Chloé Vandendriesche, Senior Data Scientist at King Baudouin Foundation
In our societies, certain realities immediately stand out: large companies, financial markets, economic indicators.
But other forces, although essential to social cohesion, often remain in the shadows.
Across Belgium — as elsewhere in Europe — thousands of organisations work every day at the heart of the social fabric. They support people without housing, create spaces for solidarity in neighbourhoods, and innovate in care, education and social inclusion. Associations, foundations, cooperatives and social enterprises form a dense and vital ecosystem, meeting needs that neither the market nor the State can fully address on their own.
And yet, despite this crucial role, the sector often remains difficult to grasp as a whole. Data exists, but it is scattered across different institutions, spread across administrative, statistical or financial databases that do not always communicate with one another. Data is also often privatised. For researchers, public decision-makers or even sector actors themselves, understanding the scale and dynamics of this economy focused on the common good remains a challenge.
To make this sector more visible and understandable, the King Baudouin Foundation has created, in collaboration with several organisations representing the social profit sector in Belgium, the Social Profit DataTrust.
A knowledge infrastructure serving the common good
The Social Profit DataTrust is much more than a database.
It is a genuine knowledge infrastructure that gathers, structures and makes available reliable information on organisations in the social profit sector in Belgium. Its objective is to provide a better understanding of this sector in order to support research, analysis and projects of general interest.
To achieve this, the DataTrust links several major sources of public data — legal, financial and social — in order to create a more comprehensive view of the sector. This approach now makes it possible to observe an ecosystem comprising nearly 140,000 organisations, active in areas as diverse as care, social inclusion, culture, education and the environment.
Making this data accessible is not only about producing statistics. It also means recognising the fundamental role these organisations play in society.
Collectively built knowledge
From the outset, the project was conceived as a collaborative initiative.
Alongside the King Baudouin Foundation, several organisations representing the social profit sector — BRUXEO, ConcertES, UNIPSO, Unisoc and Verso — are involved in the development and strategic direction of the Social Profit DataTrust.
This shared governance reflects a simple conviction: to understand such a rich and diverse sector, it is necessary to bring together different perspectives — those of researchers, federations, public authorities and practitioners in the field.
The platform thus enables academics, journalists, civil society organisations and public institutions to access structured data to analyse the evolution of the sector and measure its social impact.
An initiative with potential to inspire beyond Belgium
Although the Social Profit DataTrust has been developed in Belgium, its ambition goes far beyond national borders.
In many countries, the social economy plays an increasingly important role in addressing contemporary challenges — whether ecological transition, social cohesion or new forms of citizen participation. Yet knowledge of this sector often remains fragmented.
By demonstrating that it is possible to build an open, collaborative data infrastructure oriented towards the common good, the Social Profit DataTrust opens an inspiring path for other European initiatives.
Because better understanding the social economy also means better recognising the contribution of those who, every day, sustain an economy that serves society.
Find out more: https://because.eu/fr/analyser
Project presentation video (subtitled in English): https://youtu.be/dC4QSbDXAvE
