Mobilizing a Global Volunteer Network for Social Good

“They are not staff — they are giving up their time and resources. It’s really thinking about how to prepare them to succeed and feel empowered within their roles,” Lee says. “To that end, it starts at the time of recruitment. We want to give transparency to the volunteers early on so they can assess, is this something of interest to me?”

When it comes to onboarding, volunteers go through role-specific training, are introduced to the DataKind Playbook (a holistic manual outlining how to execute a high-quality Data for Good project at DataKind), and given time for team-building. Beyond this, they’re invited to participate in the organization’s Slack community, workshops, events, and a global volunteer summit to showcase the projects they’ve worked on and engage in peer-to-peer learning.

“There’s intentional work that needs to be done to cultivate and support [volunteers] in their role,” says Lee. “We hope it also encourages them to come back for another opportunity or to refer someone else.”

It’s not uncommon for volunteers to attribute their DataKind experience with helping them find a new job, as was the case for one volunteer who pivoted fields to health economics research following working on DataKind’s DataCorps® model. For another volunteer, her work at DataKind was an opportunity to sharpen her Python skills using a new and exciting dataset.

To give a fuller example of the scope of impact that volunteers can make, Lee cited one project in which, within a six-month period, a team of volunteers created the FEAT (Foreclosure and Eviction Analysis Tool). In partnership with New America’s Future of Land and Housing Program, the tool was created to help local leaders across 14 cities and counties within the United States understand where housing loss occurs and, using that data, be able to make equitable decisions for COVID relief funding in a proactive way.

“It’s not just simple data entry or exploratory data analysis. Yes, that’s included, but they do so much more,” Lee says.

DataKind’s work has also helped organizations access more resources. This was the case for the City of San Jose, California, who worked with DataKind’s San Francisco Chapter to create a framework and data tool to evaluate community needs to direct resources in an equitable fashion. Part of that partnership was consequently an impetus towards the City of San Jose getting a million-dollar grant from the Knight Foundation.

“That project really set up the opportunity for the City to pursue and receive that funding,” Lee said.

For a typical project, DataKind leads a team of expert technologists, often with a combined 25+ years of experience, who give over 1,500 total hours. Volunteers are diverse in every aspect and have professional titles ranging from data scientist to AI engineer, from physicist to computational neuroscientist, and more. The outcomes the volunteers help to drive are those that nonprofits simply don’t have the capacity to produce on their own, enabling DataKind to turn to the most pressing issues being addressed by organizations all over the world.

For most volunteers, the community, beyond the project work, is indeed one of the most lasting gifts from their volunteer engagements.

“This is, by far, the highlight of volunteering at DataKind – the people. All of the people I interacted with, from the moment I was interviewed to our weekly check-ins to even talking to Riders, were fantastic!” said volunteer Alexander Sack, who volunteered on a Riders for Health project. “I cannot stress how gracious, professional, and just a joy it was to interact with everyone.”

It’s this community of pro bono experts that lends DataKind its high standing in the tech community — and even its longevity.