Highlights from Issue Lab’s most popular 2024 resources 

Candid’s Issue Lab is an open-access library dedicated to collecting, preserving, and sharing reports, case studies, surveys, and toolkits published by social sector organizations. As of December 2024, you can search and download over 35,500 such resources about efforts to improve the lives of people in their communities and beyond. 

In 2024, more than 195,000 users accessed Issue Lab’s collection of shared knowledge. This review highlights some of the most popular resources published in the past year—on topics ranging from data and AI in philanthropy to building a brighter future for children and youth. A few were included in my article about the most accessed resources as of August and remained at the top of the list for the year. 

Futures Philanthropy: Anticipation for the Common Good by Philanthropy Europe Association (Philea) and Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies. This report serves as a practical guide for two critical disciplines in one publication: futures and foresight. It looks at how European philanthropy can apply foresight and futures thinking to be forward-looking, risk-taking, and innovative while navigating an ever-changing philanthropy landscape. 

Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Implementation Guidebook (2024 update) by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. This latest update to W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s always popular guidebook looks at ways communities, organizations, and individuals can foster a decolonization agenda in their work through the Truth, Racial Healing, & Transformation (TRHT) framework. The 2024 edition incorporates learnings from the last five years of TRHT implementation. 

Lighting Up the Future for Children: Balancing urgent needs and future opportunities by the Institute for the Future. How can nonprofit organizations, communities, leaders, and funders come together to create a bright, child-centric future together? This resource provides a roadmap for shaping the next decade for children through a longer-term view of the issues impacting children. It is intended to spark collaborative visioning, planning, action, and reflection as we all work to ensure a bright future for all children.  

The state of diversity in the U.S. nonprofit sector by Candid. For the past five years, Candid has invited nonprofits to share demographic information about their organizations. This report examines that data across categories like race, gender, sexual orientation, and disability status to form an initial overview of diversity in philanthropic organizations as it stands today. The report is intended to increase transparency around diversity in nonprofits and serves as a baseline to track collective progress toward diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

Data Science, AI and Data Philanthropy in Foundations: On the Path to Maturity by Philea and Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo. Data and AI play an increasingly important role in all facets of philanthropy. This research, potentially the first study of its kind, investigates the level of data work within philanthropic foundations to provide a snapshot of the current level of maturity and commitment around data-related matters. 

Views on Offshore Wind in New England by the Barr Foundation and Hart Research. To offset reliance on fossil fuels and other non-renewable energy sources, many communities are exploring green energy sources such as wind. In June of 2024 residents of three coastal states—Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island—participated in a survey designed to capture their views on the threat of climate change and the role that renewable energy sources like offshore wind can play in mitigating its effects. 

Doing Evaluation in Service of Racial Equity: A Tool Kit for Practitioners by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Evaluating the effectiveness and impact of their philanthropic efforts can be one of the most difficult things for an organization to do, but it can also provide opportunities to advance the causes organizations value most, including the pursuit of racial equity. This toolkit includes insightful blogs, tip sheets, presentations and more, that will help evaluators understand how they can advance racial equity through evaluation. 

Industrial Food Animal Production: How It Works And How We Resist by Rachel Mason (Author) with funding from Animal Charity Evaluators. This research provides an overview of the effects of industrial food animal production, including the ways it affects people, animals, and ecosystems globally. It is intended to provide insights and guidance to help advocates working within the farmed animal advocacy sphere affect positive change.  

Dollars and Change by GivingTuesday, Network for Good, and Candid. This collaborative research project aimed to explore two primary questions: 1) Can cross-organizational data sets be combined strategically? and 2) By combining cross-organizational data sets, what can we learn about how capital flows in the nonprofit sector? It examines combined data from GivingTuesday, Candid, and Network for Good to create a comprehensive view of capital flows in the nonprofit sector from 2015 to 2022. 

Responsible AI adoption Framework in Philanthropy: An Initial Framework for Grantmakers by the Technology Association of Grantmakers (TAG). Published in December of 2023, this report has proven a popular read throughout 2024. It provides a framework for grantmakers looking to adopt AI into their work while ensuring it aligns with their core values. It calls on foundations to help advance the use of AI for nonprofit enablement in a responsible way that prioritizes human flourishing, minimizes risk, and maximizes benefit for all.   

You can find these and other reports, including Candid’s own publications, in Issue Lab’s main collection. Our special collections offer deep dives on topics like democracy, climate change, participatory grantmaking, and more.  

To add a report, case study, survey, or toolkit to Issue Lab, check our collection policy and sign up for a free account. You can help strengthen the sector’s collective knowledge and impact.