While not necessarily in conflict with each other, this also reveals a degree of overlap and multiple commitments which might be an issue. Already, 39% of organisations were saying they support D4G activities subject to specific constraints on the resources used, while 22% would consider engaging with D4G as long as it does not conflict with core activities.
So how can organisations meet the desire of their teams to make a positive contribution to good causes without impinging on their commercial tasks? Should D4G be entirely voluntary or do better outcomes result from choosing one agreed initiative? Might it even be possible to align the commercial and altruistic while harnessing the power of data?
At a DataIQ Leaders roundtable in March 2021, some of the key issues around pursuing D4G were surfaced and a clear sense of the spectrum of commitment identified. Most members in the discussion noted that their organisations allowed everybody one or two days per year for activities focused on societal benefits (some others allow this on an unofficial basis). This immediately presents the first decision point for data leaders.
1. Volunteer or “volun-told”?
With the opportunity to donate time to an external cause, data practitioners could have an impact through applying their skills to data issues faced by the third sector, from simple data preparation through to building data science models. While individuals may have a personal preference about which charity they work with, combining in a team effort is likely to lead to a bigger pay-off.
Organisations such as The Giving Department and DataKind operate in this space to bring together volunteers from the commercial sector with charities that have a requirement for support. They bring a structure and framework to bear that covers key issues such as legal data sharing through to health and safety during hackathons. That can be an important aspect of gaining sign-off from senior leadership, which tends to be required once simple volunteering turns into formalised brand-to-cause support. However, it was also noted that bringing in an external organiser can dilute the sense of ownership around a charity data hackathon.
It is also important to ensure that individuals within the data team are bought into a unified project of this sort. Some may have long-standing involvement with a cause that is important to them, while others may prefer to use their CSR days simply to paint fences or pick litter, rather than as another day crunching data.
When formalising D4G activities, therefore, consideration needs to be given to whether it will be optional and whether the cause will be chosen by consensus. A committed volunteer for a local charity who is told they must stop helping to run a community project and start building a database for a new cause might not be a fully productive member of that project team.
2. Teaching data
Across the DataIQ Leaders members present at the roundtable, one common D4G focus was to support educational programmes in local schools. As the data leader in a government agency explained, providing an insight into career paths into data for secondary school pupils is valuable for both sides – it helps to build the talent funnel for the data industry and draws students towards future-proofed careers. For this member, that activity is not a standalone initiative – it aligns to work experience opportunities, internships and apprenticeships. At a high street retailer, community volunteering has been completely replaced with similar teaching activities in schools.
While data practitioners are well-placed to explain what is really involved in taking a job in the industry, they are not necessarily natural teachers, however. One member had scaled down their own involvement with schools from classic stand-and-deliver presentations or classroom tuition to one-to-one coaching. This reflected feedback from team members about what they would feel comfortable delivering. In contrast, another member uses schools-based activities specifically as part of personal development for team members to build their confidence and presentation skills. Becoming a mentor to a student is another way in which this can provide mutual benefit.
3. When data for good and commercial purpose combine
Applying data to a positive social or environmental outcome isn’t necessarily constrained to special projects one or two days of the year. Several members noted a convergence between their data for good goals and the corporate purpose. In one example, a packaged consumer goods manufacturer has used data visualisation to create energy consumption dashboards for each of its factories. This has already led to efficiencies that have reduced carbon emissions by the equivalent of two jumbo jets.
At the national retail chain, the pandemic created a need to identify vulnerable customers so they could be offered priority when booking home deliveries. This brought about a close alignment between conventional data segmentation work and the company’s values.
4. Managing for good
Just because individuals are working on activities with a societal benefit does not stop them from being flawed humans that need careful management. One member from a national retail chain noted that switching the focus of its external D4G activities away from awareness raising and network building around women in data and technology towards a more educational focus on girls in school had caused some rifts internally.
Similarly, the organisation had also re-aligned its D4G programme to have more of an internal benefit, with a further emphasis having been created by recent headlines around crimes against women and the need to educate male allies on what they can do. Another retail chain is now experiencing more control being applied to its D4G initiatives as a result of its US owners bringing their management culture to bear.
Two things emerged clearly from the discussion about charity for good activities. Firstly, data leaders and their teams are strongly motivated to support good causes. Secondly, their skills can be extremely valuable to those causes, whether that is a small, local issue or a multi-agency, global initiative. But as with all forms of philanthropy, individual preferences need to be respected, including not getting involved at all.
