Data On Purpose

This week Stanford Social Innovation Review hosted the two day Data on Purpose conference, giving “data geeks” a chance to explore the realm of using data to tell stories in the social sector. The conference featured an impressive lineup of journalists, technology innovators, computer scientists, data visualization designers, and professional communicators, all providing tips, ideas, and strategies for data-driven storytelling.

Lucy Bernholz, Senior Research Scholar, Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, Stanford University, introduced MFG’s sister initiative digitalIMPACT.io to attendees. She focused primarily on sharing three core principles in working with data:

• Consent: The data you need that come from your constituents are theirs. Ask for them and treat them with integrity.
• Privacy: Protect those data. They’re valuable. Best approach to protection? Minimum viable data collection
• Open: You’re here to serve a public purpose. Design your data practices with openness and sharing in mind from the beginning.

digitalIMPACT.io is a newly launched project to support civil society organizations in using data ethically, safely, and effectively (MFG and Lucy published a piece introducing digitalIMPACT.io that can be found here). You can view Lucy’s presentation slides regarding best practices in social sector data protection and management here.

The two day conference brought a diverse and engaged audience to the Stanford campus and created a buzz on Twitter with the hashtag #dataonpurpose. Check out our Storify below to see the traction #dataonpurpose received! But, if you missed the conference, don’t fret! You can still access some of the presenter’s slides and get a glimpse into how to use data on purpose.

• Jake Porway, Founder/Executive Director for DataKind: Practice Safe Stats!: A PSA
• Sacha Litman, Managing Director, Measuring Success: Grabbing the Attention of Stakeholders Through Powerful Data Storytelling Techniques
• Jasmine Marrow, Director of Nonprofit Strategy, GuideStar; Peter Manzo, President and CEO, United Ways of California; Lauren Shaughnessy, Director of Measurement and Learning, Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco: Panel: The Nonprofit Storytelling High Wire Act: Balancing Quantitative and Qualitative Data
• Cheryl Phillips, Investigative Data Journalist; Hearst Professional in Residence, Graduate Program in Journalism, Stanford University: Data Mining for Crafting Cohesive Narratives
• Andrew Means, Cofounder, The Impact Lab: Whose Story Are We Telling?