Blog – DataKind

Blog Archive

Welcome Gavin Fulmer, DataKind’s Senior Manager, Research

Meet the newest member of the team. Join us in celebrating Gavin Fulmer as DataKind’s Senior Manager, Research! Gavin brings over 20 years of experience ...

Unveiling Three DataKind Products: Data-Driven Impact For Financial Inclusion

DataKind introduces three new data-driven products to enhance financial inclusion. These tools, developed with support from the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, aim to address ...

Partner Spotlight: Sanima

We spoke with Milagros Arcos, Sanima’s Operations Manager, about our partnership to leverage data science to expand safe sanitation solutions for a cleaner, healthier Lima. ...

DataKind + Sanima: Using data science to expand safe sanitation solutions for a cleaner, healthier Lima

Sanima, a Peruvian nonprofit, is pioneering sustainable, safe, and dignified sanitation alternatives in Lima. To help improve their service delivery and scale their vital services, ...

DataKind GenAI Learning Circles: Driving data maturity and social sector community

Recognizing a growing demand for AI-driven capacity building in the social sector, DataKind launched Learning Circles to equip social impact leaders with practical tools and ...

Humanitarian Data Insights Project: Using generative AI to streamline data access and use for humanitarian action

Leveraging generative AI to transform how data is used for humanitarian action, DataKind, Save the Children, and Microsoft launched the Humanitarian Data Insights Project (HDIP). ...

Partner Spotlight: Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance

We spoke with Meredith Baker, Gavi’s Senior Manager of Private Sector Partnerships & Innovation, about our partnership. She talks about the focus and future of ...

DataKind + Gavi Report: Leveraging AI and data science for equitable and efficient vaccine coverage

DataKind and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi) released a report on leveraging AI and data science to enhance vaccine coverage and address access disparities, which ...

DataKind + Swahilipot Hub Foundation: Using data science to tackle youth unemployment in Mombasa

By Christopher Apollo, Project Manager, DataKind DataKind partnered with Global Opportunity Youth Network (GOYN), and its anchor partner in Mombasa, Kenya, Swahilipot Hub Foundation, to ...

BanhJi Case Study: Developing a Financial Performance Score to Empower Cambodian Farmers

In low and middle-income countries, savings groups play a crucial role in fostering financial inclusion and empowerment, especially among rural communities. These self-managed financial systems ...

Unveiling the Harvest’s Potential: AI Empowers Coffee Farmers, Improves Coffee Quality

By DataKind San Francisco DataKind San Francisco partnered with TechnoServe and students from Carnegie Mellon University – Africa on a groundbreaking solution – an AI-powered ...

Identifying Opportunities for Investment in Black-Owned Businesses

Leveraging insights produced during the development of the Racial Wealth Equity Database, and with the generous support from Google.org, DataKind and the Black Wealth Data ...

DataKind SF + Starting With Today: Capturing community impact through optimized survey assessments

By DataKind San Francisco DataKind San Francisco partnered with Starting with Today on a data advisory project to streamline how they measure the economic and ...

DataKind’s 2024 Global Volunteer Summit: Supporting our strong and diverse community, united by data science

In January, DataKind held our annual Global Volunteer Summit, a virtual gathering offered to DataKind volunteers around the world to connect with DataKind staff, hear ...

DataKind’s Humanitarian Insights Data Platform: New Code-Based Solutions & A Call to Action

Each year, more people are experiencing humanitarian crises. According to UN-OCHA’s Global Humanitarian Overview for 2023, nearly 350 million people around the world are currently ...

Volunteer Spotlight: Ratri Maria

Meet Ratri! She’s the founder of ChangeMakr Asia and DataKind Singapore Chapter Leader. Originally from Indonesia, Ratri has been living in Singapore for 15 years, ...

Advancing Work in Financial Inclusion: DataKind Introduces Six New Projects

We’re thrilled to share that we launched an impact cohort of six financial inclusion-focused projects. With new support from the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth ...

At Davos, DataKind and World Leaders Talk Technology Innovations for Improved Vaccination Rates

Yesterday, DataKind CEO, Lauren Woodman, attended a side event with GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, during the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on ...

DataKind 2023 Year in Review

In the 11 years since DataKind’s founding, we have been tackling the world’s biggest challenges with AI. In 2023, thanks to new and continuing support ...

Welcome Yash Singh, DataKind’s Product Owner

Meet the newest member of the team. Join us in celebrating Yash Singh as one of DataKind’s Product Owners! Yash brings his expertise in technology ...

Assessing Climate Risk with Data Science: DataKind Offers New Insights for Local and Global Mitigation

In September, DataKind held a three-day virtual DataDive® event in partnership with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Hundreds of volunteer data scientists dug into data ...

Welcome Chris Chenet, DataKind’s Product Owner

We’re thrilled to introduce you to one of the newest members of our team. Shout out to Chris Chenet as one of DataKind’s Product Owners! ...

Inclusive Innovation Community-Building in Central Florida

Aligning the region’s fragmented social sector ecosystem around data by “breaking down silos” and “connecting the final dots”. On a recent Friday evening, Mark Brewer and ...

Defining Data Equity is the First Step to Making it Happen: DataKind Co-Chairs Global Future Council on Data Equity at World Economic Forum Meeting in Dubai

(Image: DataKind CEO Lauren Woodman (far right) speaks at the closing plenary with moderator Saadia Zahidi, and panelists Reshma Saujani, Omar Sultan Al Olama, Nili ...

Extending the Boundaries of Economic Opportunity: DataKind Advances Work in Financial Inclusion

With support from the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, DataKind is advancing work in economic opportunity with a focus on financial inclusion. Worldwide, approximately 1.7 ...

Introducing DataKind Learning Circles

Discuss AI use at your organization alongside other strategic social impact data leaders with support from DataKind Nonprofits and other social impact organizations are under ...

Partner Spotlight: CDFI Friendly America

Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) are mission-driven financial institutions that focus on creating economic opportunity for individuals, small businesses, and communities in the US. As ...

Innovating for Inclusion with Data Science and CDFIs

In the US, tens of millions of Americans are unbanked, meaning they have no formal checking or savings account, or underbanked, meaning they primarily use ...

Volunteer Spotlight: Robin Kiplangat

Meet Robin! He’s new to DataKind, volunteering for our recent DataDive® event in Nairobi. As a founder of a data company, he was looking for ...

DataKind Announces New Support from Google.org to Improve Economic Opportunity Using Data Science

With support from Google.org, DataKind will develop and scale four curated AI tools targeting higher education graduation rates, access to support services and benefits, and ...

DataKind Releases New Landscape Analysis of Inclusive Climate Finance

DataKind’s report highlights some consistently reported successful strategies in inclusive climate finance. One such strategy is targeting savings programs to women, giving them more resources ...

Tackling Big Questions on Climate and Gender: DataKind Partners with International Monetary Fund on Virtual DataDive Event

What types of structures within our built environment are most exposed to climate risks? How can we identify them and measure their financial and economic ...

Empowering Central Florida Through AI to Combat Food Insecurity

Food insecurity is an urgent and unyielding challenge, impacting millions of individuals and families, including those in Orlando. The JASKY Foundation, in collaboration with DataKind, is ...

Volunteer Spotlight: Sébastien Ouellet

Meet Sébastien! He's a GIS specialist and his contributions to DataKind go way back. From developing the route optimization tool with SOIL in Haiti, which eventually ...

DataKind Hosts First-Ever In-Person DataDive® Event in Nairobi

DataKind's first-ever in-person DataDive® event in Nairobi kicked off with a meet and greet event, hosted by Microsoft at their Nairobi office. At the event, ...

Data-Driven Solutions for Environmental Justice: DataKind Joins the Climate Resilience Peer Learning Network

In early 2023, DataKind joined the Open Data Institute, Microsoft, and five other social impact organizations for the Climate Resilience Peer Learning Network (CR-PLN). We ...

Collaborating with Data Science Community in East Africa: DataKind Hosts DataDive® Event in Nairobi

For more than a decade, we’ve partnered with mission-driven organizations around the world to advance data solutions into turnkey tools that are accessible and valuable ...

Volunteer Spotlight: Vijay Srikanth

Meet Vijay Srikanth! He has a master's degree in data science and machine learning and works on "all things data". He's been a DataKind volunteer ...

Predicting Well Groundwater Quality Using Cloud-Based Machine Learning: DataKind San Francisco Partners with Aquaya

By DataKind San Francisco Background Access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) is critical for healthy and humane living conditions. Two billion people lack ...

Volunteer Spotlight: Danning Chen

Meet Danning Chen! She was a data scientist and product manager for years in Silicon Valley and Hong Kong, and now she's taking a gap ...

Welcome John Harnisher, DataKind’s Head of Research

Let’s hear it for the newest member of the team. Join us in celebrating John Harnisher as DataKind’s Head of Research! John brings over 20 ...

Leveraging Data Science and AI to Address Climate Change and Energy Equity: Earth Day 2023

The Rockefeller Foundation, in partnership with DataKind, released two reports today: Data Science for Water Justice and US Energy Equity . As we approach the ...

GET Cities + DataKind Release Landmark Report on Equity in Tech

In partnership with DataKind, GET Cities launched Technologist Retention at the Intersections – a first of its kind report that focuses on issues of race, ...

Predicting Well Groundwater Quality Using Cloud-Based Machine Learning: DataKind San Francisco Partners with Aquaya

By DataKind San Francisco Background Access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) is critical for healthy and humane living conditions. Two billion people lack ...

Black Wealth Data Center + DataKind Launch First Prototype of New Investment Tool at NYC Open Data Week

Racial wealth equity will be more attainable when leaders create programs, policies, and strategies that are informed by data and take into account historical factors. ...

Volunteer Spotlight: Lorenzo Rubio

Image caption: Lorenzo Rubio is a data engineer in Madrid, Spain, and has been working with DataKind as a volunteer for the last several years. ...

Save the Children, DataKind, and Microsoft Partner for New Phase of Leveraging Data to Improve Humanitarian Response

Our collaboration with DataKind validated our vision, gave us a tool to field test, and generated momentum toward a data-first future. Because of our work ...

Doubling Down on Central Florida: DataKind Accelerates Social Sector Impact with Local Partners

“It’s crazy to ask the Central Florida community to fight today’s social sector challenges with yesterday’s tools.” ~Mark Brewer, CEO, Central Florida Foundation Central Florida ...

Welcome Naeha Vora, DataKind’s Senior Manager, Program Operations

Let’s give a warm welcome to the newest member of the team. Join us in celebrating Naeha Vora as DataKind’s Senior Manager, Program Operations! Naeha ...

DataKind DC + Starting With Today: Building Data Maturity for Community Empowerment

By DataKind DC Systemically underserved communities in the U.S. are disproportionately impacted by external stressors such as global pandemics, racism, and public policy decisions. Washington, ...

Volunteer Spotlight: Charlotte Ellison

How did you first become involved with DataKind? What was appealing to you about it? I went to a DataJam in the fall of 2020. ...

DataKind Digs into Generative AI: The Tech, Opportunities, and Risks for the Social Sector

Chat GPT’s release at the end of 2022 has, so far, been the dominating tech story of 2023. For many people outside the tech field, ...

Partner Spotlight: Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center

Back in 2007, more girls in Duval County, FL (population approximately 850,000) were being locked up than in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and Tampa combined. Girls ...

DataKind + Partners Address World Leaders at Davos as AI Takes Center Stage

The recent crises have had an uneven impact on the relationship between citizens and institutions, highlighting the need to address disparities that can’t be ignored. ...

Welcome Mignonne Fowlis, DataKind’s Senior Manager, Technical Projects

We’re delighted to welcome the newest member of the team. Join us in celebrating Mignonne Fowlis as DataKind’s Senior Manager, Technical Projects! Mignonne brings her ...

Looking to 2023: 10 Ways to Engage with DataKind in the New Year

Over the past 10 years, we’ve seen how technology has led to the creation of new digital data, gaining new insights and transforming almost every ...

2022 — The year superstar AI models stepped onto the stage

As we close out 2022, one can’t help but think this year has been a bit special for AI. Progress has been consistent since the ...

Increasing Food Security: Highlights from DataKind’s December DataDive Events

We’re still riding the wave of excitement from our DataDive ® events earlier this month all in the name of food security. Four projects, a ...

Honoring 10 Years with 10 Projects: A Decade of Global Impact

This year, we’re celebrating 10 years of successfully leveraging Data for Good—an idea that seemed novel a decade ago when data science was barely on ...

Advancing Racial Wealth Equity in the U.S.: DataKind Expands Partnership with Black Wealth Data Center

Black wealth data can unlock solutions to advance racial wealth equity, showing leaders where and how to invest to disrupt systemic inequities and generate sustained ...

Announcing DataKind’s Data Observation Toolkit as a Digital Public Good

We’re honored to share that DataKind’s Data Observation Toolkit (DOT) has been recognized as a Digital Public Good and added to the Digital Public Goods ...

Welcome Matthew Harris, DataKind’s Head of Data Science

We’re thrilled to introduce you to one of the newest members of our team. Shout out to Matt Harris as DataKind’s Head of Data Science! ...

Building Confidence in Community Health Systems: DataKind’s Data Observation Toolkit (DOT)

By: Mitali Ayyangar, Matthew Harris, Caitlin Augustin, and Ivy Wang Background Data is revolutionizing how people access health services. For community-based care providers, the ability ...

Funder Spotlight: Hillary Ashton, Chief Product Officer, Teradata

As we celebrate our 10 Year Anniversary , this year also marks another major milestone, our decade-long partnership with Teradata. Teradata Cares, and their focus ...

Optimizing Data Pipeline Platforms: DataKind San Francisco Partners with Grameen America

By DataKind San Francisco Background How can data infrastructure be optimized to help support the financial empowerment of women? Currently, only four percent of all ...

Improving College Student Success: DataKind’s Continued Work in Post-Secondary Education

By John Harnisher, PhD, Advisor, DataKind Education DataKind has engaged in two fascinating projects which propose solutions linked to student guidance and help to answer ...

Partner Spotlight: Accountability Counsel

We’re continuing to honor our 10 Year Anniversary and the Power of Partnerships, reflecting on our project with Accountability Counsel (a Teradata Cares-funded project), and ...

The Power of Movement Building: DataKind’s Global Volunteer Summit

DataKind recently brought together more than 100 data science volunteers from over 20 different countries, from Brazil, India, Singapore, and more, for our annual Global ...

Harnessing the Power of Data to Advance Racial Wealth Equity with Black Wealth Data Center

The wealth gap between Black and White Americans, an important measure of inequality, has been worsening since the 80s. After the rapid wealth concentration we ...

Let’s Help Children Facing the Global Food Crisis

by Rich Carder, DataKind DC Chapter Co-Leader and Data Strategy & Analytics Officer at the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund Global food insecurity is sharply on the ...

The Global Food Crisis: DataKind Sets Focus for Our 10 Year Anniversary + Beyond

by Lauren Woodman, CEO, DataKind As DataKind marks a major milestone—our 10th Anniversary—I’m wondering if our past ten years of Data Science and AI for ...

The Power of a Decade: Celebrating DataKind’s 10 Year Anniversary

like Tech with Tim, Ben Awad, and Fireship.io (all educational!). Join us in advancing the use of data science to support causes that can help ...

A Better Future for Economic Resilience

Helping communities mitigate financial shocks With inflation now running at a 40-year high (+7.9%) and gas prices up over 50% since this time last year, ...

Advancing Economic Empowerment in Communities Across the U.S.: DataKind Launches Seven New Projects

We’re excited to announce that DataKind has launched a cohort of seven U.S.-based, economic empowerment-focused DataCorps ® projects! This cohort of projects is part of ...

Helping Students Graduate: DataKind Presents Work in Post-Secondary Education

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Predicting Poverty Using Satellite Imagery: DataKind San Francisco Shares Key Learnings

Background Access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) is critical for healthy and humane living conditions. Clean water and sanitation improves health and supports ...

Understanding Equity in Local Governments: DataKind San Francisco Partners with the City of San José

By DataKind San Francisco How can we better understand equity in local governments and the resources they provide to our communities? The City of San ...

Celebrating Our Global Volunteer Community: The Power of Movement Building

By Shanna Lee, Director, Global Volunteers, DataKind As Global Volunteer Month approaches its end, we thank our global volunteer community past and present for your ...

Talking Ethics in the DataKind Playbook: Highlights from our Lunch + Learn

At DataKind, we take an expansive definition of data ethics and responsible data science as broad terms that can be used to describe the appropriate ...

Catalyzing the Revitalization of Underserved Communities by Predicting the Cost of Environmental Cleanup

During the high-energy, three-day marathon-style DataDive® event that took place March 4-7, 2021, volunteers on this project set out to do the following:

Using Time Series Forecasting to Improve Access to Safe Sanitation

More accurately forecast future waste volume collected across Sanergy's FLT network.

Identifying Food Bank Dependency Early

Build a machine learning model to predict which of The Welcome Centre’s clients are likely to become dependent on the food bank’s food and other ...

Using Data to Create Paths out of Homelessness

Understand who benefits from Llamau’s services so that the organization can better support the young homeless and vulnerable populations they serve. Identify projects and locations ...

Creating Safer Streets Through Data Science

Partner with New York, Seattle, New Orleans, and Microsoft to explore how data science can help the Vision Zero movement, which aims to reduce traffic-related ...

Advancing Financial Inclusion in Senegal Using Predictive Modeling

Using Microcred’s loan application data and internal loan status information, build statistical models to help predict customer default and better inform decision making about lending ...

Using Open Data to Uncover Potential Corruption

Gain basic insights about what newly released data shows about UK companies Uncover flaws in the data to improve future data collection efforts See whether the ...

De-siloing Data to Help Improve the Lives of those Suffering from Mental Illness

Develop and provide Thresholds with a data warehouse to house, scale and process raw data from various sources including Thresholds internal systems, the Illinois Department ...

Empowering Health Worker and Community Health Systems: Data Integrity and the Future of Intelligent Community Health Systems in Uganda

Data Integrity and the Future of Intelligent Community Health Systems in Uganda One billion people lack access to healthcare because they live too far from ...

The Importance of Installing Checkpoints Throughout a Project to Maintain Data Ethics Standards

By Afua Bruce, Chief Program Officer, DataKind This is the second blog post in our ethics blog series. Read about how DataKind defines data ethics ...

Our Ethics + Responsible Data Science Practices at DataKind

By Rachel Wells, Senior Manager, Center of Excellence, DataKind At DataKind, we take an expansive definition of data ethics and responsible data science as broad ...

2022 Hopes + Predictions for Data Science + AI for Good

Lessons from DataKind San Francisco’s Launch of DataAdvisory Projects

By DataKind San Francisco From financial forecasting to targeted advertisements, advancements in data collection and analysis have benefited a myriad of for-profit organizations today. Unfortunately, ...

Shining a Light on Community: Looking Back at DataKind’s Virtual DataDive® Event

We hosted a DataDive ® event in fall 2021, and with it being the season of giving, we thought what better time to share some ...

Welcome Rachel Ford, DataKind’s Project Manager

We’re excited to introduce you to Rachel Ford , DataKind’s Project Manager for our project work with Google.org! Rachel brings her experience in grant project ...

DataKind Launches New Cohort of Projects to Advance Economic Empowerment with $1.1M in Support from Google.org

We’re thrilled to announce that DataKind has yet again received support from Google.org to apply data science and AI for good! As a longtime supporter ...

Reintroducing DataKind Bengaluru

At DataKind, we strive every day to ensure we’re living our values. In an effort to continue to live up to our values of equity ...

Welcome Raina Han, DataKind’s Senior Director, Development

We’re delighted to welcome the newest member of the team. Join us in celebrating Raina Han as DataKind’s Senior Director, Development! Raina comes to DataKind ...

Co-Creating to Codifying Processes Across a Global Network of Volunteers: How We Built DataKind’s Playbook

By Rachel Wells, Senior Manager, Center of Excellence, DataKind Last week, we announced the public release of DataKind’s Playbook and hope you’ve had a chance ...

Introducing the DataKind Playbook

By Rachel Wells, Senior Manager, Center of Excellence, DataKind Have you ever wanted a behind-the-scenes look at how we work at DataKind? Interested in learning ...

Celebrating A Decade of Partnership: Teradata Will Match Your Gifts Up to $25,000!

Next year DataKind will celebrate our 10-year anniversary, and we couldn’t be more excited to share what the DataKind community has accomplished in that time ...

Charting the Next Five Years of Colandr: DataKind Kicks Off with Hacktoberfest

In late 2015, DataKind scoped a DataCorps® project with an ambitious challenge: help a team of researchers with the Science for Nature and People Partnership ...

DataKind Tools Help Tell the Story of Housing Loss in the Sun Belt

The onslaught of COVID-19 and the subsequent economic recession has left many without a plan to cover the costs of housing. Recently, the federal moratorium ...

Providing Tuberculosis Treatment to the Poorest & Most Underserved Communities: Operation ASHA

Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading infectious cause of death worldwide. Often referred to as the “forgotten pandemic” it’s a disease found in every country in ...

Celebrating DataKind’s CEO: An Interview with Lauren Woodman

We’re thrilled to welcome Lauren Woodman as the new CEO of DataKind. She brings to the role over 25 years of experience working at the ...

Welcome Lauren Woodman, DataKind’s CEO

We’re thrilled to introduce Lauren Woodman as our new CEO! Lauren’s notable career has been defined by the intersection of technology, development, and policy. She’ll ...

Ethics in Algorithms: Highlights from Cathy O’Neil’s Keynote at the Volunteer Summit

Data ethics are essential for delivering responsible data science, machine learning, and AI projects. However, as a growing field, they’re hotly debated, and many - ...

Shining a Light on Community: DataKind Hosts Virtual DataDive®️ Event

Across the U.S. and around the world, cities and communities are responsible for addressing the everyday needs of their residents. From providing critical safety net ...

Volunteer Spotlight: Dona Stewart

Meet Dona Stewart ! Dona was the Data Ambassador in our first project with the Future of Land and Housing (FLH) Program at New America, ...

Lessons from a year of discovery in the economic resilience and well-being of communities around the world

Background & Context From facing an unexpected bill to losing your job, to being repeatedly refused loans to start your own business, economic shocks can ...

Gathering Our Global Community: Volunteer Summit 2021

DataKind recently brought together over one hundred of our volunteers virtually from fourteen different countries, from Brazil to South Africa, for a first-of-its-kind Volunteer Summit. ...

Welcome Sophia Harms, DataKind’s Manager, Technology

We’re thrilled to have our newest member of the team with us. Shout out to Sophia Harms as DataKind’s Manager, Technology! Sophia comes to DataKind ...

Volunteer Spotlight: Matt Harris

Meet Matt Harris ! He’s a superstar that’s held many volunteer roles here at DataKind. More recently, he has been working with Jacaranda Health, one ...

Celebrating Nine Years of DataKind

Last month, we celebrated nearly a decade of harnessing the power of data science and AI in the service of humanity. It seems like just ...

Welcome Nelsa Peña, DataKind’s Senior Manager, Human Resources

We’re celebrating the newest member of our team. Join us in welcoming Nelsa Peña as DataKind’s Senior Manager, Human Resources! Nelsa comes to DataKind with ...

Volunteer Spotlight: Manojit Nandi

Say hello to Manojit Nandi ! As a Data Expert, he recently worked on a project with Medic , our longstanding partner under our Frontline ...

Creating Data Science Solutions to Serve the Good of Many: Highlights from DataKind’s Discovery Day

By Mallory Sheff, Portfolio Manager, Economic Resilience Impact Practice, DataKind The divide between the advanced and developing world continues to deepen, with inequalities in economic ...

Welcome Shiny Chu, DataKind’s Associate, Operations

We’re absolutely delighted to welcome Shiny Chu to the team. She’s joining us as DataKind’s Associate, Operations! Shiny’s always been passionate about working in the ...

Welcome Caroline Charrow, DataKind’s Senior Manager, Network

We’re thrilled to welcome yet another stellar member to the DataKind team. Please join us in celebrating Caroline Charrow as DataKind’s Senior Manager, Network! Caroline ...

How Data Empowers Health Workers—and Powers Health Systems

Note: This article originally appeared on Johnson & Johnson 's Center for Health Worker Innovation website . They've granted us permission to repost. A recent ...

Optimizing Access to Healthcare Services: Riders for Health

A lack of access to appropriate, affordable, and reliable motorized transport prevents millions of people from accessing healthcare services. Riders for Health (Riders) have created ...

Volunteer Spotlight: Dr. Kelson Shilling-Scrivo

Meet Kelson Shilling-Scrivo! He’s a volunteer with DataKind DC and recently worked with the Red Cross to create a national fire risk score . As ...

Volunteer Spotlight: Priyanka Kalmane

Let us introduce you to Priyanka Kalmane ! She started off as a volunteer with DataKind DC, but after returning to India, is now a ...

Celebrating Our Volunteers During National Volunteer Week & Global Volunteer Month

By Shanna Lee, Director, Global Volunteers, DataKind Time is a moment that occurs only once. People share their time in different ways with family, friends, ...

Introducing DataKind’s 2021 Scoping Squad

Benjamin Kinsella, Technical Project Manager & Rachel Wells, Senior Manager, Center of Excellence DataKind is on a mission to harness the power of data science ...

DataKind & data.org Share Learnings from the Inclusive Growth & Recovery Challenge

By Jackson Thomas, Project Manager, DataKind In early 2020, as part of its commitment to building the field of Data Science for Social Impact, data.org ...

Powering Public Data for Communities: Highlights from Virtual DataDive®️ Report Back

We recently hosted our DataDive Report Back, keeping with the theme of Trust, Transparency, Togetherness: Powering Public Data for Communities , and we’re honored and ...

Reducing Maternal & Child Mortality: Lwala Community Alliance

Approximately six out of every 10 countries lack adequate systems for counting births and deaths. Every misclassified or unrecorded [maternal or neonatal] death is a ...

Volunteer Spotlight: Kelsey Meagher

Say hello to Kelsey Meagher! She’s a volunteer with DataKind San Francisco and a Data Ambassador on a project with TechnoServe , an international nonprofit ...

NYC Open Data Week 2021: DataKind Hosts Sessions on Community Healthcare, Data Ethics, & Project Scoping

At DataKind, we love NYC Open Data Week ! It’s a unique opportunity for us to reconnect with our community, partners, and friends. And given ...

Welcoming Elizabeth Grossman as DataKind’s Board Chair

At DataKind, 2021 represents a new chapter – one of growth and an infusion of new leadership to our movement. As our stellar COO, Russatta ...

Volunteer Spotlight: Rachelle Kresch

Say hello to Rachelle Kresch! She was the Project Manager on our risk modeling project with Medic , one of our expert partners under our ...

Powering Public Data for Communities: Highlights from Virtual DataDive®️ Event

With the theme of Trust, Transparency, Togetherness: Powering Public Data for Communities, more than 700 people representing 31 countries registered to attend the high-energy, marathon-style, ...

Why Data for Good? Findings from our Volunteer Survey

This blog is part of DataKind’s Center of Excellence blog series, as we lead the efforts of ensuring that the findings of the survey are ...

Improving Environmental Sensor Data Monitoring by Detecting Anomalies

By DataKind San Francisco After the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami devastated eastern Japan and caused the subsequent Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown in 2011, the public ...

Powering Public Data for Communities: DataKind Hosts Virtual DataDive® Event

Across the U.S. and around the world, cities and local communities are responsible for addressing the everyday needs of their residents. From providing critical healthcare ...

Uncovering Inequalities & Fraud in COVID-19 Stimulus Spending: National Press Foundation & DataKind DC

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and related pandemic spending represent the biggest bailouts in U.S. history - Congress approved nearly $4 ...

Celebrating Russatta Buford as DataKind’s Interim Executive Director

As we celebrate a new year with new leadership, let’s first reflect on the many ways that 2020 was a year like no other. COVID-19 ...

Volunteer Spotlight: Pratik Sachdeva

Meet Pratik Sachdeva. He was a Data Expert on our Risk Modeling project with Medic Mobile , one of our expert partners under our Frontline ...

Welcome Phil Azar, DataKind’s New Technical Lead

We’re honored to welcome Phil Azar as the newest member of our team.

Welcome Emily Yelverton, DataKind’s Technical Lead

We’re excited to have longtime volunteer Emily Yelverton onboard as our newest Technical Lead.

Volunteer Spotlight: Lili Tang

We’re excited to introduce you to Lili Tang , a volunteer Data Expert who worked on our Data Integrity project with Medic Mobile, one of ...

Data Science for Good Project Scoping: Identifying Your Data-Scienceable Problem

As part of our COE blog series on project processes and best practices at DataKind, we’re excited to share this introduction to scoping.

Passing the Torch

By Jake Porway, Co-Founder & Executive Director, DataKind *This article was originally posted on October 7, 2020 but has been reposted with updates. Well, it’s ...

Empowering Communities, Serving Humanity: DataKind x Teradata Host NYC Virtual Community Event

In the spirit of staying connected, we held a virtual event powered by Teradata to celebrate what the Data for Good community has done to ...

In the Spirit of Continuous Improvement: Revisiting the American Red Cross Fire Risk Map

What happens when the original data begins to get a bit stale and as new insights are learned? DataKind DC and the American Red Cross ...

Volunteer Spotlight: Nick Hamlin

Nick Hamlin lives to make social good data accessible, understandable, and actionable for everyone. As GlobalGiving ’s first Data Scientist, Nick wears many hats, including ...

Get Back on the Road: How Riders for Health Intends to Use Computer Vision to Digitize Health Forms

Riders wanted to explore ways to ease their couriers’ burdens while speeding up the process of digitizing the data from handwritten forms - ideally in ...

Displaced in America: Data-Driven Insights into the State of the Housing Crisis across the United States with Future of Property Rights

Housing insecurity is a looming crisis in the United States: nearly 5 million Americans lose their homes through eviction and foreclosure. The onslaught of COVID-19 ...

Detecting Buildings From Drone Imagery For Disaster Response with WeRobotics

WeRobotics is a nonprofit organization dedicated to scaling and accelerating the positive impact of humanitarian, environmental, and public health projects by localizing appropriate robotics solutions ...

Volunteer Spotlight: Alexander Sack

Alexander Sack started his career working on operating systems and system programming, but it was his love for gradient descent that led him on the ...

Engineering Scalable Data Quality Assessments for Frontline Health with Medic Mobile

Without trust in community-collected health data, how can leaders confidently invest in frontline health systems, make informed decisions about public health policy, and grasp opportunities ...

Help shape the next wave of the ‘Data for Good’ Community!

DataKind is conducting a global survey to better understand the Data for Good (D4G) Community.

Introducing DataKind’s Center of Excellence

As part of expanding our work into the next chapter , DataKind is thrilled to announce the launch of our new Center of Excellence: A ...

Welcome Shanna Lee, DataKind’s Director, Global Volunteers

DataKind’s data scientist volunteers are the engine of what we do, applying their expertise to assist high-impact, mission-driven organizations tackle the world’s biggest challenges.

Volunteer Spotlight: Melinda Gomez Tellez

We’re thrilled to introduce you to Melinda Gomez Tellez , a volunteer Data Expert who worked on our Data Integrity project with Medic Mobile , ...

Welcome Cherie Austin, DataKind’s Senior Manager, Human Resources

We’re incredibly excited to announce that Cherie Austin has joined us as DataKind’s Senior Manager, Human Resources! As a member of the Operations Team, Cherie ...

Strengthening Frontline Health Systems with Data Science & AI: Updates From Our First Cohort of Projects

By Mitali Ayyangar, Portfolio Manager, Frontline Health Systems, DataKind Frontline health workers (FHWs), and a subset known as community health workers (CHWs), have made tremendous ...

DataKind Partners with data.org on $10M Inclusive Growth & Recovery Challenge

DataKind is thrilled to partner with data.org on the $10 Million Inclusive Growth and Recovery Challenge ! Launched in partnership with the Mastercard Center for ...

Digital Health 2.0: Getting Tools & Services to People Who Need Them Most

Note: This article originally appeared on the Frontline Health Workers Coalition website . They've granted us permission to repost. By Asif Akram, Living Goods | ...

Welcome Sasha Neha Ahuja, DataKind’s Chief of Staff

At DataKind, we are pursuing an ambitious new strategy to accomplish Impact Practices, a new model for systems change with data science. To do that, ...

Tracking Patients Across Years With Record Linkage

The header image above courtesy of Muso. By DataKind San Francisco About Muso Muso is an NGO with a mission to eliminate preventable deaths rooted ...

Welcome Jackson Thomas, DataKind’s Project Manager

With the recent launch of data.org’s Inclusive Growth & Recovery Challenge , we’re working hard to design and execute key aspects of the program. As ...

Volunteer Spotlight: Saket Hegde

Our volunteers are the lifeblood of our mission. They’ve inspired people to use their skills in ways they never dreamed of. They’ve slayed misconceptions. They’ve ...

Unlocking Hidden Insights in the Social Sector with Natural Language Processing

By Benjamin Kinsella, Technical Project Manager, DataKind Written texts are everywhere, from documents and notes to surveys and forms. While every organization has access to ...

Today & Everyday, Black Lives Matter

Like so many of you, we’re deeply shaken by the deaths of Breonna Taylor, an EMT who was shot in her home in Louisville, Kentucky; ...

Welcome Larry Kilroy, DataKind’s Director, Technology

We’re thrilled to introduce you to the newest member of our team, Larry Kilroy, DataKind’s new Director, Technology! A technical strategist with deep experience in ...

Welcome Mallory Sheff, DataKind’s Next Portfolio Manager

We’re incredibly excited to announce that Mallory Sheff has joined us as DataKind’s Portfolio Manager. As a member of the Product Team, Mallory will oversee ...

Welcome Gwen Hopkins, DataKind’s Director, Operations

We’re beyond grateful to welcome yet another stellar member to the DataKind team. Please join us in celebrating Gwen Hopkins as DataKind’s new Director, Operations. ...

Celebrating our volunteers (remotely!)

By Nicole Holgate, Communications Officer, DataKind UK I began my new role as Communications Officer at DataKind UK in the middle of February. One of ...

Celebrating National Volunteer Week 2020 at DataKind San Francisco

By DataKind San Francisco DataKind San Francisco has a lot to celebrate. Over the past year, we’ve partnered with six nonprofit organizations to augment their ...

A DataKind UK First — A Virtual DataDive

By Suzy East, Project Manager, DataKind UK Around the beginning of March, with four weeks to go until our Spring DataDive, Coronavirus was not the ...

Advancing Alcohol Behavior Change with Data Science

Background Hello Sunday Morning (HSM) is an Australian-based nonprofit that has grown to be the largest online movement for alcohol behavior change. The organization aims ...

Responding to COVID-19, A Letter to Our Community

Dear DataKind Community, Like all of you, we’re grappling with the rapidly changing COVID-19 situation. What may have appeared as a temporary disruption to our ...

DataKind’s Response to COVID-19

Dear DataKind Community, Like all of you, we’re grappling with the rapidly changing COVID-19 situation. What may have appeared as a temporary disruption to our ...

Welcome Rachel Wells, DataKind’s Senior Manager, Center of Excellence

We’ve been eagerly waiting to share the news of our latest addition to the team, and we’re thrilled to finally introduce you to Rachel Wells ...

Welcome Asnat Ghebremedhin, DataKind’s Associate, Business Development

At DataKind, we’re fortunate enough to welcome not only one new member of the team this week, but two new members of the team. And ...

Welcome Jenn Chowdhury, DataKind’s Manager, Communications

We’re delighted to share with you the newest member of the team, Jenn Chowdhury , DataKind’s Manager, Communications. Born in Dhaka and raised in Brooklyn, ...

Beyond Hype & Innovation: AI for Social Good

Note: This article originally appeared on Partnership on AI's website . They've granted us permission to repost. By Lale Tekisalp As the AI community continues ...

Analyzing Unregistered User Activity to Better Understand Readers

By DataKind San Francisco Worldreader is a global nonprofit making digital reading accessible in underserved communities. Their unique impact model involves partnering with publishing companies, ...

DataKind’s Three Hopes for AI in 2020

By Jake Porway, Founder & Executive Director, DataKind Hello DataKind friends to the most sci-fi of all years, 2020! Last year, we saw AI continue ...

Welcome Afua Bruce, DataKind’s Chief Program Officer

We’re incredibly excited to announce that Afua Bruce has joined us as DataKind’s Chief Program Officer! As a member of the Executive Team, Afua will ...

Advancing the Capacity of the Civic Ecosystem to Apply AI to Cities: DataKind & Microsoft Share Learnings from AI Accelerator

Artificial intelligence (AI), when designed and used responsibly, can help tackle big societal challenges and bring benefits to cities and communities in areas such as ...