Digital Impact was created by the Digital Civil Society Lab at Stanford PACS and was managed until 2024. It is no longer being updated.
March 12, 2015
Since at least the early ‘90s, those involved in the generation of more than money have been on a quest to capture the right balance between documentation of impact and claims to same. For me personally, I have been a reluctant crusader in this quest for coming on thirty years. As a social worker in […]
March 10, 2015
In part one we discussed the challenges of data collection in Uganda. In today’s follow up piece, we have further hurdles that we need to overcome and some rude awakenings in making sense of the collected and analysed data. This lesson started when we embarked on an effort to build our first comprehensive, […]
March 6, 2015
I’ve pondered this question over the last few weeks and months, moving between meetings with brilliant pioneers in digital technology, and events and articles on its role in the social sector. The consensus seems to be that digital transformation is about digital, and about transformation. That’s about as clear as it gets—though I’m not […]
March 4, 2015
I pointed out in my previous post in Markets for Good that we now have the technology to seed an impact sharing economy, not unlike Uber and Lyft, where every service organization, funder, capacity builder, intermediary and researcher can serve as an impact learning “driver”. Our new Impact Learning Technology is best explained […]
February 27, 2015
The speculation is over! The White House has named DJ Patil its first ever ‘Chief Data Scientist and Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Data Policy.’ Jessi Hempel of Wired explains some of the reasons why Patil was appointed. Hempel believes that “there is arguably no one better suited to help the country better embrace […]
February 26, 2015
Here at Development Initiatives and Development Research and Training (DRT) we are currently piloting a ‘Joined-Up Data’ study in Uganda. We have been working in the rural districts of Kitgum and Katakwi, following the emergence of two issues: (1) the really bad results of students completing primary education, and (2) the unacceptably high number of women still […]
February 25, 2015
Your professional network is your greatest asset no matter the stage of your nonprofit career, whether you are an emerging leader or an acknowledged thought leader in your industry or somewhere in between. When you intentionally build your professional network in the right way, you create a circle of individuals who are all rooting […]
February 23, 2015
We all know a wealth of useful data exists online, in various publications, or hidden away in public archives. Initiatives – often local or focused on a particular sector – have emerged over time to collect and report that data and apply the findings to particular areas of interest. But there’s a bigger story […]
February 20, 2015
In PndBlog, Mitch Nauffts takes a look at ‘The Millennial Wheel of Disengagement,’ a new infographic from Virtuali. The infographic highlights the data behind millennials in the American workplace, with key insights and takeaways for the global economy. Nauffts notes “the fact that every day between now and 2030, 10,000 baby boomers will […]
February 18, 2015
In human services, the idea of bridging research and practice is, if I may quote a classic piece of art house cinema, “so hot right now.” With advocates ranging from venerable, traditionally academic corners like the Center for the Study of Social Policy to the more pop-culturally-named Moneyball for Government, efforts to bring data […]
