The Importance of Open Data for NGOs

The use of open data is growing in importance for NGOs. Publishing your data according to an open data standard has many benefits for your organization and others. Once your project data is made publicly accessible, it is possible to use it for many different purposes such as comparing, aggregating, and using data across organizations, providing a more inclusive view of what is happening in terms of development interventions.

By analyzing and visualizing open aid data, NGOs can unlock the potential of making more data-driven decisions and reaching more impact on an organizational level.

How can Open Aid Data contribute to the increase of impact for NGOs?

Many nonprofits miss out on opportunities to effectively collect and use open data. Understandably, their first focus is on the implementation of programs and on the here and now, while it is also commonly known that the context in which the development sector operates is extremely volatile. In such a set-up with a high likelihood of unexpected changes occurring, it is important to be adaptive and flexible. Real-time data and data analysis in particular can strongly support NGOs to increase their adaptability and resilience to respond to change.

Indeed starting to use (open) aid data as a resource for program design, management, and planning can allow NGOs to:

• save time and resources in data collection and project management, while making data-driven decisions;
• increase the opportunities to identify relevant funders and partners in a certain context;
• respond faster to changes in the context, making programs more relevant and effective;
• coordinate aid interventions with stakeholders to stimulate the efficient use of scarce resources.

The AIDA platform: a solution for NGOs to start using open data

The Aid Information Data Analytics (AIDA) platform from The Open Data Company has been developed to help NGOs publish, validate according to an open aid data standard called IATI (the International Aid Transparency Initiative) and visualize open aid data all from one platform.

The  AIDA portal is a visualization layer on top of available open aid data, containing currently over 1.000.000 activities of 1400+ development agencies worldwide.

In our longstanding support work having supported NGOs worldwide with publishing open data, we notice that organizations publishing according to an open aid standard do not take enough advantage of all the benefits of open data. They view it as a reporting requirement and do not take it as an opportunity to make evidence-based decisions that will untimely help them to reach their goals in a more data-driven, effective, and efficient way.

Example of a role-driven data portal

With AIDA, it aims to unlock the potential and richness of all open aid data providing tooling for anyone to access, use and search it.

AIDA has transformative potential as anyone (with no IT skills required) can view, filter and visualize and execute analysis on the total aid interventions of development agencies from all countries on a single data services platform.

The visualization of open data on the AIDA portal helps several role figures within an organization. Aid professionals can combine, benchmark, and communicate different insights based on several interests. The data can be presented to different stakeholders in a more meaningful way but it can also help you to work more efficiently.

For example as a fundraiser, on AIDA, you can quickly visualize donors already funding the same type of projects, sectors that are receiving funding, and countries where a donor is active.

Save time on your donor research and get real-time data from donors of your choice all in one place.
Try it for FREE out for yourself on AIDA.