Data Tools for Everyone: Connecting Strategy, Practice, and Impact

*Check out this short video to learn more!

Open data can offer social sector professionals new ways to understand community trends, surface local assets, and illuminate areas of need. When paired with accessible mapping tools, this data becomes a powerful resource for strengthening decisions, fostering collaboration, and advancing equity. Whether in direct service, philanthropy, policy, or program design, professionals across roles and levels can use open data to tell more complete stories, highlight community strengths, and create pathways toward more impactful outcomes.

DataKind and Data for Social Impact, an initiative of the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis are hosting a webinar series from September-December 2025 that will provide a hands-on, guided tour through the process for utilizing a free open-access software called Ladder, created by DataKind in 2024. Ladder enables social sector organizations and practitioners to access preloaded public indicators, overlay their own hyperlocal data, and generate meaningful insights--regardless of where they are on their data journey. This 4-part series will walk through the process of conceptualizing a project utilizing the tool, from asset mapping to the formation of a programmatic/funding question where local data can be applied and analyzed using Ladder, to a hands-on exploration of the tool. The series will culminate in a public roundtable where participants can provide feedback and share learnings in a supportive environment.

RSVP once for the series and join as you are able to! All times below in CT:

Sept. 30th, 10-11 am: Moving from Problems to Assets

Oct. 28th, 10-11 am: Leveraging Local Data for Community Impact

Nov. 18th, 10-1130 am: Data Deep Dive: Exploring Free Asset and Impact Mapping Tools

December 9th, 10-1130 am: Learning from Peers: Data Strategy and Practice Knowledge Exchange. A conversation among regional and national practitioners on tool use, implications, and learnings.

This event series hosted by DataKind and Data for Social Impact (DSI) at the Center for Social Development at WashU