Time for the Better Deal for Data

January 28, 2026 | Jim Fruchterman

Tech Matters is delighted to announce the release of version 1.0 of the Better Deal for Data (BD4D), a new, practical data governance standard for the social sector. We co-developed the Standard in partnership with nonprofit data leaders and practitioners, learning from hundreds of discussions about how they use data to make positive change. We worked to create an accessible and straightforward standard for data governance that centers the interests of the communities nonprofits serve, rather than the profit focus of traditional tech companies.

Nonprofits want to do the right thing for their stakeholders. A key goal of the BD4D Standard is to help any nonprofit do the right things with their stakeholders’ data. Based on just seven, one-sentence commitments that are easy to understand without particular data, legal, or technical expertise, the complete standard includes the Commitments and explanatory text that expands on what each does, and does not mean, in practice. The seven BD4D Commitments are:

1. Purpose. We are using Your Data to benefit You, Your community, humanity, and the planet, not for private gain or profit.
2. Ownership. We don’t claim ownership of Your Data.
3. Control. We will delete Your Data, correct it, or transfer it to You if You ask.
4. Monetization. We will not monetize Your Data by providing it to third parties for compensation.
5. Protection. We will steward Your Data with care, and comply with applicable data privacy laws.
6. Research. If we or a trusted partner do research based on Your Data, we will follow best practices around the anonymization of personal data, and published research papers or reports will be made available to You for free.
7. Binding. We will be legally bound by these Commitments, and anyone we share Your Data with will be similarly bound.

“BD4D provides something the social sector has long lacked: a shared, enforceable baseline for responsible data governance,” says Pano Skrivanos of the Cadasta Foundation. “This aligns closely with Cadasta’s own evolution toward stronger data stewardship, sovereignty, and governance across our global programs.”

Beyond the encouragement and ideas shared by the nonprofit community, we had the benefit of collaborating with several organizations to test putting the Better Deal for Data into practice. These pilot partners, including The Soil Inventory Project, The Carter Center’s Rosalynn Carter Mental Health and Caregiver Program, Cadasta Foundation, and Opportunity International, provided invaluable feedback that helped shape both the BD4D Standard and Playbook.

“What we were missing was a way to communicate that we would be good stewards for their data—that farmers and partners could trust us to fulfill our mission,” explained Dr. Kelsey Jensen and Lowery Parker, Head of Data Equity for The Soil Inventory Project (TSIP). As the first organization to fully adopt BD4D, TSIP has aligned its data use policies with the BD4D Commitments, and incorporated them directly into the onboarding process for Fieldvision, their mobile and web data platform.

Today, the Better Deal for Data enters a new phase, encouraging nonprofits everywhere to adopt the Standard, and promise their stakeholders that they will honor the Commitments. In addition to the Standard itself, we are releasing the BD4D Playbook to assist organizations in adopting the Standard. The Playbook includes sample nonprofit data uses, readiness and implementation guides, snapshots of how BD4D is being deployed, and examples of how—and how not to—align data practices to the Better Deal.

“BD4D’s focus on clear, concise, plain language data governance principles directly aligns with our values, and our commitment to treating caregivers as partners, not just data sources,” adds Dr. Ke Wang, Data Analyst for The Carter Center’s Rosalynn Carter Mental Health and Caregiver Program. “We are pleased to be among the early contributors helping to shape an effort that strengthens trust, transparency, and collaboration across the caregiving data ecosystem.”

Nonprofits frequently collect and use data from and about vulnerable people, while at the same time collecting information on the social issues which make them vulnerable. Our first objective is to guide organizations in safeguarding this data, ensuring that it is used for their communities’ benefit. We hope to encourage the increased availability of data for ethical, privacy respecting research on what does and doesn’t work in social programs. And, in the age of artificial intelligence, when the majority of humanity is not well represented in commercial AI products, we also hope to support the creation of AI technology that is focused on social good, reflecting the huge variety of humanity.

Twenty years ago, most organizations serving children did not have a child safeguarding policy. Today, every responsible organization providing services to children and youth has such a policy. And, although there is no single standard policy, there is widespread understanding of what core elements need to be in a policy to protect children. We aim to ignite the same kind of reform effort when it comes to using and safeguarding the sensitive data of the people being served by nonprofits, setting forth what expectations should be met for an organization to be a trustworthy steward of sensitive data.

I want to acknowledge the volunteer efforts of so many whose time and deep thinking informed BD4D every step of the way. I want to especially thank the donors who backed this novel idea, including the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (who first challenged us to create a trustworthy approach to data), the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, Schmidt Futures, the Skoll Foundation, Okta for Good, and Splunk. And, finally, I would like to thank the Tech Matters team members who made BD4D a reality, especially M Celine Takatsuno, Dr. Katy McKinney-Bock, and Steve Francis.

While it is exciting to celebrate this milestone of formally launching an adoption-ready BD4D Standard, our work is far from done. We are certain to learn much in the coming years about how it can be improved, and what else we need to do to maximize the widespread adoption of responsible and trustworthy data use. If you have feedback about the Better Deal for Data, we would love to hear from you!