The Data Foundation champions the use of open data and evidence-informed public policy to make democratic society better for everyone.
The Data Foundation is a Washington, DC-based, non-profit, non-partisan organization. We are a trusted authority on the use of open, accessible data to fuel a more efficient, effective, and accountable government; spark innovation; and provide insights to the country’s most pressing challenges. We conduct research, facilitate collaborative thought leadership, and promote advocacy programs that advance practical policies for the creation and use of accessible, trustworthy data and evidence.
For more than a decade, the Data Foundation has been bringing attention to key issues facing the data community. We bring together non-traditional partners and stakeholders to devise practical solutions, which culminate in new policies and approaches for innovating and using data and evidence. The impacts from our work have been tremendous, culminating in enactment of milestone legislation, stronger communities for implementing transparency and data initiatives, and demonstrations of new strategies for innovating with government data.
Our Core Values
As a nonpartisan organization, we conduct research, collaborative thought leadership, and advocacy programs that advance practical policies for the creation and use of accessible, trustworthy data and evidence. We do this by centering everything we do as an organization around our four core values:
Transparency: We rely on facts and transparency to generate trust and credibility.
Pragmatic action: We promote practical, timely solutions to data-related challenges.
Radical collaboration: We enthusiastically pursue opportunities to foster non-traditional collaboration with people and groups that hold divergent beliefs and points of view to jointly identify and solve problems.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion: We seek to embrace and include diversity in all of its forms in our work, and our belief is that through the use of data and research, more equitable opportunities and outcomes will be achieved.
Our Impact
With the attention and focus on solving real problems, the Data Foundation’s policy research, collaboration, and advocacy efforts over the past decade helped identify, formulate, refine, and enable passage then implementation of milestone data and transparency legislation now signed into law with bipartisan support. Major data laws the Data Foundation research and advocacy contributed to include:
Digital Accountability and Transparency (DATA) Act
Grant Reporting Efficiency and Agreements Transparency (GREAT) Act
Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act (Evidence Act)
Open, Public, Electronic, and Necessary (OPEN) Government Data Act
AI in Government Act
Taxpayers Right to Know Act
Congressional Budget Justification Transparency Act
National Secure Data Service Act
Financial Data Transparency Act
Taken together, these data laws present substantial reforms for responsibly using government data and promoting transparency to benefit the American people. Each also bolsters the capacity for partnerships between the private and public sectors to continue making progress in using open data and evidence-informed policymaking in the years ahead — the Data Foundation is here to facilitate, enable, and promote this capability.
Annual Reports: 2022, 2021, 2020
The Data Foundation is a 4-star Charity Navigator non-profit and received the Platinum Seal of Transparency from Candid Guidestar in 2023.