Public data that powers your work

Data Commons for Civil Society is a powerful tool that makes it easy for nonprofits, NGOs, and other civil society organizations to find and use public data, and to explore connections between data sets. Whether you’re trying to make a data-informed decision or understand your community better, you can find data that matters to you.

Tailor-made for civil society

Data Commons for Civil Society is powered by Google's Data Commons, and includes resources designed for organizations like yours, as well as additional data sets that reflect the issues most important to civil society. If you have datasets in mind that aren’t part of Data Commons, or you have a need that you wish you could meet using Data Commons, please take a moment to share your ideas. Your input will help us make Data Commons for Civil Society work better for you.

Flexibility and functionality for your organization

Using Data Commons, you have access to an enormous amount of data that you can finetune to fit what you need. What’s more, you can select data visualizations to tell your story in the way you need it told. Stay tuned for helpful tutorials and resources to get you started.

Exploring the issues that matter to you

We are currently learning from organizations like yours to highlight data that is most relevant to your work. Let us know which issue areas are most important to you. Here are some topics that we are working on:

Why is TechSoup committed to more public data?

Many of the big challenges the world faces require deep insights to solve. These insights will need to be firmly grounded in data. We believe that equipping local civil society actors with access to public data will empower them to make decisions and take calculated risks in order to best serve their communities. We also know that civil society holds rich local insights, and we are committed to helping civil society organizations share their knowledge with the world in a more inclusive way.

About this project

TechSoup, in partnership with Google's Data Commons team, and funded by Google.org, is making Data Commons information more accessible and useful to civil society. The scope of this effort includes a number of components:

• Training and support for civil society organizations using Data Commons
• Providing templates and examples to help organizations build compelling narratives
• Identifying and integrating new data sources relevant for nonprofits
• Contributing nonprofit data to Data Commons, completing the picture of communities

To learn more about TechSoup’s open data work with civil society or to get involved, please visit us at publicdata.techsoup.org.

About TechSoup

TechSoup leads a global network of civil society organizations to ensure that impact organizations everywhere can benefit from data, technology, and digital skills. To date, the TechSoup Global Network has connected more than 1.4 million organizations in 236 countries and territories with more than $21 billion in technology and financial resources. Our mission is to help civil society succeed in creating a more equitable world. Learn more about the TechSoup Global Network.

Support our work

Your support helps us get projects like this into the hands of grassroots organizations around the world. Donate to TechSoup today.