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Digital Impact was created by the Digital Civil Society Lab at Stanford PACS and was managed until 2024. It is no longer being updated.

MFG Archive

On Community Feedback

In this post, Perla Ni gives an overview of beneficiary feedback from the community perspective, noting that feedback tools for grantmakers, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations must demonstrate on-the-ground results and lead to improvements in programming and in quality of life for beneficiaries.  So, where are we today with community feedback? And how is the […]

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Put Your Data Where Your Mouth Is: Closing the Deal (Part 2)

David Bank continues his call for open deal data with a look at the recent history of movements in the impact investing space and, further, at the various players and initiatives who are pointing ways forward. …

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Put Your Data Where Your Mouth Is: Open Data to Fuel Impact Investing (Part I)

Today, the social sector (and Markets For Good, in particular) is not only asking critical questions about data, but also dealing with them head-on… Which data? Who pays for it? Where’s the accountability? and others. In this post, David Bank of Impact IQ, a firm that is seeking to track and publish the actual  transactions […]

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The Ultimate Accountability In Humanitarian Aid

Accountability is not just a buzzword. It is the summary focus on what we have actually done to change lives through our work. Nicholas Van Praag of Keystone Accountability shines a sharp light on accountability in the social sector, through the lens of humanitarian efforts and the current state of feedback from the proposed recipients […]

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Fixing The Feedback Loop

There’s visible progress in the social sector with respect to how organizations listen to and incorporate feedback from the people they serve. But, John Hecklinger of GlobalGiving proposes that we’re at risk of only fits and starts (not real progress) toward a truly robust system to gain beneficiary feedback if we don’t consider how our […]

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Note from the Curator: Reflecting on 2012

It’s been three short months since we launched the Markets for Good campaign. As many of you know, the campaign’s goal is to host a conversation about how the social sector uses and shares information, spark new ideas about how to make data sharing and use easier, and highlight and connect efforts already underway. We […]

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Challenges in Design for Beneficiary Feedback

“Listening to the customer” is often taken as a businesses assumption. But, solid program design is what brings that assumption into a method for gaining actionable data. Before providing a few practical guidelines on design, however, Marny Sumrall, Executive Director of YouthTruth, starts with a less talked-about question: Are you emotionally prepared as an organization to hear […]

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Markets For Good Featured On FastCoExist

Markets For Good is driven by the “doing” of data, in other words, understanding what is happening now and and, further, creating a space for conversations that lead to action. The big question is not easy: how the social sector can strengthen the infrastructure that defines the demand, supply, and quality of data we use […]

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Markets For Good Feature In Alliance Magazine: “It’s All About Action”

Markets For Good was founded as an open and collaborative approach to understand how the social sector can better use data to improve outcomes and change lives. Specifically, we are focused on the infrastructure that defines the demand, supply, and quality of data: classifications, technical standards, protocols, knowledge platforms, and governance (oversight, rights, and protections.) […]

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Twitter Q&A: Markets For Good White Paper, Tuesday, DEC 4, 11:00a-12:30p EST (GMT -5)

We invite you to a live Q&A session and open comment of the Markets For Good white paper: Upgrading The Information Infrastructure For Social Change. The open comment component will allow you, via public link on Google Docs to post your questions, ideas, and comments on the document as we conduct the discussion. Markets For […]

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