Digital Impact was created by the Digital Civil Society Lab at Stanford PACS and was managed until 2024. It is no longer being updated.
April 17, 2015
This week the team from Markets For Good have been attending the Skoll World Forum, enjoying a host of sessions on best practice, new trends, and exciting innovations across the social enterprise space. One such data innovation that caught out eye comes from the Resilience Exchange, who practice what they call the “solutioning approach,” […]
April 14, 2015
Africa offers a swathe of giving practices based on indigenous giving cultures through to sophisticated strategic philanthropy. We live in fast changing societies and they are often geared to change. It is imperative in South Africa, for example, to move beyond race and class to create an equitable society. This is the goal of […]
April 13, 2015
I’m always on the look out for useful and thought provoking resources on how nonprofits can use data to make better decisions that lead to greater impact. So, when Mary K Winkler, one of the nonprofit data nerds I follow on Twitter and Senior Research Associate at Urban Institute’s Center on Nonprofits & Philanthropy specializing […]
April 7, 2015
The goal of the Community Analytics and Learning team at nFocus Solutions is to support learning that creates positive social change in the youth and community-based sectors. Today, as a way of contributing to the larger conversation around how best to use data and research in creating social impact, we are pleased to announce […]
March 30, 2015
Within the last six months, three of the world’s largest foundations—the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Ford Foundation—have all announced that they will require open licensing of all grant-funded products and content. In doing so they build on the leadership of early adopters, such as Wellcome Trust, […]
March 26, 2015
On Sunday 29 March ministers from 54 African countries will gather in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to endorse an African Data Consensus, a roadmap for the Data Revolution in Africa. Which begs the question: are we really talking about a revolution and, if so, what kind of revolution? Talk of a data revolution […]
March 24, 2015
Maybe someday I’ll climb a Himalayan mountain to ask the monk there all of my questions about the universe, but I already know what he’ll say when I ask about program measurement. Let me save you the hike. There are two steps to effectively measure your programs and improve them based on performance: […]
March 19, 2015
As many of you will you know, TED 2015: Truth or Dare is currently taking place in Vancouver, Canada. To mark this event, we thought it appropriate to cycle back through the years to one of our favorite TED talks, ‘The Beauty of Data Visualization‘ by David McCandless. In David’s talk, he turns […]
March 16, 2015
Many nonprofit fundraisers know about and have specific strategies to reach, cultivate, and solicit baby boom donors, Gen X donors, and Gen Y donors. But get ready to reach out to Gen Z donors, sometimes called “PhilanthroTeens” or “PhilanthroKids.” These potential donors are teens (and pre-teens) with a passion for social change and who […]
March 13, 2015
Kim Syman, Managing Partner at New Profit, feels it is “fair to say that data is among the most powerful, under-utilized, and incompletely understood forces in social problem solving.” However, in her latest piece in Fast Company she argues that the “complexity and dynamism of social problems and related human decisions are tremendous, so […]
