Data Science for Social Good
Non-profit fellowship program that trains aspiring data scientists to build machine learning and AI solutions for government and nonprofit partners; funded by universities, grants, and charitable donations; operates cohorts across the US and Europe.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2013
- HeadquartersPittsburgh, United States
- Headcount—
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Data Science for Social Good does
Data Science for Social Good (DSSG) is a non-profit fellowship program founded in 2013 at the University of Chicago that trains aspiring data scientists through hands-on machine learning, AI, and data science projects delivered to government and nonprofit partners. The program operates a structured summer-fellowship model in which cohorts of fellows work under faculty and practitioner mentorship to build production-grade analytics — spanning computer vision, NLP, predictive modeling, and recommendation systems — for public-interest use cases. Notable deployments include a diabetes-risk model for AllianceChicago covering a 2 million-patient population, a traffic-accident prediction system for Rijkswaterstaat demonstrating a 3-4x improvement, and call-routing analytics for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. All project code is released as open source on GitHub, and the program is led by Rayid Ghani as Director and Chief Data Scientist.
DSSG's business model is grant- and donation-funded rather than revenue-generating: the fellowship is free for both fellows and project partners, with operating costs underwritten by university hosts, government grants, and charitable contributions from institutional funders including the Sloan Foundation and Schmidt Sciences. The program has expanded from its University of Chicago origin to additional host universities — Carnegie Mellon in 2022 and Johns Hopkins in 2026 — and has been internationalized through DSSG Europe, which operates across Portugal, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Italy, and Croatia under co-founder Paul van der Boor. Recent cohort sizes have trended smaller (24 fellows in 2022; 15 in 2026), suggesting tighter selectivity rather than aggressive scale-up.
The organization's competitive position rests on three reinforcing assets: a selective talent funnel into applied ML for social impact, a published portfolio of real-world AI deployments that function as reusable methodological proof, and a growing cross-border alumni network across more than 40 countries. These assets are embedded within university partnerships that provide academic legitimacy, faculty mentorship, and student pipelines, but they also leave the program structurally dependent on a narrow set of institutional funders and host universities for continued operation.
Data Science for Social Good firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Data Science for Social Good
- Legal name
- Data Science for Social Good Foundation
- Website
- https://dssgfellowship.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2013
- Operating status
- Operating
- Short description
- Non-profit fellowship program that trains aspiring data scientists to build machine learning and AI solutions for government and nonprofit partners; funded by universities, grants, and charitable donations; operates cohorts across the US and Europe.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Data Science for Social Good industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Social Impact Data Science Fellowship
- NAICS
- Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (54172), Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (54171)
- SIC
- Services-Computer Programming Services (7371), Services-Social Services (8300)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Data Science & Analytics Learning Platforms (EDAFANAG)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Data Science & Analytics (Data Literacy, SQL, Visualization) (EDAMACAF)
Keywords
Where Data Science for Social Good is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Pittsburgh
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices5 records
Markets served
Data Science for Social Good business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others
Revenue model
- Institutional Funding and Donations: The fellowship is supported by universities (Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, Nova SBE), government grants, and charitable donations. Contact email is [email protected] for donations.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Other | Multi-year contract | Fellowship Program - Free for Participants |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels7 records
Data Science for Social Good product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Data Science for Social Good operates a full-time summer fellowship program that trains aspiring data scientists to work on machine learning, data science, and AI projects with social impact. Working closely with governments and nonprofits, fellows take on real-world problems in education, health, criminal justice, sustainability, public safety, workforce development, human services, transportation, economic development, and international development. The fellowship runs annually at rotating university hosting locations and produces open-source tools and code libraries from its projects.
Product overview
The Data Science for Social Good Fellowship is a fellowship/training program rather than a traditional software product. It operates as a single unified program consisting of the DSSG Summer Fellowship (running at Johns Hopkins University in 2026, previously at Carnegie Mellon) and DSSG Europe (run in partnership with Nova School of Business and Economics in Cascais, Portugal). The program trains aspiring data scientists through hands-on projects with social impact, working closely with governments and nonprofits. Project areas span education, health, criminal justice, sustainability, public safety, transportation, economic development, international development, and more. The fellowship produces open-source tools and code libraries from its projects, including the hitchhiker's guide training materials and various project-specific repositories hosted on GitHub. For three months, fellows apply data science, analytical, and coding skills in a fast-paced collaborative environment under guidance from full-time mentors and project managers.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Data Science for Social Good Summer Fellowship Full-time summer program that trains aspiring data scientists to work on machine learning, data science, and AI projects with social impact. Fellows collaborate with governments and nonprofits on real-world problems in education, health, criminal justice, sustainability, public safety, transportation, economic development, international development, and more. Runs annually at rotating university hosting locations (2026 at Johns Hopkins University with 15 fellows and four city project partners).
- DSSG Europe Summer Fellowship Annual European branch of the fellowship, organized in collaboration with Nova School of Business and Economics. Trains aspiring data scientists on social impact projects with European government and nonprofit partners. Held in Cascais/Lisbon, Portugal with cohorts of approximately 15 fellows.
- Open Source Tools and Code Libraries Publicly available code repositories and tools developed during fellowship projects, including the hitchhiker's guide training materials and project-specific repositories for reproducibility and community benefit.
Quantifiable outcome
- 3 to 4 times improvement over baseline in accident prediction models for Rijkswaterstaat
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Data Science for Social Good
Customer profileNamed customers10 records
Segments2 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Data Science for Social Good technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability25 records
Feature4 records
Data Science for Social Good partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Ten partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core, minor and major.
- Johns Hopkins UniversityflagshipJohns Hopkins University is the hosting institution for the 2026 DSSG Summer Fellowship program in Baltimore. Provides venue, infrastructure, and academic support for the 15 fellows working with four city project partners.
- Carnegie Mellon UniversitycoreCarnegie Mellon University hosted the 2022 DSSG program after COVID-19 break. Historical partner institution where the program was run in recent years.
- Nova School of Business and Economics (Nova SBE)coreNova SBE organizes the DSSG Europe Summer Fellowship in collaboration with University of Chicago. Hosted European programs in 2017-2018 at Campus Campolide, Lisbon, Portugal.
- Municipality of CascaisminorThe Municipality of Cascais is a generous supporter of the DSSG Europe Summer Fellowship program, providing funding and local support for the European program.
- Data Science for Social Good FoundationcoreThe foundation co-runs the DSSG Fellowship program alongside Carnegie Mellon University. Copyright holder for the program (2021 Data Science for Social Good Foundation).
- Rijkswaterstaat (Netherlands Ministry of Water and Infrastructure Management)majorRijkswaterstaat is a government project partner working on predicting road accidents on Netherlands highways. Operates a 24-hour incident management service to ensure safety and mobility of emergency response workers.
- AllianceChicagomajorAllianceChicago is a national network of 44 community health centers serving least resourced communities. Partnered on diabetes risk identification project affecting up to 2 million patients.
- Vibrant Emotional HealthmajorAdministrator of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, receiving 2.4 million calls annually. Partnered on improving call routing logic to reduce wait times and call abandonment.
- CochranemajorCochrane is a not-for-profit organization creating systematic reviews of healthcare interventions. Partnered on increasing efficiency of meta-review creation using data science.
- Allegheny County Department of Human ServicesmajorPartnered on prioritizing rental assistance distribution to prevent homelessness with approximately $3M budget against 15,000 annual evictions.
Scale indicators6 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights4 records
Data Science for Social Good competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- The GovLab: The GovLab at NYU operates research and training programs focused on using data and technology to improve governance, overlapping with DSSG's academic-hosted, applied-research model for public-sector data science.
- Bayes Impact: Bayes Impact is a nonprofit that trains data scientists to build public-interest data products, with a fellowship model closely paralleling DSSG's structure and a similar mission of applying ML to social problems.
- DataKind: DataKind is a nonprofit that pairs data scientists with social impact organizations, operating a near-identical model of pro-bono data science project work and a fellowship-style DataCorps program. It is the most direct functional peer to DSSG in the data-science-for-social-good space.
- Code for America: Code for America runs a civic-tech fellowship that places technologists inside government agencies, sharing DSSG's focus on training early-career technologists to deliver software and data science for governments and nonprofits.
Broad incumbents
- Urban Institute: Urban Institute conducts large-scale applied research on social and economic policy using quantitative methods, serving as a broader incumbent in the same evidence-based, social-impact research space as DSSG.
- New America: New America is a large policy think tank with programs addressing technology, education, and public-sector innovation, making it a broad incumbent whose work overlaps with DSSG's training and policy-applied data science.
- RTI International: RTI International is a large nonprofit research institute that applies data science and analytics to social, health, and policy challenges, providing a broader commercial-scale analog to DSSG's fellowship-driven research model.
Others
- Schmidt Futures: Schmidt Futures is a philanthropic initiative supporting talent and technology for public benefit, including fellowship programs in science and policy, making it a thematic enabler/funder adjacent to DSSG's mission and listed funder.
Regional players
- Civic Innovation Corps: Civic Innovation Corps places fellows in local governments to deliver data and technology projects, structurally similar to DSSG's summer fellowship and targeting the same government-partner segment.
Emerging players
- AI4ALL: AI4ALL runs fellowship-style programs that train emerging talent in AI with an equity and inclusion focus, comparable to DSSG's fellowship format but oriented more broadly toward AI education rather than social-impact project delivery.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Data Science for Social Good social profiles
Digital presenceData Science for Social Good financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Data Science for Social Good leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
Data Science for Social Good funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Data Science for Social Good M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Data Science for Social Good
What does Data Science for Social Good do?
Data Science for Social Good operates a full-time summer fellowship program that trains aspiring data scientists to work on machine learning, data science, and AI projects with social impact. Working closely with governments and nonprofits, fellows take on real-world problems in education, health, criminal justice, sustainability, public safety, workforce development, human services, transportation, economic development, and international development. The fellowship runs annually at rotating university hosting locations and produces open-source tools and code libraries from its projects.
Is Data Science for Social Good a public or private company?
Data Science for Social Good is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Data Science for Social Good founded?
Data Science for Social Good was founded in 2013.
Where is Data Science for Social Good based?
Data Science for Social Good is headquartered in Pittsburgh, United States, in the North America region.
How does Data Science for Social Good make money?
One revenue line is on record: institutional Funding and Donations.
Who are Data Science for Social Good's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are The GovLab, Bayes Impact, DataKind and Code for America. Broad incumbents are Urban Institute, New America and RTI International. Schmidt Futures is listed as an others. Civic Innovation Corps is listed as a regional player. AI4ALL is listed as an emerging player.
Does Data Science for Social Good have an API?
No public API is recorded for Data Science for Social Good.
What industry is Data Science for Social Good in?
Data Science for Social Good's product category is Social Impact Data Science Fellowship. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDAFANAG, Data Science & Analytics Learning Platforms, with a secondary code of EDAMACAF, Data Science & Analytics (Data Literacy, SQL, Visualization). Its NAICS code is 54172 and its SIC code is 7371.