Systemic Altruism
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Justice & public goodsPreliminary editorial review

Kobo (KoboToolbox)

Maintains KoboToolbox and supports aid and civil-society organizations collecting and using field data.

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Systemic Altruism practice potential: 74–84/100
90% of weighted axes reviewed. A mechanism hypothesis, not proven effectiveness or a donation recommendation.

Who this work enables

Tools & support for charities: Survey creation, field-data collection and export infrastructure for humanitarian and nonprofit implementers.

Open-source evidence · license checked

  • KoboToolbox KPI — AGPL-3.0 license file. Organization’s role: maintainer.
    Named repository license inspected on the review date; dependencies, data, content, trademarks and hosted services have separate terms. License-file snapshot: 64d8b459215a4408bf439c4f30356d87634de6da.

License checked 2026-10-27. This is not a security audit, proof of current support or effectiveness, or a promise of free hosting. A sponsor or steward is not necessarily the sole developer. Unchecked profiles are not evidence of closed code. No extra score points are added.

Humanity’s Checklist source match

Coordination · Gatekeepers — editorial, partial alignment.

Shared data workflows can help implementers coordinate, while reusable code lowers a technical gate to building local data systems. This is a partial mechanism match, not the checklist’s specific coordination product.

Explicit checklist adoption: not verified. A mechanism match is not an affiliation, endorsement, evidence of effectiveness or a scoring bonus. Read the practice.

Focus classification: 2026-10-27. Based on the organization’s dated official sources below; earlier axis-review dates are unchanged.

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The proposed pathway

Reusable field-data infrastructure for humanitarian organizations

Six dimensions, with rationale

Structural depth

3 / 4

Shared form, collection and export workflows address a recurring organizational data constraint rather than delivering one isolated survey.

Institutional reach

4 / 4

The humanitarian, development and rights partner model has cross-country and cross-sector potential; this is not a verified population reached.

Durability

2 / 4

Reusable forms and staff routines can persist, but hosting, maintenance, secure handling and organizational capability need continued support.

Scalability

4 / 4

The AGPL-licensed server can be adapted and reused; implementation, hosting and data stewardship still have substantial costs.

Funding additionality

Unreviewed

Unknown: current marginal funding, restricted allocations, delivery capacity and the counterfactual have not been audited.

Community agency

Unreviewed

Unknown: open licenses, participation or contributor governance do not establish audited consequential rights for affected communities.

Evidence and selection

Organization reported; primary mechanism and named repository license inspected

Illustrative inclusion to examine this mechanism. Inclusion is not an external recommendation or a verified comparative ranking.

A testable next question

Compared with feasible alternatives, do partner organizations sustain more accurate, safer and decision-relevant data at lower full cost, and do the resulting decisions improve outcomes?

Review confidence: Moderate for documented design and license; low for systemic attribution. KoboToolbox shared-software and implementation-support design; not every Kobo activity or a donor-specific return.

What remains uncertain

Official use and investment figures are not independently verified welfare gains. Poor surveys, unsafe sensitive-data collection, connectivity limits and weak follow-through can negate benefits. Open code does not mean unlimited free hosted service.

Sources to inspect

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Axis review: 2026-10-27 · weighting method v0.2 (2026-10-26) · Method, conflicts and coverage