Funding the Future of Public Data

This episode of Data for the People! shares highlights from the Data Foundation’s 2026 Data Summit, focusing on philanthropy’s role in supporting a stronger shared data ecosystem.

Data Foundation President and CEO Nick Hart moderates a conversation with Daniella Lowenberg of the Data Funders Collaborative and Rachel Snyderman of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

Lowenberg describes the Collaborative’s priorities, including modernizing state and local data infrastructure, improving effective data use (privacy, self-sovereignty, and quality), and data readiness for AI and evaluation.

Snyderman explains the Peterson Foundation’s focus on long-term fiscal sustainability and how bipartisan attention to improper payments, fraud, waste, and abuse can be reframed as a data issue that also improves benefit access.

The panel discusses where philanthropy can test ideas and convene cross-sector partners, while noting limits in replacing federal system investments or making federal policy, and highlights opportunities to accelerate progress through responsible use of new technology and clearer communication to policymakers.

If you enjoyed this conversation from our 2026 Data Summit, then you won’t want to miss our next big event: govDATAx, on September 15th at George Washington University. 

govDATAx brings together government leaders, data practitioners, policymakers, technologists, and researchers to advance the use of data for more effective, transparent, and accountable government. 

Learn more and register. 

Interested in learning more about Evi, the Evidence Act Hub AI assistant co-developed by the Data Foundation and Data Foundation Senior Fellow Ted Kaouk? A beta version is now available to test.  

govDATAx is the Data Foundation's flagship conference bringing together government leaders, data practitioners, policymakers, technologists, and researchers to advance the use of data for more effective, transparent, and accountable government.

This year's govDATAx will be on Sept. 15 at George Washington University. 

Register now.

Want to be part of a national community that promotes policies that enable government data to be high-quality, accessible, and usable? Join our Data Coalition: https://datafoundation.org/pages/join-the-data-coalition

The Data Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank. All contributions may be tax deductible. We appreciate all charitable contributions towards fulfilling our mission to make democratic society better for everyone by championing the use of open data and evidence-informed public policy. Donate: https://datafoundation.org/supportus

Follow the Data Foundation on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/datafoundation

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Welcome back to Data for the People, a podcast from the Data Foundation. I'm your host, JB Wogan. Last month, the Data Foundation hosted one of our flagship events, the 2026 Data Summit, which explored the value of public data as strategic infrastructure and included an afternoon program that looked specifically at how better data can help manage environmental risk. If you were able to attend, thank you. We'd loved seeing you. But if you couldn't make it, we'd like to share some of the greatest hits from the data site. So, over the next few weeks, we'll be releasing episodes that repackage presentations and panel sessions from the event. The episode that you're listening to right now will focus on the role of philanthropy in supporting a better future for our shared data ecosystem. The moderator was Data Foundation president and CEO Nick Hart. He spoke with Daniela Loenberg of the Data Funders Collaborative and Rachel Snyderman of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. If you're a fan of the show, help us reach new listeners by sharing this episode with friends who you think might like it too. If you're not yet a subscriber, please go ahead and click that subscribe button now. And if you're feeling really generous, leave us a rating and review. With that, I hope you enjoy this conversation about philanthropy and the data ecosystem.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Let me introduce you to our two panelists here. Daniela, immediately to my left, Daniela Loenberg, is the director of the Data Funders Collaborative. And she'll give you a lot more detail on that, but uh spent time with the University of California Office of the President and uh a bit of time over at the Department of Health and Human Services. And then to her left is Rachel Snyderman, uh, who uh recently joined the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, which is one of the Data Foundation's funders, uh, where she's the senior director of federal programs, but also spent time uh back at the White House Office of Management and Budget, and those were the days, and the Bipartisan Policy Center. Also, those were the days. Uh I'm also an alum. So uh very excited to have you both. Thanks for joining us. And uh, you know, let's really just dive in here. So um looking back across our whole day, we've been dancing around these questions of what's the role of data in moving us toward a better future, a better society, better outcomes. I'd like to get your perspectives on how do we think about that question. But then importantly for each of you, uh, because you do sit in slightly different places, what are you actually seeing right now that contributes to this? Could be about the funders, the projects, and how we're actually building toward that. So, Daniela, can we start with you?

SPEAKER_03 3:07

Sure. Thanks for having me. It's nice to see you guys. Um, as Nick mentioned, I'm the director of the Data Funders Collaborative. We now have a website, so you can go check out datafunderscollaborative.org and see which funders are part of the group. But it's um 12 philanthropies that are focused on the learning, discovery, and co-funding of having a strong data infrastructure for research, practitioners, and policy. Um we have a couple of priority areas right now around what Nikki's asking about. Um, one of them that we see as a priority is modernizing state and local data infrastructure, um, especially in light of HR1 and other requirements that have been coming out, but also who hasn't been wanting to modernize that infrastructure for a long time now. Another one is about optimizing the use of data. So we're calling that effective data use and things like data privacy, data self-sovereignty, um, data quality coming out under that. And then the last is of course data readiness for AI, but we're thinking about that in terms of what does interoperability look like when you're looking at data for policy versus data for a practitioner. Um, we're also looking at data in AI systems for evaluation. How are we evaluating some of these systems that are being used? And also how are data and AI being used in modern evaluation of programs? And so right now, some of that when Nick frames it as what is data that could lead us somewhere, it's really about like the data for what. So we're not modernizing data infrastructure because we like IT. We want to modernize it because then we could actually get to a point where humans better better public benefits that are happening because you can link them, better understanding of the labor market because you're using education and workforce data. Um and so those are kind of the highest levels. I'm sure we'll dive into it, but over to you.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Rachel.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Perfect. Well, thank you. I think I've determined that I'm like the colleague or the friend you went on that scavenger hunt where you have to find a commonality between someone in the room because I guess I can find a commonality, you know, with with anyone. Um, but no, it's a it's a great, it's great to be here. And and Nick, thank you for the invitation and for you know having the foundation represented. Um, just for a bit of context, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation was founded by former commerce secretary, Pete Peterson, um, who believed that uh it was, you know, our our duty to ensure that the next generation had a stronger, uh inherited a stronger economy than the current. And so the work that we do at the foundation funds policy research that um helps in some way, shape, or form improve uh the long-term fiscal outlook and fiscal sustainability of the United States. Um, where I'm really excited, where our work has intersected, you know, on this issue and with the stakeholders in the room, is that we have, you know, we are looking at opportunities in the political and the policy environment to um to leverage. And right now, when we look at the uh really bipartisan um focus on improper payments and fraud, waste and abuse and benefit access, um, we really saw an opportunity to not only make the direct relationship between how this is a fiscal issue, one that, you know, if we if we tackle um reducing improper payments, it's not only going to help reduce the deficit, but also improve access to important programs. But that fundamentally it's not a political issue. Um, it's it's not only a fraud issue, but that it's a data issue. And I think that kind of helping reframe um that narrative uh has been really, I think ultimately very successful for a lot of the work that Nick and the team have led over the past year through our partnership. Um but I what I'm really excited for too is that we're able to leverage a lot of the opportunity in the spotlight that has increasingly been on the industry and on the community over the past year and a half. Um, you know, certainly looking at what the task force, uh the White House Task Force will be putting out, um, obviously a lot of movement on bicameral and bipartisan um movement on addressing these issues. And so that is the work that our foundation you know is intimately involved in in supporting the research and the academic community uh to solve.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Yeah, that's great. So you're you're both really, I think, highlighting very nicely the social good, public good component and you know, Rachel, for the work of the Fiscal Intelligence Initiative, ensuring that taxpayer dollars are spent on what we intend and that it works and that it works well. Uh one project that the Data Foundation has that, and I'm gonna get to the question, don't worry. But uh we have a philanthropy-funded project in partnership with a company called Crosswalk Labs that produced the first open data asset at the neighborhood and census track level for CO2 emissions. And it's it's an example of something that a government could do. But instead, philanthropy funded this endeavor uh to ensure that the data were open and accessible. I I'm curious to maybe think a little bit about that thread of what is the real role of philanthropy here versus things that maybe a government should do or the private sector should do. I know there's a lot of opinions that are out there, but for this audience in particular that's comprised of cross-sector individuals and and uh uh folks who are really engaged in this. Can you help us think about this, uh, Rachel? You mentioned the fiscal pressures that we're under. Uh the private sector might have its own interests, government has certain priorities and laws it's following, uh, researchers might need access to data, but maybe don't know how to how to thrive in the investment community. So, what are the things maybe that philanthropy can only do or should only do? Are there things that we must defer to government? And how do we navigate this big question of balancing across sectors? Or do we have to? So, Rachel, can we start with you this time?

SPEAKER_02 9:59

Sure. That sounds great. Um, you know, I think the ability to test new ideas, that's really where philanthropy steps in and where government um unfortunately, I mean, fortunately for the you know, production of taxpayer dollars, but unfortunately for you know the process of innovation and scientific research, um that's more challenging. And um uh and so I really think that that's r where philanthropy um um needs to step in, you know, frankly, now more than ever. Um I also think that you know there is the the convening power um that philanthropy provides. I mean, obviously, uh Nick, you you navigated the interagency uh collaboration better than you know anyone when I was at OMB, but I don't know if I'd say that. But um that's obviously a real challenge. And I think um, you know, today philanthropies have the power to not only come together and partner with other philanthropies, but to bring real um, you know, cross-section of experts from academia, from the advocacy community, from the policy community, from government, um, you know, both political appointees and and career um officials uh together to you know come up with solutions. And um I'm proud that we've been able to serve that role um in the current climate.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Danielle.

SPEAKER_03 11:28

Yeah, also now is a good reminder that I should have said from the start, but I'm representing Data Funders Collaborative and none of the funders specifically, um, to answer this question, which building off what you were saying, um that's kind of why this collaborative exists, which is that we have funders that are interested in different parts of it. Some are interested in K-12, some post-secondary to workforce, some about health. And so there is so many commonalities there. And so if we come together and everyone puts in for their specific reason, for instance, um, we're funding Beck Center to do work right now on understanding what that cost would look like to modernize data infrastructure in light of HR one. And so we have funders that put in for it that all come from a different reasoning of what type of data they're interested in linking to get there. Um, but to go back to Nick's original question, um, I would say that philanthropy can't take over the investments made in federal data systems. And we saw this happen when everyone rushed to philanthropy, and uh I was there at the agency going to philanthropy saying, help us with data rescue and help us with these projects. But it's just a sheer dollar thing that philanthropy is not gonna replace the federal data systems that we have right now. There's tons of meetings that we've been going to, I'm sure many in this room, about how do we what do we want to do about the federal data system? Philanthropy is not who's gonna take that on. Philanthropy also can't do federal AI and data policy. But what philanthropy can do is actually take what's there and then again, data for what? Build really cool projects and support really important work that is building off of those federal data sets, linking them, working with the states, philanthropy working directly with the states and localities to make this happen. Um, and so there's tons of awesome work that's happening at the state level, um, and and projects that I don't know if you're gonna ask about other projects I can plug, but for instance, Tech Talent Project is a group that we're supporting who's working on the governor prep work right now, getting data capacity within the first hundred days after the election. Um, and so there are these spaces where we can plug in from philanthropy around, but I do want to make clear that there has been so many just discussions about data rescue and federal data system, and there's maybe that separation.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

Yeah, and if I can if I can just add to that, because I think that the you know, the spotlight on the state work is so important. Um, and I say this kind of with a few different hats on. When I was at the Bipartisan Policy Center, um, you know, we supported, uh, or not supported, we we did federal research and advocacy. But what we did a lot of times was look to building that evidence base by uplifting, you know, what for the federal government can learn from the states. And so while, yes, philanthropy, you know, we can't pass the laws, but we can, you know, as sure as heck galvanize, you know, all of the evidence that we can to um inform good policy.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

Yeah, I'm actually just thinking right now, what would it look like if philanthropy could pass laws? I think they look very different. Um okay, so I'm gonna come to your all's questions in just a minute. So think about what questions you might have for Rachel and Daniela. If you don't come up with them, I'm going to call on people because that's my prerogative. So um I'm actually this this is uh I mean this is a fantastic thought process about the distinction of government, public sector, and philanthropic role. Uh Daniela, you highlighted really clearly there are things that governments must do effectively in the in the data ecosystem. Philanthropy will never have the resources, notwithstanding how many billionaires there are in the world to fill in that gap. But one thing that hasn't really come up today that I think is maybe relevant here is this idea of data minimization. So you you you alluded to the concept of data rescue, saving the things that are out there, which in many cases might be crappy data. Can you help us think about if there's a philanthropic role for prioritizing what data sets or data assets really matter? Does philanthropy jump in here at all?

SPEAKER_03 15:53

Well, I I can only answer it because it goes back to this area that I was saying is one of the priorities, which is evaluating like what is evaluation now in this era of both the data volatility, but also program volatility and AI changing every 60 days, what the possibilities are. So I think one of those to answer your question, that is exactly why we need to put some emphasis here on what the role of evaluation and AI is. And that would probably get us to the point of philanthropy understanding what that is. But I think that was part of the problem, is that there is so much data, and there are so many data systems, and investing in data systems, as I'm sure many of you have known, trying to write a grant around this is hard to sometimes make it sound super exciting. And so it's gonna be a perpetual issue of that, and I would defer back to putting some light on us rethinking evaluation.

unknown 16:56

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

I think the kind of the core challenge that is not new to anyone in this room is just you are dealing with such a diverse set of stakeholders, and you know, when that kind of translates to the policy community, um, you know, multiple congressional jurisdictions uh committees, um, you know, many who have perceived notions of of what is useful and good, and those that, you know, that vary. So I think that that is a challenge, and that is why, though, um, these partnerships with the f within the philanthropic community, within the policy and the research community, um, those especially that have kind of that inside knowledge in the beltway here, um, I think over the past year in particular have been really important. I mean, I think we've seen just so many more organizations stepping into being a, you know, trying to figure out a way to prioritize a long-standing issue that, you know, frankly, when I've spoken to members of Congress, they all care about, but it's just, you know, how do you get it from being the seventh thing they care about to the first thing they care about? And that's really hard.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

Well, leading an organization called the Data Foundation, this is like the heart of uh the challenge that we face. And Danielle, you said uh you know, it's like the non-sexy topic sometimes, very unglamorous. So we we've had laws that have been passed mandating government agencies to do particular things with data. The Environmental Protection Agency had some of the first federal open data laws around uh emissions and uh being able to identify where your local uh cleaners were and what they're what was coming out of the stacks. Uh uh seven years ago, we had the Open Government Data Act uh with the expectation that federal agencies have open by default standards for their data. Uh we in the financial services sector, we have things like the Financial Data Transparency Act, which impose more openness and data standards, but yet still we seem to be struggling with understanding and actually implementing the change. So later this year, uh, if you're not tracking this, the Open Government Data Act requires uh the implementation of certain data standards for the metadata, the summary information and the cataloging infrastructure that will exist for federal agencies. And the intent of that is that we'll actually be able to know what data government really has as a starting point. Um so looking back on this like arc of history that I'm describing here with all of these things that have happened, knowing that there's legal mandates that are coming down the pipeline, I'm curious to hear from you that whether it's like after a day or a month or a year, um on these topics of reporting burden, data reliability, are we really making progress? Or does it seem like we're coming back to the same questions over and over and getting a bit stuck? And the key question is are we making that progress? And then um how do we make it go faster? And I I as much as I want to say philanthropy should just donate more money, that's probably not the right answer. So, Danielle, let's go to you first.

SPEAKER_03 20:00

I have so many thoughts, but none of them have to do from philanthropy perspective, just from being the person that tried to open up the data. But I will actually give a little shout out to a data foundation fellow, which is that if you a way that this could happen faster is by responsibly using new technology. That's something where we at DFC have been going around saying, okay, we want to fund, we want to make sure that administrative data is better quality, so then AI can pick it up and then we could do good stuff with it and it's done responsibly. So should we invest in the data quality? And then I talked to Ted and he was like, why wouldn't you just use AI and then better the data quality that way? So then it goes in a circle. So I think one way to get there is if we more effectively and responsibly use new tools that are out there. And I know that it can work because in a prior life, when I ran a research data repository, researchers will not better their data quality or put it out there, even if your grant required it, um, it only worked if we did it for them automatically. And so if why not do it like that now?

SPEAKER_01 21:09

Rachel?

SPEAKER_02 21:12

It's an it's an excellent question. I think that um, you know, how I'm thinking about this is that there is just such a policy window right now to leverage with um you know the real attention on this issue that um I think that there is a real opportunity to you know capitalize on um on the work and on the evidence base that's been built. But I think to that point it is exactly you know, to your point, Daniela, like cataloging what's working and sharing that far and wide and and putting it into um a way that is you know translatable, understandable to a layman, you know, audience and a congressional staffer. Um that's really, I mean, I think that that is really where um you know ultimate progress can be achieved and measured.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

All right, that wraps up this episode of Data for the People, a podcast from the Data Foundation. You just heard a conversation moderated by our president and CEO, Nick Hart, with expert insights from Daniela Loenberg of the Data Funders Collaborative and Rachel Snyderman of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. They spoke on June 4th at our 2026 Data Summit. If you would like to learn more about that Data Summit, we have a blog summarizing the full program and a page with video recordings of presentations and panel sessions. As I mentioned at the top, we'll be featuring some of those here on the podcast in the coming weeks. One of the presenters that day was Ted Calck, a Data Foundation senior fellow who has helped us develop Eevee, an AI agent that helps users explore and analyze a full collection of Federal Evidence Act resources that have been centralized and curated by staff at the Data Foundation, Center for Evidence Capacity. You can now check out a beta version of Eevee at EvidenceAct.org. Our next big event is GovData Act on September 15th at George Washington University. A link to learn more and register is also in our show notes. If you liked this episode, subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and if you're feeling really generous, leave us a rating and review. To learn more about the Data Foundation, go to datafoundation.org.