Digital Infrastructure for Civil Society

credit: Bread for the World

Lucy Bernholz, a Senior Research Scholar at Stanford University's Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society and Director of the Digital Civil Society Lab, writes about the concept of "digital civil society" and shares how The Digital Civil Society Lab at Stanford's Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society convened this group of the Digital Impact community and partners to reflect on several important transitions.

According to Bernholz, there are three key transitions: The recent evolution of the former Markets for Good program into Digital Impact; the expanding scope of civil society's dependence on digital infrastructure; and the new areas of shared risk and potential benefit for civil society in the digital age.

The group has undertaken an exercise that allowed them to consider a few important trends, such as the rapid pace of change of the "superstructures" and the clustering around certain kinds of innovation such as online giving mechanisms and sector-wide data sources.

Bernholz also lists down the risks and distortions of current digital structures, opportunities presented by current digital structures, and six thematic opportunities for future collaboration. Read the Entire Article

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