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The State of Civic Tech Impact in the United StatesTICTeC 2016 || Barcelona || April 2016
Kate Krontiris || on behalf of the Omidyar Network Governance and Citizen Engagement Initiative
AgendaProject Overview
5 Key Trends
Discussion
Project Overview
If you had a great idea for improving civic life in the United States, how would you know if it had ultimately succeeded?
About the ProjectIn the fall of 2015, the Omidyar Network's Governance & Citizen Engagement team wanted to understand more deeply:
● how different civic tech constituencies conceptualize their impact,
● what indicators they use to measure that impact, and ● which data sources they use for measurement.
Research Purposes● Internal: to improve the way Omidyar is measuring progress
and impact within its own civic tech portfolio
● External: to share what we learn with others in our community, so that we may have shared insights into our work
Research Questions1. How do civic tech entities in the U.S. measure their own impact?
○ What problems do they see themselves solving?○ What goals do they hold in addressing those problems?○ What activities are they implementing to achieve those goals?○ What outcomes are they tracking as indication of progress?○ How do they define “impact” in their work?○ What metrics are they using to measure that impact?○ What data sources are they using for their metrics?
2. What gaps exist – both for these organizations individually and at the sector level – between indicators we would want to be measuring and indicators we are actually measuring?
Methodology
Literature / Best practices review Interviews with 65 people at 42 organizations; SF, NYC, Boston,
Virtual
Many thanks to our participantsFoundationsHewlettGoldhirshKnightMacArthurFordDemocracy FundRita Allen
Non-Profit PractitionersTummlCode for AmericaPublic AgendaSIM LabFuse CorpsmySocietyCenter for Technology and Civic LifeDemocracy WorksSharp InsightPublic Policy LabiobySmart Chicago CollaborativeCiudadano Intelligente
Government18FBoston MONUMLarge City Technology Official
Tech CompaniesGoogle - Social Impact PartnershipsMicrosoft - Civic EngagementAnonymousA large technology company
Venture CapitalAndreesen HorowitzUnion Square VenturesDundee Venture CapitalUrban.usNew Media Ventures
Issue ExpertsNew American FoundationDeliberative Democracy ConsortiumUrban InstituteMIT Media LabCIRCLE, TuftsHuffington PostPewNYU Gov Lab
For-Profit PractitionersBrigadeChange.orgAunt BerthaCivic Hall
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5 Key Trends
#1Impact is a work in progress
What might help
● Help organizations “see” each other’s frameworks
● Program discussions of impact in civic tech convenings
● Facilitate peer learning across the sector
#2It is hard to deliver impact and measure it at the same time
What might help
● Invest in organizations to do impact research ● Make research resources available to smaller
organizations via “research capacity fund,” akin to the Knight Prototype Fund
#3Variety is a blessing and a curse
What might help
● Support coordinating bodies to draw connections between problems, approaches, solutions – to chart larger system change
● Facilitate open dashboard of organizational metrics, sharing learnings, publishing case studies
#4To demonstrate impact, we need to talk about values
What might help
● Convene stakeholders to reflect on values and develop shared, standard, practical measures of impact
● Encourage funders to be more transparent about their processes, initiatives, and investments
#5More discernable impact will emerge when the field aligns itself more clearly in service of societal goals
What might help
● Experiment by narrowing to specific verticals (ex. “health,” “safety and justice”)
Moving forward, we need ...Peer learning opportunitiesLong-term perspectiveMore robust impact capture and communication
Discussion
Thank you!
For further information:
Alissa Black
Principal, Investments
Omidyar Network || Governance & Citizen Engagement Initiative
Kate Krontiris
