Origins and Overview
In 2019, the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and the Rockefeller Foundation launched a collaborative effort to support non-profit, civic, and government organizations in building capacity to use data science to address societal challenges and create a more just, equitable world. This is where the Data for Social (DSI) initiative at Washington University in St. Louis got its start.
DSI has evolved significantly over time. One initial vision was for DSI to support senior and executive level social sector leaders in navigating rapidly emerging AI technology and opportunities. However, a resources scan and series of interviews with local and national social sector leaders led to a significant shift in focus.
These early conversations suggested that while there was some interest in AI, the social sector has the greatest need and interest in growing capacity in equitable and community-centered data practices. Conversations centered how organizations can use data to tackle long-standing racial inequities, which had been highlighted after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 and gained a renewed sense of urgency during the Covid-19 pandemic and racial justice protests in 2020.
Feedback from these discussions showed that building broad capacity for equitable data practices was a higher social sector priority than focusing on specific data science tools or techniques. Equitable approaches to AI and other new technologies could build on this foundation, but were not the starting point.
It was also suggested that people at all levels and roles within the organization should be active participants in thinking critically about data and equity. Doing this would require communication across roles as well as strategies for engaging those who are served by social impact organizations.
Based on this feedback, the DSI initiative shifted its focus to cultivating equitable, community-centered data practices. This was the first in a series of critical pivot points in our approach, based on feedback we have received from participants over the course of the initiative. These can be summarized as shifts:
The evolution of the DSI initiative happened gradually over three phases, described in more detail below.
Phase 1 focused on building connections with a range of social impact organizations while building shared values and vision for the initiative. The St. Louis Regional Data Alliance (RDA) became a key partner based on their ongoing work in the region focused on building shared data infrastructure to improve people’s lives. The RDA and national partners at data.org supported the convening of a twelve-member Advisory Committee to guide DSI’s values, vision, and approach. For example, the advisory committee stressed the importance of centering community engagement and racial equity across all DSI offerings and activities, which became a cornerstone of the DSI approach.
The values and vision are summarized in the visual below.
In 2021, DSI identified initial focus areas for building data capacity in the social sector. A series of public roundtables gathered feedback from social sector representatives, drawing more than 200 participants representing over 100 organizations in the St. Louis region. This laid the groundwork for the development of the DSI curriculum.
With advisory committee guidance and roundtable input, the DSI focus areas solidified and formed the basis for a series of seven monthly online learning events. The series kickoff event, “We Are All Data People: An Equity-Centered Approach to Increasing Impact,” underscored the message that people from a wide range of roles should be participating in the conversation. The learning events provided space for attendees to share examples of how to work collaboratively and equitably with data. In addition to suggested strategies and tools, learning events highlighted models for working across organizations and sectors for collective impact. The learning event series attracted 1,668 total participants representing 377 unique organizations.
Post-event surveys revealed interest in more opportunities to learn from peers and for tools and resources to use with organizations and community partners. This evolved into the development of a self-paced online course including content from the learning events coupled with additional activities, discussion questions , and resources. The DSI course launched at the Data is for Everyone Summit in November of 2022, with broad dissemination efforts beginning in January 2023.
With the launch of the online course and participant feedback, the initiative was renamed from “Data Science for Social Impact” to embrace its evolving and emergent vision and values around the guiding principle that “data is for everyone.” In March 2023, the renamed initiative was announced and “Data for Social Impact” has since continued to advance in collaborative approaches to building social sector capacity for equitable data practice.
Despite the challenges of engaging a diverse audience with varying levels of data expertise, DSI has generated broad interest. While online courses can offer participants the opportunity to engage with materials at their own pace, asynchronous courses have notoriously low engagement and high dropout rates. To encourage participation, module reflections, digital credentials, and certificates of completion were added. This strategy worked: by August of 2024, participants had received 595 badges and 49 certificates of completion for the course with 12,710 total lessons completed.
At the same time, participants expressed growing interest in more opportunities to engage with peers in real time, both within and across organizations and sectors. This shaped the direction of phase 3 of the initiative.
Phase 3 (2024-2025) is focused on building community data capacity through learning cohorts and the establishment of a St. Louis community of practice. The Data for Social Impact St. Louis Community of Practice (DSI-STL) convenes people who work in and with the social sector to identify and solve common issues and share learning across organizations through learning events, networking, resource development, and a DSI-STL learning cohort.
The learning cohort model provides a space for participants to network and share examples of how they apply DSI themes and resources in their work. The first DSI Data Equity learning cohort launched in partnership with Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy in January 2024. The AISP cohort wrapped up in June 2024, attracting 149 registrants and 86 active participants. The DSI-STL cohort launched in April 2024 with 130 registrants and 81 active participants to date.
In addition to the establishment of DSI cohorts and other peer learning opportunities, Phase 3 is focused on tools for collaborative efforts across organizations and sectors. One such effort is a project to map the DSI ecosystem in St. Louis, which is being designed with input from community partners to understand and advance data equity in the region. Another effort centers around data drills–exercises designed to facilitate data collaboration across multiple organizations or agencies working to address a complex problem with data.
The evolution of the DSI initiative advances an approach that cultivates collaborative, equitable data practices across those working in and with government, philanthropy, non-profits, and impacted communities. This approach has been developed with feedback from social sector leaders from a wide range of roles.
Event participation and positive feedback from participant surveys suggest that the DSI approach continues to resonate. But what impact is DSI having across individuals, organizations, sectors, and systems? How do the tools and insights shared translate into organizations shifting their approach data and working toward equitable outcomes? These questions will guide and be a central focus in the next phase of the initiative.
Feedback from participants provides an opportunity to begin to understand how participants applying what they learn. Of DSI course evaluation respondents, 98% indicate they are likely to use course materials in their work and 98% indicate they are likely to share course resources with a colleague.
Module reflections are a particularly rich source of data on how DSI resources and ideas are being applied. “I have already shared the AISP data sharing and integration guidebook with my team,” one participant shared. “I have also talked with my team about the collective impact model.”
Another respondent shared that the resources from one of the modules helped to provide a protocol for a data walk they hosted with families and program staff.
“We are hosting a data walk with families and program staff this week to help us interpret data from a survey that was completed by families participating in one of our programs. The resources in this module helped provide a protocol and structure for this event.”
These are just a couple of examples of how participants are starting to incorporate DSI concepts and materials into their day-to-day work.
The next phase of DSI will build on these insights and expand efforts to capture and understand impact through with the development of case studies and a participatory research agenda. This will further facilitate peer learning and capacity building, and will start to provide a picture of how social sector organizations are implementing equitable data practices in order to increase impact for and with the communities they serve.