Less duplication. Better data. Real progress.
The Digital Public Goods Network helps the social sector replace fragmented, parallel data efforts with shared infrastructure that drives organizations forward.
The social sector has an expensive duplication problem.
Across different fields in the social sector, organizations are independently solving the same data challenges, building parallel datasets and siloed solutions.
The same work gets done many times over, and the sector pays for it every time.
We can’t afford to keep wasting time and money.
Budgets are tightening and the sector can’t build bespoke software for every new problem. AI is raising the bar on how we use data.
Organizations without clean, interoperable foundations won’t be positioned to automate or innovate and will fall behind.
The Value of Shared Infrastructure
Interoperable
Data and effort flow between participants, instead of getting trapped inside individual systems.
Collective
Carries the expertise of everyone who has contributed, not just of one organization.
Durable
Compounds return on investment. Organization don’t need to continually start over
Shared infrastructure changes the economics of the social sector.
Instead of every organization paying separately to solve the same problem, the cost is pooled and the result is something none of them could have built alone.
This can look like a lot of things: a community-maintained version of a lost federal dataset; a common data model nonprofits can adopt; a single registry replacing the partial directories each organization keeps on its own; or an open-source tool the sector builds and maintains together.
The form varies, but the logic doesn't: build it once, build it well, and let everyone who needs it benefit.
How We Work
We use our expertise to help sectors untangle complex data challenges and harness the power of open-source solutions.
1
Convene
We bring together the organizations with the most to gain from solving a specific duplication problem.
2
Roadmap
We draw on a network of sector leaders to develop a roadmap of shared solutions that work in the real world.
3
Implement
We lead the build, including technical work, governance design, and the ongoing support it takes to turn a roadmap into infrastructure.
We're sector-agnostic. Wherever organizations are duplicating data work that would be more valuable if shared, we can help with:
Recreating critical datasets for the field
Developing common data models for adoption instead of nonprofits designing their own from scratch
Building sector-specific infrastructure across areas like health, climate and environment, civic participation, nonprofit operations, and more.
Why the DPGN?
We are a neutral convenor.
We bring participants together on common ground, surface honest perspectives, and move conversations forward where other organizations can't. We don’t have a product to sell or a platform to protect.
We bring a network of technical expertise.
We draw on a deep bench of practitioners — data architects, engineers, governance specialists, and sectoral domain experts — who understand what durable, interoperable infrastructure looks like and how to build it.
We don’t depend on individual sacrifice to create public goods.
We design solutions with concrete benefits for each participant: reduced costs, better data, faster outcomes, stronger AI-readiness. Each participant wins, so they maintain the infrastructure.
We stay through implementation.
Roadmaps that go unbuilt don’t help anyone. We see the work through — with change management, governance, and technical development and support — so participants can realize plans and actually use the infrastructure.
Collaborators
Network Initiatives
An open source platform, hosted and operated by the GivingTuesday Data Commons, making US nonprofit data more accessible. Users are equipped with the core infrastructure and resources to support data-driven research within the sector.
A collaboration to transform the CDM into a community-driven public asset. By fostering open ownership and interoperability, the initiative aims to accelerate nonprofit data adoption, unlock sector-wide insights, and enhance social impact through collective infrastructure stewardship
The Canadian Nonprofit Data Lab is the first sustainable infrastructure to organize the nonprofit sector’s data and research work at the national level, providing access to timely, relevant data and insights.
An initiative working to connect existing efforts to rescue and replace federal datasets that need bandwidth and resources, and identify and support new initiatives to fill critical gaps in order to create a more resilient data-driven society.
Let's build it together.
The path to a more resilient, efficient, and AI-ready sector starts with shared infrastructure.
Reach out to discuss how the DPGN can help with your immediate data challenges and your long-term mission.