Meeting This Moment
Facing the unprecedented worldwide COVID pandemic, The Rockefeller Foundation immediately launched multiple new grant initiatives around the theme "Meeting This Moment." In four critical areas that involved food insecurity, global disease surveillance, rapid COVID testing, and securing public benefits for those who needed them, The Rockefeller Foundation initiated grants to support a wide range of these efforts. The four videos reflect the work of grantees on the ground trying to make a difference -- everyday. The President of The Rockefeller Foundation, Dr. Rajiv Shah, outlines in his Annual Letter video the importance of private-public partnerships in a strategic alignment to fight the pandemic.
Data Science for Social Impact
The Rockefeller Foundation, in conjunction with the MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth, has launched a new global initiative called data.org whose purpose is to fund data science for social impact and good. The key question is that with so much data being accumulated every day around the world, how can that power of data be harnessed to help solve critical social problems? Those problems are across a wide arena: healthcare, income inequality, poverty, and education. Those are just some of the issue areas that data.org hopes to tackle.
The two videos I produced on the data.org site focus on why the responsible use of data science can make a real difference. The first “Stories of Impact” reveals how data science is helping the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York increase its graduation rate. John Jay is now using a predictive analytics tool created by DataKind.org to help advisors target those at “high risk” of dropping out. The tool, combined with hands “high touch” advising to those students at risk, has increased the graduation rate among seniors by more than 70% in just one year.
The second video focuses on Rockefeller Foundation President Dr. Rajiv Shah and MasterCard Vice Chairman Michael Forman in conversation about why private-public partnerships are critical to improving outcomes in civil society by using data science. For more information about this unique partnership explore data.org.
