Ideas for more open data from civil society

In the best-case scenario, a diverse data ecosystem is supported by a range of civil society stakeholders. That allows it to serve as a catalyst for social change while increasing transparency, social innovation and democratic participation.

In its exploratory project Open Data and Civil Society, the Bertelsmann Stiftung has organized several workshops and multiple discussions with civil society stakeholders since 2022 to examine the potential that open data from civil society has to offer. The new discussion paper Open data for all: The role of civil society in Germany (bertelsmann-stiftung.de) summarizes the findings from these activities.  

When it comes to publishing data from and for civil society, ensuring legitimacy and transparency for funders, the media and society at large plays a key role. In a Bertelsmann Stiftung survey of non-profit organizations, when asked “What do you associate with open data?” 85 percent of the respondents answered “strengthening transparency.”  

Various opportunities arise for organizations that publish their data openly. When mindsets shift, leading to a more open culture of data use and, with it, organizational change, new ways of engaging with data become possible. Resources can be used more efficiently, thanks to data pooling with other civil society organizations. Exchanging data becomes easier as a greater focus is put on cooperating with external stakeholders. And when the picture we have of society is based not only on public-sector data, but also on data from civil society organizations, the resulting image is more complete.

Making data openly available, however, also represents a structural challenge, one that generally requires improving internal data and IT infrastructures and creating interfaces with external systems. In-house data silos must also be dismantled and the quality of the organization’s data holdings must be examined in greater detail. 

The idea of open data in civil society is not new. Major undertakings like Wikidata and Open Street Maps, not to mention numerous citizen science projects, make data publicly available on a large scale. Yet what has been missing on a large scale is data from foundations, charitable associations and many other civil society organizations big and small. Making datasets from projects and programs openly available is still a novelty for many organizations.  

The Bertelsmann Stiftung already makes some of its data accessible as open data and would like to significantly expand its activities in this area in the coming year. We also want to pave the way for an open data ecosystem in civil society. We have identified five building blocks for achieving this goal:

Building Block 1: An open data portal for civil society

Building Block 2: Funding

Building Block 3: Capacity building

Building Block 4: Data provision and use

Building Block 5: Knowledge transfer and networking

Over the next few months, we at the Bertelsmann Stiftung will continue our efforts to grow a data ecosystem that benefits everyone. We want to do this together with many different partners from civil society – from within our network and beyond – who are also committed to opening up and making better use of data.

Would you like to contribute your expertise on (open) data to our initiative? Do you work at a funding organization that can provide micro-grants to smaller non-profits that want to make their data openly available? Do you work at an organization that could contribute its own human or financial resources to creating the kind of data ecosystem described above? Or do you work at an organization that would like to publish open data itself and could imagine participating in events in which civil society stakeholders work together to unlock even more potential from their existing data? Then we would be delighted to hear from you! To get in touch, simply click on one of the contacts at the beginning of this article.