February 6, 2013
Our conversation on upgrading the information infrastructure for the social sector takes place at a moment in which both the technological and cultural/organizational changes needed to make it happen are equally urgent. And they’re happening. Elizabeth Boris offers a researcher’s perspective on these movements toward better data practice and talks...
January 31, 2013
Markets For Good, Curator’s Note The nonprofit sector is on the front-lines, working to solve the toughest social problems. But, perhaps the first problem to solve today is an internal one: upgrading our data practices. On airplanes we are strongly advised to put our individual oxygen masks on first, before...
January 29, 2013
Based on his work as Founder, President and CEO of the Family Independence Initiative, MacArthur Genius Award winner Mauricio Lim Miller brings an uncommon lens to the modern concept of “social,” redirecting the investment of thought and resources toward the social ties that can directly change lives. He also refreshes...
January 28, 2013
Continuing Markets For Good’s examination of beneficiary feedback in the social sector, Debby Visser notes movement at the infrastructural level of data (the stocks, flows, and sources) in community development work, particularly how data from beneficiaries is being aggregated and incorporated into the work of improving communities and changing lives....
January 24, 2013
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...
January 14, 2013
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...
November 27, 2012
Reliable and accessible data in the social sector is hard to come by. But, changing the way we generate, use, and share data is more than simply creating better collections of data. Independent consultant, Cynthia Gibson Ph.D., takes on this topic, starting with a brief look back at how we’ve...
November 19, 2012
The complexity of the “data” question is evident to the point of new cliché. Regardless of whether it is cliché or not, we have to deal with it. After any given round of wrestling with the question, we can often sense ways forward that are simple, powerful, and counterintuitive. That’s...
November 2, 2012
At Markets For Good, we explore a wide range of themes on the use and sharing of data, but not for the sake of discussion itself: Instead, we want to discover what’s going on and how to connect, align, and accelerate what’s working. Think of this as upgrading the information...
October 26, 2012
According to John Hecklinger, Chief Program Officer of GlobalGiving, the powerful tools and technologies we are creating are helping us solve social problems, but they could work better if they were to work together. He argues for explicitly connecting them so that the information they generate flows more freely and becomes...
