USAFacts, Bellevue, Washington, United States: USAFacts Response to COVID-19

Company: USAFacts Group
Nomination Submitted by: USAFacts Group
Company Description: USAFacts Group
Nomination Category: COVID-19 Response Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Most Valuable Non-Profit Response
2022 Stevie Winner Nomination Title: USAFacts Response to COVID-19
  1. Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the organization's admirable work, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
    Written answers to the questions
  2. If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions, provide them in the appropriate spaces below:
     
  3. Describe for the judges the organization you are nominating and why you believe their response to the COVID-19 pandemic is worthy of international recognition (up to 350 words):

    Total 292 words used.

    Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, USAFacts team members have worked diligently to provide Americans with local, up-to-date information about coronavirus in their area.  USAFacts displays the data it collects in easy-to-understand formats that can be downloaded, shared, and used freely by the public.

    The not-for-profit has led the way in providing and updating datasets of case and death numbers, vaccination rates, as well as supplementary resources to ensure the public is able to remain informed and educated. Additionally, USAFacts provides all data free to the public without license agreement limitations, empowering Americans to repurpose it for their own work.

    The commitment to open and free data with no license restrictions has proven helpful to a wide variety of organizations, either through direct data use or through the data enrichment of other organizations. The Department of the Army, Federal Aviation Administration and several school districts, including public and private, have used USAFacts data to determine risk mitigation strategies and to support either keeping classes going in-person or to justify moving to virtual instruction. 

    USAFacts COVID-19 data page views totaled 7,956,302 in 2020 and grew to 17,870,586 in 2021. It continues with 3,356,239 thus far 2022 for a grand total of 29,183,127 page views. Given the number of daily downloads of USAFacts data and heavy web traffic, it is hard to quantify how many decisions were impacted by the availability of this data. What is clear is that, for at least a subgroup, the metrics helped them make informed risk-level decisions to mitigate the adverse effects of the pandemic on health and the economy as companies weighed disruption against the health of their stakeholders. This delivered on USAFacts’ primary goal using government data to inform important decisions.

  4. Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):

    Total 66 words used.

    The supporting materials referenced are primarily direct links to USAFacts website, specifically the dedicated COVID-19 pages. These pages showcase USAFacts’ COVID-19 data visualization focusing on cases and deaths, vaccination progress as well as virus impact and recovery. USAFacts curates and offers additional resources and articles to help educate the public. We also included an attachment highlighting original testimonials that USAFacts received for its response to COVID-19.

Attachments/Videos/Links:
USAFacts Response to COVID-19
URL USAFacts Cornonavirus Home Page
URL USAFacts COVID-19 Cases & Deaths
URL USAFacts Vaccination Progress
URL USAFacts Impact & Recovery
URL USAFacts Coronavirus Resources
DOCX USAFacts_COVID_Testimonials.docx