Funding the Future of Public Data: The Role of Philanthropy in Building a Stronger Data Ecosystem

By Lisa Le, Summer 2026 Digital Communications Intern, Data Foundation

Public data is foundational to effective government, sound policymaking, and better outcomes for communities. But maintaining and modernizing the systems that produce, manage, and connect that data requires collaboration across sectors.

At the 2026 Data Summit, Data Foundation President and Chief Executive Officer Nick Hart spoke with Daniella Lowenberg, Director of the Data Funders Collaborative, and Rachel Snyderman, Senior Director of Federal Programs at the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, about the role philanthropy can play in building a stronger public data ecosystem.

Their conversation has been edited and produced as an episode of Data for the People!, a podcast from the Data Foundation. 

“It’s really about—the data for what?”

For Lowenberg, the goal of investing in data infrastructure is not simply to modernize technology for its own sake. The Data Funders Collaborative, a group of 12 philanthropies, focuses on strengthening data infrastructure for research, practice, and policy.

Its priorities include modernizing state and local data infrastructure, improving the effective use of data, and preparing data systems for artificial intelligence. But behind each of these priorities is a larger question: What will better data make possible?

“We're not modernizing data infrastructure because we like IT,” Lowenberg said. “We want to modernize it because then we could actually get to a point where humans [have] better public benefits that are happening because you can link them.”

Better-connected data could improve how policymakers understand labor markets, connect education and workforce data, and evaluate public programs. The value of infrastructure, in other words, lies in what it enables people and institutions to do.

“The ability to test new ideas”

Snyderman emphasized that philanthropy has a unique role to play in supporting experimentation and collaboration.

“I think the ability to test new ideas… is really where philanthropy steps in,” she said. While government has important safeguards around the use of taxpayer dollars, those same processes can make innovation and scientific research more difficult to pursue quickly.

Philanthropy can also bring people together. By convening experts from academia, advocacy, policy, and government, philanthropic organizations can help create the partnerships needed to develop and advance new ideas.

But philanthropy cannot replace government investment in federal data systems. As Lowenberg noted, philanthropic resources are simply not sufficient to take on that responsibility.

“Philanthropy can't take over the investments made in federal data systems,” she said. “But what philanthropy can do is actually take what's there… [and] build really cool projects and support really important work that is building off of those federal datasets.”

That distinction is critical. A stronger data ecosystem requires government to maintain core public data infrastructure, while philanthropy can help test new approaches, support research, connect stakeholders, and demonstrate what is possible.

“How do you get it from being the seventh thing they care about to the first thing they care about?”

One of the central challenges facing public data is not a lack of potential uses. It is prioritization.

Data modernization, quality, and infrastructure can be difficult to elevate on a crowded policy agenda, even when policymakers agree that these issues matter. Snyderman described the challenge as moving data from “the seventh thing they care about to the first thing they care about.”

That is where partnerships become particularly important. Philanthropy, researchers, advocates, and policymakers can work together to build evidence, identify what works, and translate technical findings into language that can reach decision-makers.

There may also be opportunities to use emerging technologies to accelerate progress. Lowenberg pointed to the potential for AI to improve data quality and reduce the burden on researchers and institutions that otherwise may not have the time or resources to clean and organize their data.

“Why not do it like that now?” she asked.

The future of public data will depend not only on preserving existing systems, but also on finding responsible ways to improve them. As the conversation at the 2026 Data Summit made clear, philanthropy cannot do this work alone. Neither can government, academia, or the private sector.

But by funding experimentation, convening diverse stakeholders, supporting evidence-building, and helping demonstrate the value of better data, philanthropy can help move the public data ecosystem toward a stronger future.

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Want to watch other panel sessions or presentations from the 2026 Data Summit? Video recordings are available on the Data Summit event page.