Giving Compass' Take:

· Writing for Think NPC, Rosario Piazza explains how organizations can harness the data revolution and use it to build transparency and social good.

· How are you using data to inform your philanthropy?

· Here's more on this topic and using data for social good.

The Great Hack, Netflix’s revelatory documentary on Cambridge Analytica, paints a dystopian picture of a world in which our personal data is weaponised to win cultural and political wars.

Data permeates pretty much everything we do nowadays. It’s in the smart devices we carry, the tap-payments we make on the go, and the digital platforms we use to check credit scores, health records, book holidays and access services.

Our data-identities walk alongside our real selves. But legitimate privacy concerns shouldn’t blind us to the benefits of smart technologies designed to make life better.

Our daily decisions feed on a store of information bigger and more accessible than ever before. This brings a wealth of opportunities for charities and funders to use data for social good. The social sector has the power to turn the data revolution happening all around us into a cultural and systemic shift of such magnitude that it could change service provision fundamentally.

By harnessing the power of data, we can lay the foundations for effective, transparent, collaborative practices, and we can share learning about the impact of individual and collective charitable work. Moreover, data has the true power to turn beneficiaries from mere recipients of change into effective agents of change, as long as the opportunity is given.

Read the full article about harnessing data for social good by Rosario Piazza at Think NPC.