Communities need accurate data to design programs that help residents. As federal data sources that inform economic mobility, social services, health, and other local programs become less reliable, local governments and nonprofits face new challenges.

Historically, philanthropy has supported states and localities through these and other strategies:

• fostering a pipeline of data talent among local and state government sectors
• building in-house capacity and learning across government and community organizations via training, technical assistance, communities of practice, and technologies

To bridge federal gaps in this moment, philanthropy can step up their role in growing state and local government and nonprofit data capacity.

Last year, we had a series of conversations with funders to learn how they were supporting local, people-centered data systems. Drawing on those insights and Urban’s expertise and history of partnering with localities and organizations to strengthen data capacity, we offer the following lessons and strategies to help philanthropy build on this work:

1. Partner with state and local data leaders. 

The following roles in state and local government can have an outsize influence in the current environment.

• Chief privacy officers, or those with equivalent responsibilities, help navigate shifting federal reporting requirements, build public trust, and establish data governance. Twenty-five states have a chief privacy officer–type role. Urban has worked with external governmental privacy staff to validate our data resources, including developing tools to make governmental data more accessible for external stakeholders and easier for internal agencies to share insights with the public. There is an opportunity to expand this kind of support for the role’s increasing importance.
• Chief data officers (CDOs), or equivalent contributors, manage datasets, open data, and public data engagement. For example, Connecticut requires an embedded data officer within each state agency. They ultimately report to a CDO, who coordinates statewide data literacy initiatives and a shared services model. There is potential to increase effective data collection automation. Scaling Urban’s pilot to automate the collection of Connecticut’s zoning data in other states would help address ongoing challenges of aggregating and accessing these data, given each government’s unique data documentation and storage.
• Data and geographic information systems analysts integrate geospatial analyses into regular organizational processes, such as performance management. This can include leveraging synthetic data to maintain privacy while tracking care coordination for improved service delivery or resource allocation.
• Data architects make data more accessible for communities’ benefit while protecting data in contexts where sharing may be harmful. Recently, South Carolina’s Department of Administration was hiring a data architect to build a cloud-ready data foundation and set standards for how information flows to innovate and deliver faster, smarter services to residents.
• Tech apprentices upskill the data and privacy field. Urban partnered with South Carolina and North Carolina in growing their tech apprenticeship capacity and reach to meet the demands of this evolving workforce. Philanthropy could widely scale this place-based effort and increase the apprentices’ data and privacy knowledge.
• In the absence of an in-house privacy officer, contractors lead adoption of privacy-enhancing technologies, such as synthetic data; leverage private data for public good; and support safely using sensitive data to articulate community needs. For emerging subspecialties, such as privacy-focused legal and technical professionals in the public sector, building the field is a necessary long-term investment.
• By funding fellowship roles, philanthropy can strengthen efforts to bring in data and privacy talent to government. Successful examples include the following:
• The FUSE executive fellowship program places private-sector professionals within local governments to build systems capacity.
• The Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities program paid for cities to hire a chief resilience officer as part of a global cohort for two years.

2. Build infrastructure and learning among government and community players across the data ecosystem.

• Fund training, staffing, and professional development for community organizations to collect, assess, and evaluate data (through surveys, administrative records, and interviews) to reflect meaningful community outcomes. Urban has developed foundational infrastructure and resources to support individual, organizational, and collective data capacity (PDF).
• Support community data infrastructure. Invest in community data hubs or nonprofit-owned platforms that host, coordinate, and analyze data across sectors. Locally developed artificial intelligence (AI) tools, such as large language models, can provide insights tailored to community needs. Philanthropic investments could enable these models to bridge gaps in an uncertain federal data landscape.
• Advance data governance. Provide technical assistance to develop privacy guardrails, blend public and private datasets, and support third-party data governance models that can offer innovative strategies to addressing evolving data concerns. Leveraging nonprofit and private-sector data effectively can elevate population needs for programmatic decisionmaking.
• Create peer-learning opportunities. Support convenings and existing or new communities of practice, such as the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership, to enable data leaders and other stakeholders to share strategies and resources to adapt to changing trends. As budgets tighten, travel and professional development are often the first items cut. Supporting these investments can be critical for accelerating, piloting, and scaling local solutions. Urban hosts a variety of data convenings, such as Data-Driven Workshop for Local Leaders and Removing Barriers to Participation in Government Procurement from Small Businesses.
• Develop new tools and technologies. Funding nationwide tools and technical assistance can help organizations use data and AI technology (PDF) effectively. Urban worked with Los Angeles to build a custom budget equity tool used across city departments. These partnerships with nongovernmental organizations can accelerate organizational capacity to deploy data to drive decisionmaking when resources are constrained.

Strategic investments can help build the cohesive data systems communities deserve

Philanthropy can lead the charge in transforming fragmented data systems into a unified infrastructure that supports just outcomes. In an era of constrained governmental budgets, the question is less whether to invest, and more which investments will have the greatest impact and align best with a philanthropic mission.