News and updates - Page 6
9 September 2019
How much does the UK government give in grants?
Grants from government are a crucial part of the voluntary sector’s funding mix. In this post, David Kane uses identifiers to explore the 2017/18 government grants data and understand the types of organisations which received funding. Updated data Since this blog was released, 16 central UK Government departments have published open data about the grants […]
19 August 2019
What we’ve learned from implementing a data champions initiative
This report reflects on concluding the pilot initiative of Data Champions and how 360Giving plans to integrate what it has learned into future activities.
12 August 2019
Developing data champions
Our first go at creating a network of data champions has revealed a thirst for connecting with others to use data for better grantmaking. In 2017, collaborating with UK Community Foundations we brought 10 people together for a data expedition and this sparked their interest in learning more together. In interviews we learned that as […]
2 August 2019
More and better data, but can we follow the money?
Last month NCVO launched its 2019 Civil Society Almanac, which they describe as “a treasure trove of voluntary sector data” – and it is. As NCVO’s Stuart Etherington says in his introduction, “…such dispassionate analysis is an important way of holding a mirror up to what we do”. I agree, and I’m a huge fan […]
30 July 2019
My first data visualisation brought clarity on how on-target our funding is
“We thought we were sharing data for the benefit of grantees, but now we realise that it benefits us too” When we heard that Patrick O’Kelly of the Clothworkers Foundation had been inspired at an event by a data visualisation, and saw how he’d created his own using 360Giving data, we invited him to tell […]
15 July 2019
Joint letter from civil society groups urges UK government to take urgent action to overhaul its use of data
Joint press release, London, Monday 15 July 2019 The UK government has the opportunity to transform its use of data, but is missing the opportunity and risks falling behind other countries if it does not invest now, civil society groups have today said. In an open letter to the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, […]
4 July 2019
From spaghetti junction to open, transparent grantmaking data
This blog first appeared on Medium, as part of the Funding Utopia project, Exploring radical, transformative ideas for the future of UK grant funding. At present, it’s not possible to find a complete dataset on all charitable grants provided in the UK. This means the huge financial flows from grantmakers to grantees are opaque. This […]
18 June 2019
Generosity of a community
Progressive grantmaking organisations were given a boost today, with the commitment by The National Lottery Community Fund to support the development of open grants data resources for the next three years. The grant – totalling £490,000 – will enable 360Giving to deliver its new 3-year strategy, which focuses on helping grantmakers to use data in […]
17 June 2019
Small is the new big
It’s Small Charity Week again! Last year we did an analysis of small charities in Lambeth and Southwark and examined the grantmaking patterns. This year, thanks to our new 360Insights platform, we decided to go big and explore grantmaking to small charities across the whole of the UK in 2018. For the purposes of this […]
10 June 2019
Informing policy discussions
Guest blog by Max Rutherford, Head of Policy at the Association of Charitable Foundations. A few years ago while working at a charitable foundation, I was part of a group of trust and foundation representatives that secured a meeting with the then Justice Secretary to talk about prison reform. In advance of the meeting, we […]
3 June 2019
Technology in the Charitable Sector
Guest post by Marina Stedman of The Good Exchange A new research report into ‘Technology in the Charitable Sector’ has looked at the current charitable grant application and distribution landscape and revealed that hundreds of hours are being spent completing application forms per year, with just two in five being successful and two thirds of […]
20 May 2019
What can 360Giving data tell us about funding across London?
This was first published by London Funders on their blog. I was pleased to speak at London Funders’ first Big Network Day on 14th February. The room was filled with different kinds of grantmakers – local authorities, charitable trusts and foundations, corporate funders and hosted by the GLA – a fantastic mix of organisations that […]
15 May 2019
Holding ourselves to account
Guest post by Paul Streets, CEO of Lloyds Bank Foundation, following his keynote talk at the launch of 360Insights in March 2019 Data is central to our work. We use it to canvas the confidential views of those we fund on how we’re doing; understand what’s going on in their ‘world’; inform our policy and […]
13 May 2019
Creating a data culture in community foundations
Guest post by Dirk Slater, FabRiders – a strategic social change consultancy Over the past eight months we’ve been developing a network of Data Champions working in community foundations across the UK. The initiative is a collaboration between 360Giving, FabRiders and UK Community Foundations. In April 2019 we held a workshop focusing on how to strengthen […]
9 May 2019
A Forest of Funders
Exploring the landscape of UK grant funders through a handmade data visualisation Last year we held a competition to celebrate how open grants data can be visualised. In the latest in our series about the winners, Dr Cath Sleeman takes us through her physical data visualisation. A Forest of Funders won the Special Judges Award. This […]