This open access book provides practical guidance for non-profits and community sector organisations about how to get started with data analytics projects using their own organisations’ datasets and open public data.

"Data collaboration is critical to closing societal gaps in data access and capabilities. Ironically, there is little evidence available about impactful data collaboratives, especially involving non-profits, making their data use challenging. This book fills a void by providing a unique understanding of the variables that matter. Anyone interested in using data for social good should read this book."

—Stefaan Verhulst, Co-Founder of The Govlab, New York University and Editor-in-Chief of Data & Policy

“The non-profit needs to build data capability so it continues to develop innovative services and report on high impact outcomes. Through practical examples and advice from data projects, this open access book will help make this happen.”

—Dr Catherine Brown OAM, CEO, Lord Mayors Charitable Foundation, Melbourne, Australia

This open access book provides practical guidance for non-profits and community sector organisations about how to get started with data analytics projects using their own organisations’ datasets and open public data. The book shares best practices on collaborative social data projects and methodology. For researchers, the work offers a playbook for partnering with community organisations in data projects for public good and gives worked examples of projects of various sizes and complexity.

Jane Farmer is Director of the Social Innovation Research Institute at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne.

Anthony McCosker is Deputy Director of the Social Innovation Research Institute at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne.

Kath Albury is co-Leader of the Digital Inclusion Program at Swinburne University of Technology Social Innovation Research Institute.

Amir Aryani leads the Social Data Analytics Lab at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne.

"Data collaboration is critical to closing today's societal gaps in data access and related capabilities. Ironically, there is little data available about data collaboratives, including what makes them successful and impactful. This is especially true for non-profit initiatives, making increased data use by the sector particularly challenging. In this book, Farmer, McCosker, Albury, and Aryani fill that void by providing a unique understanding of the variables that matter. Anyone interested in using data for social good should read this book."

—Stefaan Verhulst, Co-Founder of The Govlab and Editor-in-Chief of Data & Policy

“The non-profit needs to build data capability so it continues to develop innovative services and report on high impact outcomes. Through practical examples and advice from data projects, this open access book will help make this happen.”

—Dr Catherine Brown OAM, CEO, Lord Mayors Charitable Foundation, Melbourne, Australia

 “In the 21st century successful public and private sector organisations capture customer / client data and tailor their services and products to match. The capacity to utilise multiple and complex data sources will dramatically change the way organizations evolve in the future. This novel and innovative book, the first of its kind, sets out how non-profits can become skilled in using different sources of data to better meet their social missions. The authors introduce the concept of data capability – deepening knowledge and expertise in connecting the mission of a non-profit with data. This concept is brought to life via vivid case studies of collaborative data action research conducted with non-profits to enhance their data capability. The book is essential reading for non-profit managers and researchers seeking to better understand, and develop, the relationship between data and social good.”

—Professor Simon Teasdale, Vice Principal, Social Innovation Yunus Centre, Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland

Provides examples from real-life data projects involving a range of community organisations Offers new evidence about transforming raw data into value and actionable insights with open data sources Combines ‘how-to’ advice and guidance with cutting-edge research perspectives This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access

Open Access This book is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this book are included in the book's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the book's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.