Piled up desk./PHOTO ; Pexel
Twenty new schools across Burkina Faso, Guatemala, Haiti, Malawi, and Senegal will soon open their doors under a new $1.2 million partnership between Data Philanthropy and buildOn, a global nonprofit dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty and illiteracy through education and community service.
The partnership combines infrastructure investment with data innovation, strengthening both access to classrooms and the systems that measure long-term educational outcomes.
Of the total funding, $980,000 will go toward constructing the 20 schools, while $220,000 will enhance buildOn’s Global Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system, a platform that tracks performance, enrollment, and community impact across continents.
“We’re excited to invest in buildOn’s mission to end poverty and illiteracy by funding these twenty schools,” said Jed Nahum, Vice President of Metrics at Data Philanthropy.
“BuildOn’s quest to continuously improve its outcomes by developing measurement and evaluation systems is a natural fit for Data Philanthropy’s data-focused approach to giving.”
Building Sustainable Change
The new schools will provide safe learning spaces for children and adults in regions where education remains scarce due to poverty, conflict, or limited infrastructure.
BuildOn’s community-led model ensures local participation, with residents contributing labor, land, and materials while the organization offers technical expertise and training.
“Data Philanthropy’s gift is powerful not only because it builds schools,” said Carrie Pena, Chief Operating Officer of buildOn.
“It also helps us create sustainable systems to measure and strengthen our impact through data.
Together, we’re not only expanding access to classrooms but ensuring that the education inside those classrooms transforms lives for generations.”
The collaboration reflects a broader trend in global philanthropy, blending social entrepreneurship with evidence-based giving.
By linking every dollar to measurable outcomes, funders like Data Philanthropy are reshaping how development impact is understood and sustained.
Data for Development
Founded on the belief that data can drive equality, Data Philanthropy integrates analytics and transparency into its giving model.
The upgrades to buildOn’s M&E system will improve how teams capture and analyze data on attendance, literacy rates, and gender participation, making it easier to learn from results and refine programs.
“Our goal is to make impact visible not just in numbers, but in stories of progress that data helps reveal,” Nahum added.
Since its founding in 1991, buildOn has partnered with rural communities in eight of the world’s poorest countries to construct nearly 3,000 schools, enrolling more than 383,000 children and adults.
Its programs also promote adult literacy and gender equity, with women making up more than half of new learners in many communities.
A Global Vision
The $1.2 million investment marks a shared commitment to ensure every child, regardless of geography or income, can learn in a safe, inclusive environment.
It also underscores how education and data are central to achieving global development goals.
As the world heads toward COP30 and renewed conversations on resilience and equity, partnerships like this highlight the power of innovation in addressing inequality.
By uniting data-driven philanthropy and community-led action, buildOn and Data Philanthropy are not only constructing schools, they are building opportunity, accountability, and hope.
About buildOn
buildOn has been uniting people through service and education to ignite opportunity since 1991. In the U.S., buildOn mobilizes students from under-resourced high schools to transform their neighborhoods through service.
Globally, buildOn partners with rural communities to construct schools, enroll children in class, and deliver adult literacy programs.
To date, buildOn has constructed nearly 3,000 schools worldwide through over 5.6 million volunteer workdays.
About DataPhilanthropy
DataPhilanthropy believes that long-term inequality has many roots in disparity of opportunity.
By applying data to those disparities, particularly in key formative areas such as education, DataPhilanthropy builds action-oriented, repeatable programs that remove barriers and expand opportunity.
