Data Foundation Honored as a Finalist in Three Categories of the 6th Annual Anthem Awards

Entries recognize the Data Foundation’s nonpartisan research and tools on federal data infrastructure and its cross-sector climate data partnerships

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, October 19, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — The Data Foundation announced today that it has been named a finalist in three categories of the 6th Annual Anthem Awards:

– Content & Media, Technology (Nonprofit)
– Individual Recognition, Sustainability, Environment & Climate (Nonprofit)
– Community Engagement, Sustainability, Environment & Climate (Nonprofit)

Two of the Data Foundation’s three finalist entries recognize its Center for Climate and Environmental Data (CCED) and the center’s Senior Director, Sonia Wang. The third recognizes the Data Foundation’s organization-wide work on federal data infrastructure, including the Center for Evidence Capacity’s Evidence Act Hub and its AI assistant, Evi.

“Building the Data Infrastructure Behind Climate and Environmental Decisions” is a finalist in two categories. In Nonprofit Leader in Individual Recognition, Sustainability, Environment & Climate, the entry recognizes Wang, who leads a nonpartisan program that treats climate and environmental data as economic infrastructure: the trusted, interoperable information insurers, investors, and governments use to price risk, plan, and comply.

In Partnership or Collaboration in Community Engagement, Sustainability, Environment & Climate, the entry recognizes the partnerships CCED has built by convening government, industry, academia, and civil society around data standards, governance, and access problems no single sector can solve alone.

Under Wang’s leadership, CCED launched the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Coalition, which has more than 80 members from more than 35 organizations. At the same time, the center has built partnerships with universities and federal agencies while incubating and supporting four other cross-sector initiatives. In 2026, Wang led the transition of the Climate Data Collaborative into CCED, which has convened or contributed to more than 30 events, published more than 15 pieces of work, and has been featured in a range of media outlets, including The New York Times, MIT Technology Review, Politico, and Grist.

“The Data Foundation – America’s Nonpartisan Standard for Public Data Infrastructure” is a finalist for Excellence in Data in Content & Media, Technology. The entry recognizes the Data Foundation’s research on how the federal datasets behind weather forecasts, disease surveillance, and economic measurement are governed, measured, and used across administrations. Highlights include six consecutive annual federal Chief Data Officer (CDO) Surveys, which have sampled hundreds of federal data leaders; the People’s Data 100, a prioritization of the nation’s highest-value public datasets; and govDATAx and the Datum Awards, which convene the field.

The entry also features the work of the Center for Evidence Capacity (CEC), which launched the Evidence Act Hub in December 2025 as a centralized public archive of federal evidence-building documents produced under the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018. In July 2026, the Data Foundation launched Evi, an AI assistant that helps users search and analyze the learning agendas, evaluation plans, and capacity assessments stored on the Hub, with a citation to the source document for every answer.

“Being named a finalist in three categories is a tribute to the people at the Data Foundation, including Sonia Wang and Sara Stefanik and their respective teams at CCED and CEC, who build the public data infrastructure decisionmakers depend on,” said Nick Hart, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Data Foundation. “Whether we are convening partners to make climate and environmental data usable, tracking how federal agencies govern their data, or making federal evidence-building documents searchable through Evi, the goal is the same: trustworthy public data that people can actually use.”

Anthem Award winners are selected by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Judges for the 6th Annual Anthem Awards include a panel of leaders from organizations and companies dedicated to social impact. This year’s list of finalists were selected from a pool of more than 2,500 submissions from more than 40 countries, including the AARP, The LEGO Group, Sesame Workshop, Code for America, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, the National Geographic Society, and PBS.

Alongside the finalist announcement comes the launch of Anthem Community Voice in Partnership with NationBuilder, an annual voting campaign and celebration to uplift the work of Anthem Award finalists. Supporters can celebrate the Data Foundation’s work online through October 29 at celebrate.anthemawards.com.

Supporters vote by clicking “celebrate” under an entry and can celebrate one entry per category, so backing all three Data Foundation finalists takes three votes. All finalists are also in the running to win a Gold, Silver, or Bronze Anthem Award selected by Anthem judges. All winners for the 6th Annual Anthem Awards will be announced on November 5, 2026.

To vote for the Data Foundation, visit https://datafoundation.org/pages/anthem-awards-nomination.

J.B. Wogan
Data Foundation
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