Before you start

This is a guide for UK funding organisations that want to publish data about their grants as 360Giving data, so that it can be analysed together and appear in GrantNav for everyone to view and to use. 

What is 360Giving data?

What is grants data?

Grants data usually means:

• when you awarded each grant
• the value of each grant
• who each grant was given to (this is anonymous if it’s a grant to an individual)
• what the grant is for.

This information is usually stored in a system, which could be a purpose-built grants management system, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, or a simple spreadsheet. 

If you don’t currently collect information about your grants, you will need to start gathering that data in order to publish it using the 360Giving Data Standard.

What is open data?

Grants data published using the 360Giving Data Standard is open data. A project called The Open Definition describes open data as data that anyone can freely access, use, modify and share for any purpose. 

Our tools like GrantNav and GrantVis make it easy for people to explore the grants data that funders publish. But because it’s open data, it can be used by anyone.

What is the 360Giving Data Standard?

Publishing open grants data allows people to better understand UK grantmaking. But for open data to be really useful, it has to follow an agreed format – a standard – so that people can look at similar data from different organisations. 

It means you can compare apples with apples instead of apples and oranges, as the saying goes! 

That’s why we developed the 360Giving Data Standard; it’s a shared format for UK funders to publish their grants data. 

360Giving data is open grants data which has been published by funders using the 360Giving Data Standard. 

Why publish 360Giving data?

Why should we do this?

There are lots of reasons to publish your grants data using the 360Giving Data Standard.

• Get to know your own giving. Going through the publishing process helps you see your own grants data more clearly.
• Showcase your work. Your data will appear in GrantNav, showing what and who you fund.
• See your work in context and contribute to the bigger picture. 360Giving data helps us all gain a clearer understanding of UK grantmaking, so you can see how your giving fits into the broader landscape and identify opportunities to collaborate with others.

What does it cost?

There is no fee to publish your grants data using the 360Giving Data Standard. The main cost may be staff time, although some funders choose to hire extra support to help them.

How do we publish our 360Giving data?

How does it work? 

There are five stages in the 360Giving data publishing process. Our guidance will take you through each one, step by step.

1. Plan

Work out what you’ll need to do, who needs to be involved, and how long it might take. Start thinking about data protection and privacy.

2. Prepare

Decide what you want to publish, convert your data so that it fits with the 360Giving Data Standard, then test it with our Data Quality Checker. 

3. Publish

Upload the data file to your organisation’s website, or somewhere else secure online like Google Drive or SharePoint, along with an open license which gives people permission to use the data. Add the link to our Data Quality Dashboard.

4. Post-publishing

Explore your data when it appears in GrantNav and GrantVis. Make a note of what you did to make it easier next time.

5. Re-publishing

Update your 360Giving data to add information about more grants.

Who needs to be involved?

You may want to gather a small team of people to work on publishing your grants data, rather than just one person. That way you can make decisions together about what to publish and how often, and share the work involved. 

It also means that more people in the organisation understand the publishing process, so that if someone leaves, that knowledge doesn’t leave with them.

If there’s someone you can work with who has good technical knowledge or who has worked with data before, that will definitely be helpful. But if you haven’t worked with data before, don’t worry – we can support you. 

The organisations that publish 360Giving data come in all shapes and sizes, so if your organisation is small and you are handling this process alone, our Helpdesk is on hand to support you too.

How long will it take?

How long it takes to prepare and publish 360Giving data will depend on different things, such as: 

• where your grants data is stored
• the amount of data you would like to publish
• whether the data is well organised and accurate
• if any important data is missing or unclear.

It will also depend on how much time you have to work on the project alongside other things.

It’s more common for the process to take a few weeks or months than hours or days.

Further resources

• Find out why you should publish 360Giving data
• Learn more about the 360Giving Data Standard

Where do I start?

Head to Stage 1: Plan to get started.