated, algorithm-based portfolio management advice (in some case supplemented with human advisors). In particular, wealth management tools which augment human advisors through scalable technology, […]

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