What can data do for philanthropy?

(Photo from Alliance Magazine)

I had the privilege and fun of co-editing with colleagues from The Foundation Center the special issue of Alliance Magazine, "What can data do for philanthropy?" The issue is out to subscribers and online now.

In addition to editing, which I was involved in only so far as identifying topics/authors and requesting submissions (the professionals from Alliance and Foundation Center did the real work of editing), I also imagined a future for philanthropy in which data are a starting place, not an afterthought. I called it Data-first Philanthropy and it's included in the special section of the Magazine. (pdf) (Thank you Alliance, for making the pdf available)

Other articles in the section include:

• Data for goodLarry McGill
• A conversation between Rosa Gallego and Bradford Smith
• Data for what?Maria Chertok
• Three cautions about dataLuc Tayart de Borms
• Data-first philanthropyLucy Bernholz
• It’s not just what you know, it’s how you use itAndrew Milner
• Data shadows: challenges of a data-rich worldStephanie Hankey
• Visualizing philanthropy: storytelling with dataCole Nussbaumer
• The narrative of impact: it’s not just the numbersKelly Notcutt and Tamzin Ractliffe
• Supporting data collection by the poorSheela Patel
• Six degrees of capitalizationJames Leaton and Mark Campanale
• Encouraging sustainable land investmentsAlejandro Litovsky
• Putting family foundations on the mapCathy Pharoah and Charles Keidan
• Moving the tankerCaroline Fiennes and Jeff Mosenkis
• Data resources
• Glossary