A Platform of Hope
Coordinating technology platforms via a common data language can help organizations work together.
Delivering disaster relief, under any circumstances, is a fraught exercise in logistics. Earthquakes, famines, floods, and other natural calamities can cross borders, involve several populations, and command a wide range of services. A primary concern for relief groups is to quickly help impacted people recover while keeping staff in the field safe.
These days, emergency aid organizations are faced with another kind of challenge: How can they collectively use data gathered by a wide range of ever-changing technology solutions to act faster, save lives, and better coordinate the responses of several groups?
Four years ago, when Oxfam heeded a call for nonprofit partners from Microsoft’s Tech for Social Impact, part of Microsoft Philanthropies, it was in search of ways to make its data transparent to other humanitarian relief groups. Oxfam wanted to deliver translatable information to other organizations so they could put it to work helping disaster victims immediately, while benefiting from others’ data.
A global nonprofit organization that offers lifesaving support during crises in more than 90 countries, fight inequality to end poverty and injustice and campaign for an equal future with equal rights and equal opportunities for everyone, Oxfam faced several stumbling blocks. As it pondered how best to coordinate its platforms and systems with some of its 4,000+ partner organizations, its leaders came to learn a salient fact about the charitable sector: Nonprofits possess plenty of technology, and yet lack the coordination and compatibility to collectively respond to crises in the most effective ways.
In short, they lacked what technologists call “interoperability.”
“The sector has often focused on interoperability by using the same technology platform. It just hasn’t worked,” says Mike Smith, Lead Information Architect at Oxfam International.
And our world facing ever-increasing challenges, it's important to revisit this challenge and push the possibilities.
A Need to Share Data
Currently, disaster relief organizations mainly share data on an ad-hoc basis, supported by the United Nations Cluster system and the platforms each organization uses. Groups are often forced to reconcile several systems within their own operations—everything from an enterprise-resource planning platform that manages supplies to a client relationship management system that helps them keep track of donors and volunteers to automated marketing tools—that simply don’t talk to each other.
Meanwhile, collecting data in most developing countries represents a challenge. Localities often maintain records in a variety of forms—everything from paper records to outdated spreadsheet programs to more advanced data systems. Interoperability is one way to ease this manual work facing field staff – data is collected once and shared across organizations to gain a clearer picture of community needs.
Finding a shared and cost-free model that would mesh organizational data safely without requiring each group to own the same platform became Oxfam’s goal. “By aligning our data instead of our tech systems, it doesn’t matter which tool or processes we use, as long as we follow the same data standard,” Smith adds.
Speaking a Common Language
Such a standard—a common language for data—could also help organizations in other ways. Having more well-coordinated data could go a long way toward giving donors and others a fuller picture of situations on the ground and how effective groups are at improving them. Shared information can also give organizations stronger ideas on how to streamline their operations and make better use of each donation.
Through a partnership between Oxfam International and Microsoft Tech for Social Impact, part of Microsoft Philanthropies, looks to further Oxfam’s own efforts Oxfam had already constructed a transparent and translatable humanitarian supply chain application that increased the effectiveness of its stock management by twentyfold. What’s more, it led a sectoral collaboration called Frontline Humanitarian Logistics (FHL), convened by NetHope, Inc., to work building data bridges between disaster relief groups. FHL came about through a cross-industry collaboration across NetHope, Microsoft, nonprofits like Oxfam, and several other private sector partners. It’s further evidence of the importance of interoperability across platforms.
“We are harmonizing our ways of working and developing a common way of talking,” Smith says.
The Advantages of a Common Model
However, many organizations lack the resources to create their own applications. That’s where technology and corporate partners like Tech for Social Impact can help.
The Common Data Model (CDM) for Nonprofits, the first such data standard built specifically for the nonprofit sector and with the help of its input, is available as an open-source tool. The CDM offers organizations the shared language and cloud-based interoperability they need to do their work better—and together.
Designed to promote meaningful collaborations, the CDM provides organizations the means to find deeper insights within their data, to share it in a standardized way, and to benefit from Microsoft’s continued commitment to making it stronger.
Included along with the company’s suite of applications specifically built for nonprofit organizations (called the Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofits), the CDM also allows organizations to customize their own solutions.
“We’ve built out a powerful platform with no-code- or low-code solutions that are free for anyone out there to use,” says Erik Arnold, global chief technology officer for Tech for Social Impact. “Nonprofits only get so many bites of the apple when it comes to modernizing their technology. It’s a big lift for them. So, organizations are adopting more modern, renewable solutions, like the CDM, so they don’t have to do it all over again next year.”
This aligns with Oxfam’s experience, Smith says: “The Common Data Model enables us to adopt standard technology platforms with best practices baked in, meaning we don’t have to invest in expensive customization and configuration by ourselves. It also frees us from having to maintain technology, so we can concentrate on what we’re best at: fighting inequality to end poverty and injustice.”
Beyond Relief Organizations
The CDM and other Microsoft programs have been a boon to other types of nonprofits, including SMART, a coalition of international conversation organizations that work to save species.
“With SMART, Microsoft supports an open-source model that leverages technology across different platforms for the Wildlife Conservation Society and all other coalition members that helps detect and prevent poaching in the most rural areas you can imagine, including wildlife preserves in Africa,” Arnold says. The groups share information to track both animals and humans, while taking advantage of cloud technology and AI image recognition, he adds.
That ability to see deeper into both an on-the-ground crisis and within an organization’s operations is what continues to excite Oxfam about the CDM and the other powerful, cloud-based tools now at its disposal.
“Imagine responding to a humanitarian crisis where everyone can safely see and understand each other’s data in real time,” Smith says. “The CDM paves the way toward efficient and effective handling of disasters that we currently struggle to achieve with incompatible data locked inside our organizations. And, we must do this in a manner consistent with our values around data rights, data protection and privacy of people in vulnerable situations—values that are paramount for Oxfam.”
Freeing up those possibilities for collaboration will get organizations closer to achieving their missions.
“One of the nonprofit sector’s strengths is working together,” says Smith. “In the past we’ve tried to create sectoral technology standards but have realized we cannot do this without our technology partners. Microsoft’s efforts are transformational. Through convening, supporting, and adopting industry best practices, they are accelerating the pace of improvement in the nonprofit sector.”
Microsoft's Tech for Social Impact team, part of Microsoft Philanthropies, is dedicated to empowering every nonprofit and international development organization to accelerate social impact. We bring together the best of Microsoft including cloud technology grants and discounts, Microsoft's vast ecosystem of partners, and industry-specific solutions through Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit.
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Oxfam fights inequality to end poverty and injustice. We are part of a global movement, campaigning for economic, climate and gender justice - for change that lasts. In FY2020-21, Oxfam’s 21 affiliates collectively spent 910million Euros and worked with 4128 partners and allies in 93 countries, to save and better people’s lives. We believe together, we can forge an equal future, with equal rights and equal opportunities, so that every one of us can thrive, not just survive. For more information, please visit us at www.oxfam.org
This content was paid for and created by Microsoft. The editorial staff of The Chronicle had no role in its preparation. Find out more about paid content.
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