Data and Tech For Good

We recently had the pleasure of hosting five great speakers for our event looking at the use of Data and Technology in Charities and non-profit organisations.

First up was Nish Desai from imin, talking about their story and how they harnessed the power of Open Data to help develop a proposition that is now helping to encourage a greater uptake in physical activity, especially in London.

After Nish, was Emma Deraze a Data Scientist who outside of her day job volunteers with DataKind UK to help on data related charity projects.

Emma's presentation dealt detailed one of DataKind UKs projects which dealt with the identification of networks within an African farming community and how by better identifying particular influence and skill-sets among the community could improve their overall level of knowledge.

The final speaker before the break was Ben Moss of The Information Lab, Ben talked about Tableau and Alteryx both in terms of their use as tools and the work The Information Lab did with the charity Connect2Help 211 but also the fact that both run non-profit related programs (The Tableau Foundation and Alteryx for Good).

After the break was Stuart Waterman of Mint Digital who discussed how Mint worked with the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation to overhaul their Website and CRM process to meet the many needs of the charity from providing information and support for those living with paralysis (and their carers/families) but also to provide the functionality to lobby relevant lawmakers and ability to raise funds.

Last to speak was Aris Tsontzos, who was talking about his work with the homelessness charity St Mungo's and their system CHAIN which is a multi organisation database which records information about rough sleepers and the wider street population in London.

One of the common themes in the presentations was the willingness of some of the major software providers to provide support and discounted software for suitable causes (e.g., The Tableau Foundation, Alteryx for Good and Salesforce).

This availability of software combined with the interest in using Data Science and Analytical skills for good from organisations such as DataKind UK means that there are great opportunities for non-profits to harness this interest to help to do good.

At Analysis Recruitment we feel that events like these are a great way to meet other analysts and learn more about what people are doing in different sectors and different tools whether that's for non-profits in this case or the art of Storytelling with Data as in a previous event. We're always on the lookout for engaging speakers with a good story to tell around Data, Marketing and Analytics, if you'd be interested please get in touch.