The Critical Role Of Data In Solving Society's Biggest Problems
insideBIGDATA, Wednesday, January 31st, 2024
While it's easy to make the case for investing in efforts aimed at addressing some of society's most pressing issues - from poverty and homelessness to global warming - measuring the positive social impact of those investments has proven to be a complex problem for both the grant-making organizations and the non-profits in which those investments are being channeled.
Over the past few years, though, meaningful processes to define goals, collect and analyze data, and measure and communicate the impact of such investments have begun to be developed.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the value of these processes (known collectively as Impact Measurement and Management, or IMM) depends, to a large extent, on an organization's ability to effectively gather, analyze, and use impact data to drive systemic change, creating more sustainable organizations that are able to have an even greater impact on the societal problems they aim to solve.