Step 1. Understand why you want to publish your data

Being clear about your aims will help you make important decisions later.

Reasons to publish 360Giving data

We’ve been supporting funders to share their grants data for over a decade. Every organisation is different, but there are some common reasons why more than 300 leading UK funders are already publishing their data.

As a 360Giving Publisher:

• Your commitment to transparency and good practice will be plain to see. 
• If you’re assessed by Foundation Practice Rating, publishing 360Giving data will increase your rating for transparency.
• Your organisation will have an opportunity to develop new skills and knowledge in working with data, and gain a better understanding of your own systems and policies. 
• You’ll get a clearer picture of your own grantmaking than ever before. You’ll be able to view your grants data using our GrantNav search engine, and share the results using our GrantVis tool.
• Your grants data will contribute to the sector’s understanding of the wider context through UKGrantmaking, which combines 360Giving data with information from other sources.
• You can easily display your data on your website or intranet, using one of our custom, interactive widgets.
• You can build trust with your partners, grantees, and applicants by sharing information openly about who, what, and where you fund. 
• You will shine a light on the causes and topics that the work that you fund addresses, helping to draw attention to areas of need, highlight persistent systemic issues, and share how your funding seeks to make a difference.
• You may see fewer irrelevant or ineligible applications, and see more applications from people who may not otherwise have found you.

Communicating and building support within your organisation

When you are getting ready to publish 360Giving data for the first time, it can be helpful to treat it as a project, rather than just adding it to your usual list of tasks. The publishing process needs regular time and resources, and will probably involve other people in your organisation.

Like any project, how you communicate can make a big difference. You might need to explain what grants data is, what ‘open data’ means, and who 360Giving are. Hopefully people will be curious about what you’re doing – give them time to ask questions.

It’s good to agree on why you should start publishing your grants data. You could share some of the reasons we’ve listed above, and find out what matters most to people who will be involved. This will help you make decisions later.

Telling people about the timeline for the project, the decisions that will need to be made, and the main steps of the publishing process will help make sure that the right people are involved at the right time. If they are ready, it will help you avoid delays and waiting around.

You’ll also need to let people know the amount of work they will need to do at each stage, so that the project can be included in their workplan, and reflected in your organisation’s plans.

Publisher planning resources

To help you with this stage, we’ve developed three resources to support you with planning and documenting your progress through the 360Giving data publishing process.