A data innovation challenge was the perfect way to showcase the imperatives of data philanthropy while providing a scalable model for future efforts. It would provide a platform for celebrating the partnerships required for data donations. It would also invite a global community of data scientists and researchers to connect to new sources of data and engage with the private companies donating them. A challenge would have winners; and announcing those winners would provide the perfect moment for amplifying the partnership efforts required to host the challenge and cement the concept of data philanthropy in front of an international audience of policy, business, climate, and data science leaders. Ideas born from an innovation challenge would provide the proof required for businesses and policy makers to buy into the model. But most importantly, it would provide actual solutions to help the world meet the SDGs.

In March of 2017, the Challenge launched with a call to the data science community to bring their big ideas on how big data can create big solutions for climate change. The call ignited a global response of 450 applicants from 67 countries, out of which 97 were selected as semi-finalist competitors. From June to October, these teams worked with the donated data sets, uncovering innovative climate solutions. Donated datasets from Waze, Nielsen, BBVA, Crimson Hexagon, Earth Networks, Planet, Plume Labs, Schneider Electric, and Orange were combined with cloud-computing and data visualization support donated from Microsoft and Tableau. In November of 2017, six winners were announced at the Sustainable Innovation Forum during COP23 to an audience of over 100 world leaders in business, government, climate, and data science. Over 5,000 people from around the world also joined a livestream of the event.

The Data for Climate Action Challenge was the largest data innovation partnership in service of the SDGs, with 14 organizations collaborating as sponsors, dataset, or tool providers. It generated 59 articles from international technology and environmental outlets. Web content garnered 138K views. Paid social and display generated 4.8 million impressions, with an average CTR of 0.31% and organic social that garnered 4.2 million impressions with 5K mentions. It introduced a scalable data philanthropy model for public-private collaboration in support of humanitarian and environmental issues, delivered actionable solutions already being implemented, increased use of data science to inform policy, and demonstrated the business value of donating data. Its impact went beyond that of a traditional campaign – it ignited a data revolution for social good. For Western Digital, the initiative successfully connected what we do with our brand values in a unique, memorable way, building equity with current and prospective customers.