[open-development] Announcing PoweredbyData, a non-profit initiative by Ajah to increase the supply of open data about the non-profit sector

Tue Apr 15 17:57:15 UTC 2014

Hi all,

I sent a brief note about what we were working on before, but here's our
official launch notice. As I mentioned in my last email, we're going to
primarily be addressing non-profit data needs in domestic contexts.

http://poweredbydata.org/poweredbydata-officially-launches/

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Montreal, April 8, 2014 – Ajah announced today the launch of a non-profit
initiative called PoweredbyData. With the goal of improving the functioning
of the philanthropic funders and nonprofits by increasing the availability
of useful data, the initiative is led and advised by experts in the domains
of open data, standards development, and grant-making from across Canada,
the USA, and the UK. This initiative responds to the need for better
information in the non-profit sector.

Hilary Pearson, President of Philanthropic Foundations Canada (PFC),
explains “Canadian foundations are looking for initiatives with impact,
non-profits face the challenge of communicating their work more
effectively, and governments are seeking evidence of effectiveness on the
ground in order to support innovation in service delivery. The foundation
sector is looking forward to the contribution of PoweredbyData to our
understanding of philanthropic data, including better measures of impact.”

PoweredbyData will work predominantly with funders and government
regulators to increase the supply of standard, interoperable, and open data
about the sector and its impacts. “In creating our commercial services, we
developed an expertise in transforming previously unused public data into
innovative and useful tools for funders and fundraisers. Now, we’re looking
forward to applying that expertise to the rest of the sector in areas with
the potential for tremendous social impact, but no commercial
opportunities, such as developing new standards and educating stakeholders
to publish open data” explains Michael Lenczner, CEO of Ajah.

Recognized philanthropy and data expert, as well as author of the
influential annual forecast Blueprint, Lucy Bernholz, adds, “In the United
States, we are working to get access to the data that is currently
available in Canada, and other countries are even farther behind. More and
better data is essential to improve the functioning of the non-profit
sector and I’m excited for PoweredbyData to bring those practices to the
rest of the world.”

www.poweredbydata.org

@pwrd_by_data <https://twitter.com/pwrd_by_data>

About Ajah

Launched in 2010, Ajah is a Montreal-based company providing leading edge
online services to the non-profit sector. Their flagship product,
Fundtracker, transforms open and public data into actionable intelligence
for fundraisers.
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