Luminate - Request for Information |
Background
In recent years, there’s been a growing backlash against technology and a recognition of the unintended (or intended) consequences of technology’s power. Scandals like Cambridge Analytica have brought a new awareness of the potential downsides of technology. This awareness has happened at the same time that a few major tech providers have grown increasingly concentrated power over the digital infrastructure in which civic and public life take place. In response, Luminate’s global Data and Digital Rights team supports organizations that are helping understand and document potential harms of new technology in an effort to drive policy changes that allow us to still reap the benefits of innovation, while more proactively preventing harms - either to the mass public or to specific communities or groups.
At the same time, Luminate’s US team invests in early stage civic tech companies helping advance our goals related to civic empowerment. In this context, we often ask ourselves what we ought to realistically expect from companies regarding their practices to protect users’ data and digital rights. To help us develop a clear perspective on this issue, we are currently seeking partners to develop a maturity model to both diagnose where a prospective investment falls on a given dimension of data and digital rights protections (e.g., data collection and storage practices) and inform portfolio support or other influence strategies to elevate the maturity of our portfolio in this domain.
Deliverables
The core deliverables of the project will likely include:
- “Maturity model” or framework that identifies the different dimensions of data and digital rights protections, and definitions of different levels of maturity in which a company might fall.
- Public facing media assets to enable Luminate to share the model and any lessons learned along the way with the broader field
Project Audience
While the primary audience of this work is internal to Luminate, namely our US investment team and the global Data and Digital Rights team, the lessons learned from this work are applicable to a much wider audience. With that in mind, we also hope to share our lessons and best practices with other investors in the civic tech field as well as the broader impact investing and VC communities.
Ideal partner(s) will have expertise in the following areas
- Fluency in the field of data and digital rights, with clarity on areas where they may need to tap outside experts
- Experience building or supporting early-stage companies, an understanding of the many competing priorities they face, and credibility in the US startup ecosystem
- Past experience in similar research / consulting capacities (e.g. conducting research, benchmarking best practices, synthesizing many viewpoints, developing user-friendly, nuanced frameworks)
Request for Information
As a first step in this research, Luminate is requesting that potential candidates briefly answer a few questions about their qualifications by Oct 25. Qualified candidates will be invited by Nov 1 to submit a full proposal based on a more detailed project scoping document. Thanks in advance for your responses.
Please click "Next" to begin
At the same time, Luminate’s US team invests in early stage civic tech companies helping advance our goals related to civic empowerment. In this context, we often ask ourselves what we ought to realistically expect from companies regarding their practices to protect users’ data and digital rights. To help us develop a clear perspective on this issue, we are currently seeking partners to develop a maturity model to both diagnose where a prospective investment falls on a given dimension of data and digital rights protections (e.g., data collection and storage practices) and inform portfolio support or other influence strategies to elevate the maturity of our portfolio in this domain.
Deliverables
The core deliverables of the project will likely include:
- “Maturity model” or framework that identifies the different dimensions of data and digital rights protections, and definitions of different levels of maturity in which a company might fall.
- Public facing media assets to enable Luminate to share the model and any lessons learned along the way with the broader field
Project Audience
While the primary audience of this work is internal to Luminate, namely our US investment team and the global Data and Digital Rights team, the lessons learned from this work are applicable to a much wider audience. With that in mind, we also hope to share our lessons and best practices with other investors in the civic tech field as well as the broader impact investing and VC communities.
Ideal partner(s) will have expertise in the following areas
- Fluency in the field of data and digital rights, with clarity on areas where they may need to tap outside experts
- Experience building or supporting early-stage companies, an understanding of the many competing priorities they face, and credibility in the US startup ecosystem
- Past experience in similar research / consulting capacities (e.g. conducting research, benchmarking best practices, synthesizing many viewpoints, developing user-friendly, nuanced frameworks)
Request for Information
As a first step in this research, Luminate is requesting that potential candidates briefly answer a few questions about their qualifications by Oct 25. Qualified candidates will be invited by Nov 1 to submit a full proposal based on a more detailed project scoping document. Thanks in advance for your responses.
Please click "Next" to begin