January 28, 2020
The State of Open Humanitarian Data 2020
A new report from the Centre for Humanitarian Data aims to increase awareness of data that is available and missing across humanitarian operations.
Digital Impact was created by the Digital Civil Society Lab at Stanford PACS and was managed until 2024. It is no longer being updated.
January 23, 2020
Harry Potter at the Crossroads: We Need New Open Systems
As Lucy Bernholz writes, we need to lose the old-fashioned concept of going online and address how and why we’re controlled by our digital systems.
December 6, 2018
Open Data and Economic Ownership in West African Agriculture
Mobile apps are empowering millions of rural farmers across the West African country of Ghana. But there may be a flip side.
October 13, 2017
The Open 990 and US Nonprofits
Listen to Lucy Bernholz, Cinthia Schuman Ottinger, Beth Simone Noveck, David Borenstein, and Neville Vakharia discuss the new machine-readable Form 990 and the opportunities and challenges presented to U.S. nonprofits and civil society. Recent regulatory changes have made e-filed Form 990s, the data-rich annual financial disclosure forms for U.S. nonprofits, publicly available as machine-readable digital data. With this change, the […]
August 10, 2017
The Dark Side of Data (Organizations)
Nonprofits and philanthropy organizations need to engage more with digital data in their activities. However, they must also be careful to avoid the ‘dark side’ of data and digitization, and respect the privacy and security of individuals’ data.
February 8, 2017
Announcing the Digital Impact World Tour
Digital data offers a world of possibilities for civil society to achieve greater impact – data transforms how we operate, interact and serve constituents. At the same time, poorly-managed data can cause great harm. Civil society’s rising dependence on digital data and infrastructure has raised new ethical and governance challenges, generated a new set of […]
December 13, 2016
Data Conversation with Rachel Rank
Rachel Rank, Chief Executive of 360Giving, talks about her organization’s open data initiative for grantmaking.
October 17, 2016
The DATA Act: A Look Ahead
Considering the close working relationship between government and nonprofits, it is surprising how little is known about the details of that relationship. The DATA ACT could change all of that.
August 17, 2016
A model for statewide open data
The CT Data Collaborative (CTData) is a public-private partnership between the state government and the nonprofit sector in Connecticut, created to advance effective planning and decision-making through the use of open and accessible data. CTData serves residents, nonprofits, policymakers, and funders in using and sharing data to drive policy, program, and service improvements. CTData provides […]
May 23, 2016
Mark Surman on the NetGain Partnership
Mozilla Foundation’s Mark Surman discusses the NetGain Partnership and its work to make the Internet open, secure, and accessible for all.