Search Results for: open database

A guiding ethic at Markets For Good is to keep even the most theoretical discussions aimed at what we can actually do as we offer a wide-ranging set of voices in open discussion. Today’s post, by Sally Bagwell of NPC, travels that space in microcosm on the subject of donors,...

Say the words “exciting” and “insurance.” I think that’s the third time in history they have appeared in the same sentence. Our loss. Investors don’t want to lose money and, thus, take a full enterprise view in due diligence, enabling informed decision-making not just at the point of investment but...

We know (intellectually) not to rely on magical solutions to drive our work. In practice, however, we sometimes fall into the trap of unwitting, magical assumptions. The reality is that underlying any amazing feat we might accomplish, you can bet on solid infrastructure, process and groundwork to account for it....

Born out of 1950’s moon shots, our modern tech identity is understandably replete with technology as the wonderful, sole solution, followed by success, for sure, but also by a bunch of Frankenstein’s monsters, which we then try to fix with more technology. We knew the folly of this back then;...

Dvorit Mausner, of Hope Consulting references her extensive work in development fundraising to dissect its components and propose a different method for the gritty task of managing prospect information via individual and shared databases. …

Fundraising is an odd thing today – at once, a business function and now a fashionable topic anywhere you find two or more start-up or nonprofit folks talking about…anything.  As a business function, it is being redefined by new actors, methods and demands. As a fashion statement, it is infinitely...

Here’s a discussion on big data and analytics and their potential application within the social sector. Sunand Menon walks through the landscape, adding further comment on analysis (the skills we’re using to make sense of data) and analytics (the tools being developed to help that work.) This kind of exploration...

The Basic Registry of Identified Global Entities (BRIDGE) is a new collaborative project that aims to revolutionize information sharing, in order to better understand the flows of philanthropic dollars and enhance transparency and effectiveness in the global social sector. Recently, Victoria Vrana, senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda...

Rounding out our conversation on evaluation is this view from the standpoint of technology, by David Henderson, founder of Idealistics. If technology is a tool, then we might reframe the new fixation on data and tech by recognizing that tools don’t build houses. People do. David goes deeper on the...

Yes, we’re headed back to the cornfield. A discussion on tools and methods is one thing. The capacity and capability to use them, as well as the context in which they’re situated, make for an exploration that is closer to real-world implications. The non-starter for many great ideas and theories...