Data-Driven
Grant Making
Where data-driven innovation could drive impact throughout the grant making cycle
Our work suggests that there are four areas in need of innovation across the grant making cycle
Identifying shared questions and priorities
There is a need for new approaches in the way common questions and priorities are developed among communities, the public sector, and philanthropies.
Iteration and adaptive experimentation
There is a need for new methods and applications to encourage a culture of learning and experimentation.
Coordination and transparency
There is a need for new approaches to collecting information across the philanthropic sector to better coordinate investment decisions.
Impact assessments and accountability
There is a need to better understand how investment decisions are impacting the communities they intend to serve.
The responsible use of data-driven innovations have growing potential to drive impact across each of these areas. However, it is important to note that the use of data by itself cannot solve these issues. Data must be combined with lived experience and many other factors to drive innovation.
The responsible use of data and analytical methods can provide value in supporting philanthropies’ decision cycle in four ways
Backward Looking
Situation analysis
Descriptive
What happened?
Cause and effect
Diagnostic
Why did it happen?
Forward Looking
Forecasting
Predictive
What will happen?
Experimentation (What if?)
Prescriptive
What should happen?
Image from The GovLab.
Several data-driven methods are uniquely positioned to provide value throughout the grant making cycle
The data-driven methods available are constantly evolving. However, implementing these methods within the grant making cycle requires a platform that links communities of practice: DATA4Philanthropy.
More details about the background for this work can be found in our article, “Modernizing philanthropy for the 21st century,” published in Alliance Magazine.
Why data-driven grant making?
The responsible use of data and its associated methods and tools are providing growing potential to transform how grant making is done.
Specifically, data-driven grant making can:
Help philanthropies understand populations
Build increased transparency and accountability
Initiate evidence-based funding models
Develop new approaches for experimentation
Evaluate the impact of investments
Using data in the grant making cycle
There is no shortage of data-driven methods and tools available online. The challenge is determining which ones to use and for what purpose. Through our integrated grant making cycle map, we provide a list of emerging data-driven methods from the field and outline the philanthropic functions they could correspond with. Learn more by visiting the map.