Background

The problem

The global social sector runs on organizational data that most organizations don't control. Funders search for grantees through platforms that show them whatever their data sources already index. Researchers study the sector through 990 filings that exclude most of the world. Discoverability depends on whether an organization filed the right forms, maintained the right profiles, or got picked up by one of the handful of aggregators that dominate the field.

The result is a distorted picture. A well-resourced nonprofit in Nebraska has options. A community health organization in Ghana, or a mutual aid network in Detroit that doesn't file a 990, is effectively invisible to most discovery tools. Not because it lacks value, but because it lacks presence in the right databases. Every tool built on top of those databases inherits the same blind spots.

The solution

The Nonprofit Backpack is a lightly structured, machine-readable text file that any organization can create and publish at a known web address. It describes the organization in its own words: identity, programs, geographic focus, funding history, contact information, and permissions for how the data can be used.

What makes the Backpack different is what it doesn't require. There is no schema to comply with, no registry to join, no certification to earn. The format suggests sections but imposes nothing. An organization can publish a rich, detailed Backpack or a sparse one, and both are valid. This is interoperability without a standards body: because the files are plain text and self-describing, AI tools can read whatever an organization chose to publish and build an interface to it, whether that's a grant application, a partnership match, or a research dataset. The intelligence lives in the tools, not in the format. Organizations don't have to conform to be included.

What it does for nonprofits

The value starts before anyone else ever reads the file. Nonprofits answer the same questions constantly: mission, programs, geography, budget, staff size. Grant applications ask. Product donation programs ask. State registrations ask. A current Backpack answers once. Tools built on the Backpack ecosystem can pre-fill applications, seed a first draft of a 990 or state registration, support eligibility reviews for donated products, and serve an organization's own website from a single source of truth. For small organizations that spend disproportionate staff time on administrative documentation, the Backpack converts that cost into an asset.

Just as importantly, organizations stay in control of their information. Each Backpack includes a permissions section where the organization decides who and what can access its data, down to which tools can use which information and for what purposes. Publishing a Backpack doesn't mean giving anything away. It means deciding, deliberately and in one place, what to share and with whom.

The DPGN plans to provide two utilities at launch to lower the barrier further. The Backpack Writer drafts an organization's initial file from what already exists, like 990 data, platform profiles, and program documents, so setup is a review rather than a blank page. The Backpack Reviewer checks a finished file against priority use cases such as grant discovery, partnership matching, and compliance filings, and flags what's missing for the ones that matter most to that organization.

What it does for the sector

When organizations control their own data and make it available on their own terms, the sector gets something it has never had: an accurate picture of itself.

Funders can direct resources toward organizations and geographies of genuine need rather than the ones that happen to appear in existing databases. Researchers can map gaps, overlaps, and opportunities without depending on filings that leave out half the world. Intermediaries and capacity-builders can find the organizations that most need support, not just the ones already in their networks. And when a crisis hits, whether a funding cliff, a policy change, or a natural disaster, the infrastructure exists to coordinate a response across the organizations actually doing the work on the ground.

None of this requires central coordination. It just requires that Backpacks exist. And because the format isn't tied to the 990 or any existing registry, the playing field is flat: a tool built on Backpacks has exactly as much access to a small organization in Ghana as to a large one in Nebraska. New infrastructure doesn't have to inherit the biases of the systems that came before it.

The Backpack is not an observatory, a platform, or a registry. It is democratized infrastructure: a foundational layer owned by the organizations it represents, readable by anyone they allow, and open to every tool the sector wants to build on top of it.

Status

The DPGN is currently hosting sector consultations to help shape the Nonprofit Backpack Initiative and conducting prototyping to explore technical considerations and enable richer feedback.

If you’d be interested in providing input or being a part of this initiative, please reach out to Brian.Banks@DPGN.org.

If you’d like to review the initial prototyping work, you can find materials in the DPGN’s GitHub repository here.