As part of Columbus CEO’s Future 50, the class of 2020 honorees authored a series of articles on moonshot ideas. Sheri Chaney Jones, president and founder of Measurement Resources Company and SureImpact, Inc., along with other honorees, explored the unmined potential that access to ethical data could have on creating more equitable and prosperous communities. If public and private leaders were to prioritize strategic investment in a community-wide data sharing platform, the outcomes would lead to exponential social impact rooted in data-driven solutions that would also allow for predictive analytics.
Foundational Elements
But before we get carried away with the possibilities, let’s take a look at the foundational elements that would be required to effectively pull off the creation of such a tool. This community-wide resource would follow these best practices:
Be open by default—Invest in open data, transparency and data sharing for public benefit;
Make data-driven decisions—Use ethically sourced data to support all laws and policies that are passed;
Budget for the work—Devote resources to capture, clean, analyze, and report public-sector data;
Require impact measurement in investments—Reward social sector agencies for using data-driven, innovative strategies;
Integrate data for insights and innovation—Work collaboratively on a regional data exchange to achieve legally sourced data-sharing across multiple agencies and organizations; and
Commit to indicators—Share insights and implement continuous improvements practices.
The Future is Now with SureImpact
This concept is not just a pipe dream. Breakthrough social innovations are possible today, but only if leaders commit to an investment in data sharing and its strategic use. In fact, the underlying technologies that we use daily to order products online or request a driver are the exact same technologies that have the potential to solve our community’s greatest problems. SureImpact’s leaders' company vision is for every social-sector organization to have a clear connection between the day-to-day actions they perform and the social impact they achieve in their communities. Our data-collection and reporting platform already provides the technology infrastructure to connect the diverse social-sector organizations with data collection, data sharing, and impact reporting.
Are You Ready to Prove Your Social Return on Investment?
Check out our on-demand webinar, “Proving Your Social Return on Investment: How to communicate your unarguable value.” During this webinar, Sheri Chaney Jones, president and founder of Measurement Resources Company and SureImpact, discussed how to use data to prove you are delivering impactful, cost-effective, and sustainable solutions to complex social problems.