The Center for Open Data Enterprise (CODE) is a nonprofit founded in January 2015. The group works with governments and private organizations to use data for left-of-center social agendas. CODE’s president, Joel Gurin, is the former Chair of White House Task Force on Smart Disclosure under President Barack Obama and the author of Open Data Now. ¹

CODE has collaborated with IBM, Microsoft, the United Nations, and Bezos Earth Fund. ² The nonprofit’s Bezos Earth Fund collaboration involved developing climate-change management plans and supporting the Fund’s proposed Environmental Justice Collaborative. ³ CODE is a grant recipient from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. ⁴

The Center for Open Data Enterprise hosts roundtables and publishes research reports. There have been 29 roundtables with 1,718 experts representing 1,114 different organizations, resulting in 50 publications. Of the attendants, 43 percent were from the Federal and State governments, 24 percent from the private sector, 23 percent from “civil society,” and 9 percent from academia. Over 24 of the roundtables were hosted with the White House and federal agencies. ⁵

Roundtables and Research

The Opportunity Project

In 2019, Center for Open Data Enterprise participated in The Opportunity Project (TOP) 2018 development cycle, which developed data analytics tools for natural disaster risk assessment, opioid overdose risk, employment, and federal spending audits. TOP is part of the Census Bureau at the U.S. Department of Commerce. ⁶

Social Determinants of Health

CODE’s 2022 Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) roundtable encouraged climate change and healthcare actions for federal, state, local governments to pursue. ⁷ The roundtable was co-hosted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The SDOH report suggested that minority communities are impacted more by SDOH, and that climate change has exacerbated SDOH. The report also claimed that climate change has disproportionately affected minority communities. ⁸

For all action items, the nonprofit’s report listed government agencies that it recommends should get involved with the action items. The report also recommended involvement from private companies and state/local governments. ⁹

CODE’s report suggested that the Healthy People 2030 model be adopted by all levels of government. The report stated that local implementation of Healthy People 2030 would allow for more relevant goal-setting. ¹⁰ Healthy People 2030 is a U.S. Department of Health program that promotes disease prevention. ¹¹ The program has aimed to increase child vaccinations and reduce smoking. ¹²

CODE’s report requested interagency coordination between federal agencies to combat climate change. The report also recommended the creation of a centralized organization that would collect all data related to SDOH. ¹³

Policing

In 2021, the Center for Open Data Enterprise released a paper that identified issues with the ability to measure crime, police responses, and unclear police behavior metrics. The paper also discussed alternatives to policing, such as sending experts in cases of behavioral health or drug abuse instead of sending police. The paper recommended increasing public availability of policing statistics. ¹⁴

Paul Kuhne is a Roundtables Program Manager at CODE and Temililoa Afolabi is a Research Associate at CODE. Kuhne and Temililoa contrasted the January 6 “insurrection of far-right extremists […] with police treatment of Black Lives Matter protesters.” In their view, this “intensified concerns about racial bias in policing” and was a reason for the importance of the report. ¹⁵

In 2022, CODE collaborated with Measures for Justice (MFJ) in a project on policing data. MFJ used the nonprofit’s research to propose national standards for police conduct. ¹⁶

The report recommended increased police supervision and funding for increased policing data analytics. It suggested alternatives to arrest yet it did not explicitly define them. The report also recommended that local governments publish police salaries and department budgets for the broader communities. ¹⁷ In 2022, the West Sacramento Police Department adopted standards based on CODE’s policing recommendations. ¹⁸

Climate Change

In 2021, the Bezos Earth Fund awarded $443 million to 44 different organizations to promote “President Biden’s environmental pillars:” direct 40 percent of climate change-related investment to “historically marginalized communities” and protect 30 percent of land and water by 2030. Bezos’s climate change group partnered with the Center for Open Data Enterprise to develop climate change plans. The Bezos Earth Fund awarded $38 million to Native American communities. ¹⁹

In April 2022, CODE co-hosted a roundtable on Climate Change with PARIS21. The report expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of data on climate change and recommended the development of “country-level projects” for collecting data. ²⁰

Finances

In 2020, the Center for Open Data Enterprise’s total revenue was $489,316. Total expenses were $587,426. Of its total revenue, 10.2 percent derived from contributions, totaling $49,746, and 89.8 percent of revenue derived from program services, totaling $439,570. Total assets were $106,656 and total liabilities were $266,621, leaving a net asset deficit of $159,965. ²¹

In 2016, CODE received a $185,000 grant from Arnold Ventures. ²²

On July 28, 2017, CODE received a $450,000 grant from Hewlett Foundation as part of a Gender Equity and Governance program. ²³

1. “About.” Center for Open Data Enterprise. Accessed September 17, 2022. https://www.opendataenterprise.org/about
2. “About.” Center for Open Data Enterprise. Accessed September 17, 2022. https://www.opendataenterprise.org/about
3. Brugger, Kelsey. “Bezos fund awards $443M for environmental justice, climate.” Greenwire. December 6, 2021. https://www.eenews.net/articles/bezos-fund-awards-443m-for-environmental-justice-climate/
4. “Center for Open Data Enterprise Inc.” William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Accessed September 21, 2022. https://hewlett.org/grants/center-for-open-data-enterprise-for-a-project-to-support-and-develop-national-reporting-platforms-for-the-sustainable-development-goals/
5. “What We Do.” Center for Open Data Enterprise. Accessed September 17, 2022. https://www.opendataenterprise.org/what-we-do
6. Gurin, Joel and Katarino Rebello. “How federal agencies can use agile development to apply open data.” Fedscoop. June 19, 2019. https://www.fedscoop.com/the-opportunity-project-report-center-for-open-data-enterprise/
7. Gurin, Joel and Matt Rumsey. “How Federal Agencies Can Improve Americans’ Health and Well-Being.” Government Executive. April 18, 2022.  https://www.govexec.com/management/2022/04/how-agencies-across-government-can-improve-americans-health-and-well-being/365550/
8. “Roundtable on Cross-Sectional Collaboration on the Social Determinants of Health.” Center for Open Data Enterprise. April 2022. http://reports.opendataenterprise.org/Cross-Sectoral-SDOH-Summary-Report-April-2022.pdf
9. “Roundtable on Cross-Sectional Collaboration on the Social Determinants of Health.” Center for Open Data Enterprise. April 2022. http://reports.opendataenterprise.org/Cross-Sectoral-SDOH-Summary-Report-April-2022.pdf
10. “Roundtable on Cross-Sectional Collaboration on the Social Determinants of Health.” Center for Open Data Enterprise. April 2022. http://reports.opendataenterprise.org/Cross-Sectoral-SDOH-Summary-Report-April-2022.pdf
11. “Healthy People 2030 Framework.” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Accessed September 22, 2022. https://health.gov/healthypeople/about/healthy-people-2030-framework
12. “History of Healthy People.” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  Accessed September 22, 2022. https://health.gov/our-work/national-health-initiatives/healthy-people/about-healthy-people/history-healthy-people
13. “Roundtable on Cross-Sectional Collaboration on the Social Determinants of Health.” Center for Open Data Enterprise. April 2022. http://reports.opendataenterprise.org/Cross-Sectoral-SDOH-Summary-Report-April-2022.pdf
14. “Open Data for Racial Equity.” Center for Open Data Enterprise. January 2021. http://reports.opendataenterprise.org/Policing-Data-Briefing-Paper.pdf
15. Afolabi, Temilola and Paul Kuhne. “Open data: A critical tool for police reform and racial equity.” Fedscoop. January 14, 2021. https://www.fedscoop.com/open-data-critical-tool-police-reform-racial-equity/
16. Bach, Amy and Darrell Malone. “OP-ED: IT’S TIME FOR THE DATA REVOLUTION TO IMPROVE U.S. POLICING.” The Black Wall Street Times. July 21, 2022. https://theblackwallsttimes.com/2022/07/21/op-ed-its-time-for-the-data-revolution-to-improve-u-s-policing/
17. “Roundtable on Improving Data for Racial Equity in Policing.” Center for Open Data Enterprise. June 2022. https://measuresforjustice.org/about/docs/Roundtable%20on%20Improving%20Data%20for%20Racial%20Equity%20in%20Policing
18. Habbegger, Becca. “West Sacramento police among first in nation to pilot police transparency initiative.” ABC 10. January 24, 2022. https://www.abc10.com/article/news/crime/west-sacramento-police-police-transparency/103-5de37921-7366-4fa8-9dd9-1991679db8c3
19. Brugger, Kelsey. “Bezos fund awards $443M for environmental justice, climate.” Greenwire. December 6, 2021. https://www.eenews.net/articles/bezos-fund-awards-443m-for-environmental-justice-climate/
20. “Envisioning a Climate Change Data Ecosystem: A path to co-ordinated climate action.” PARIS21. April 2022. https://www.paris21.org/sites/default/files/2022-04/Envisioning_a_climate_change_data_ecosystem.pdf
21. “Center for Open Data Enterprise Inc.” Propublica. Accessed September 17, 2022. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/472871408
22. “Center for Open Data Enterprise Inc.” Arnold Ventures. Accessed September 21, 2022. https://www.arnoldventures.org/grants/center-for-open-data-enterprise-inc
23. “Center for Open Data Enterprise Inc.” William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Accessed September 21, 2022. https://hewlett.org/grants/center-for-open-data-enterprise-for-a-project-to-support-and-develop-national-reporting-platforms-for-the-sustainable-development-goals/