PoweredbyData officially launches!

We're happy to announce our official launch. We've been working quietly on this for a while, but we are excited to start operating at full steam. Please get in touch if you have any questions or are interested in working with us.

Ajah Launches Non-Profit Initiative, PoweredbyData

Montreal, April 8, 2014 - Ajah announced today the launch of a non-profit initiative called PoweredbyData. With the goal of improving the functioning of philanthropic funders and nonprofits by increasing the availability of useful data, the initiative is led and advised by experts in the domains of open data, standards development, and grant-making from across Canada, the USA, and the UK. This initiative responds to the need for better information in the non-profit sector.
Hilary Pearson, President of Philanthropic Foundations Canada (PFC), explains “Canadian foundations are looking for initiatives with impact, non-profits face the challenge of communicating their work to donors, and governments are seeking evidence of effectiveness on the ground in order to support innovation in service delivery. The foundation sector is looking forward to the contribution of PoweredbyData to our understanding of philanthropic data, including better measures of impact.”
PoweredbyData will work predominantly with funders and government regulators to increase the supply of standard, interoperable, and open data about the sector and its impacts. “In creating our commercial services, we developed an expertise in transforming previously unused public data into innovative and useful tools for funders and fundraisers. Now, we’re looking forward to applying that expertise to the rest of the sector in areas with the potential for tremendous social impact, but no commercial opportunities, such as developing new standards and educating stakeholders to publish open data” explains Michael Lenczner, CEO of Ajah.
Recognized philanthropy and data expert, as well as author of the influential annual forecast Blueprint, Lucy Bernholz, adds, “In the United States, we are working to get access to the data that is currently available in Canada, and other countries are even farther behind. More and better data is essential to improve the functioning of the non-profit sector and I’m excited for PoweredbyData to bring those practices to the rest of the world.”
About Ajah Launched in 2010, Ajah is a Montreal-based company providing leading edge online services to the non-profit sector. Their flagship product, Fundtracker, transforms open and public data into actionable intelligence for fundraisers.
For more information please visit poweredbydata.org or contact: Michael Lenczner info@poweredbydata.org @pwrd_by_data