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 30, 2012
Performance assessment is an acknowledged necessity for nonprofits to operate effectively and attract capital. Phil Buchanan discusses the role of foundations in helping nonprofits carry out this vital function and the challenges for everyone involved. Markets for Good is a welcome push for the development and use of data to...
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...
October 15, 2012
Cinthia Schuman Ottinger, Deputy Director for Philanthropy Programs at the Aspen Institute’s Program on Philanthropy and Social Innovation, discusses the need for nonprofit data and the impact that it can have. A good part of the problem, however, is unlocking that data from the protocols and structures that render is...
October 12, 2012
Nick Deychakiwsky, Program Officer of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, raises a few questions that go to the core of the concept of an information marketplace and how we should (or shouldn’t) think about it as we organize our work in the social sector. Building an information infrastructure for social...
October 11, 2012
If, in part I, we were urged to adjust our lens for viewing social problems, Katya Smyth continues the disruption here, making the case for thinking across boundaries as we attack those problems and for combining our minds long before we combine our data. If I am a homeless survivor...
October 9, 2012
Guest post from Darin McKeever, a deputy director at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, regarding a major new agreement among a few of the US’ largest foundations: The Reporting Commitment. At the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we firmly believe transparency is a key ingredient in maximizing impact because...
October 3, 2012
Lucy Bernholz outlines a new definition for the sector at the forefront of taking on our biggest challenges.
October 2, 2012
Brian Walsh of Liquidnet writes, "We hope that this site will serve as the 'virtual water cooler' for a sustained, thoughtful conversation about what is needed to improve the social sector’s ability to generate, share, and use information."
In the first of a two-part post, Lucy Bernholz issues a challenge to the social sector: discover the potential in our data and change the way we use it.
