360 Giving Grantnav Showcase

360 Giving GrantNav Showcase Tuesday 21st February, 3pm-6pm at 54 Wilton Road, London, SW1V 1DE

Attendees: Katherine Duerden 360Giving

Rachel Rank 360Giving

Stephen Hart Buzzacott

Alice Wilcock Greater London Authority

Shamaila Firdaus London Borough of Brent

Genevie George London Borough of Brent

Christine Mousdale London Borough of Haringey

Jessica Finnin London Borough of Havering

Pippa Taylor London Borough of Lewisham

John Turkson London Borough of Redbridge

Katherine Pitt London Borough of Southwark

Feria Henry London Councils

Geraldine Blake London Funders

Geraldine Tovey London Funders

David Warner London Funders

Natalia Rymaszewska London Legal Support Trust

Lizzie Stanton London Sport

Rob Hardy NCVO

Lea Gorgulu Webb Networked Planet

Kate Hitchcock Paul Hamlyn Foundation

Yemisi Turner-Blake Paul Hamlyn Foundation

Marcus Ward Peach Consultancy

Danielle Fairhurst sported

Kate White Superhighways

Sufina Ahmad The City Bridge Trust

Gaynor Humphreys The Cranfield Trust

Oliver French The LankellyChase Foundation

Richard Van Lienden Wellington Management UK Foundation

James Hope Woodroffe Benton

Nick Wilsdon Youth Music

Welcome from David Warner (Director, London Funders)

David thanked attendees for coming to the event and group introductions were made. He began by stating that it is a very strange time that we are living in (Brexit, Trump etc). David also explained that the area of data sharing, especially now that Matthew Ryder has become Deputy Mayor has become increasingly pre- valent on London Funders’ agenda.

There are specific recommendations for the GLA in the Way Ahead- Civil Society at the Heart of London con- cerning data. Data needs to become more real-time and user friendly. David mentioned that London Fun- ders is happy to support its London borough members with extra capacity to engage with 360 Giving.

Introduction to 360 Giving from Rachel Rank (Chief Executive, 360Giving) and Katherine Duerden (Part- nerships & Engagement Manager, 360 Giving)

Rachel Rank introduced herself to attendees and noted that she was pleased to see delegates from both Local Authorities and independent foundations. She introduced the event as an opportunity to learn rather than being a pitch.

Rachel provided a brief history of 360 Giving. It is an initiative which was started in 2015 with a straightfor- ward mission of providing open data on grants. 360 Giving’s standardised approach makes comparisons of grantmaking easy and efficient.

360 Giving has 3 core focus areas:

Working with organisations to publish data openly; (speaking to grantmakers about how open data can support their work). Organisations are supported by a tech team that provides pro bono advice and support on publishing data – there is no charge or fee to take part.

Developing tools and platforms that use it;

Using the information for more informed decision-making and learning.

3690 Giving used ACF’s Giving Trends publication and the NCVO almanac to help get an idea of what grantmaking looked like across the sector. The Cabinet Office has recently made a commitment to publish to the 360 Giving standard

Currently there is no standardisation of grant information and grants. Grantmakers have varying formats and information that they collect, as well as different timelines/dates.

The idea of 360 Giving came from the simple notion of having one spreadsheet to compare and contrast grants. The search tool on 360 Giving makes finding information really easy. Although standardisation of information may take time for grantmakers to develop, it would be such a valuable resource. 360 Giving wants to create a one-stop-shop where donors and charities can get accurate, useful information to power more effective grantmaking. Grant Nav aims to be a place to help match funds to projects based on the best available information and where donors and beneficiaries can learn from failure and success.

There are 30 organisations which have published to the 360 Giving standard including a couple of local authorities. Over 184,000 grant records have been published. There are now over £8bn worth of grants published to 360 Standard. 360 Giving has built a registry to support discovery of the data and supporting development of tools to encourage access and use.

A variety of different grantmakers have reached the standard, including Northern Rock’s historical information. 360 Giving has also been working with community foundations to help identify trends on a local level.

Organisations outside of the grantmaking world have been using 360 Giving’s data to identify trends in a local area. Bath: Hacked is a volunteer-led open data project serving the community of Bath & North East Somerset which has used 360 Giving data to gain a better insight of the local area. As the number of pub- lishers grows, it is hoped that so will demand for the data.

360 Giving is currently supporting the development of the Beehive data tool which will help organisations to match their objectives with the most eligible funders.

NCVO also used 360 Giving’s information for its ‘under the radar’ research in 2016, and helped to identify 500 previously unknown charitable organisations. Ultimately 360 Giving exists not just to benefit grantmakers, but to benefit grantees, academics and others.

Organisations own and control their data but 360 Giving does have an open licence. The website is the front end of a raw dataset and data can be downloaded in a spreadsheet form. Information can be broken down in many ways e.g. by year, borough, key terms.

There is a minimum amount of information required for the 360 Giving standard, but organisations can add much more rich detail. There is no fee to take part in 360 Giving and the organisation provides pro-bono tech support which can provide help face-to-face. All of 360 Giving’s data can be matched against need and other datastores.

Pan London Funding can be shown on 360 Giving as well as at a borough level. Grantees can state in their grant details whether or not they are for a specific area.

There are no standardised types/taxonomies of grant activity on 360 Giving. It is very difficult to cat- egorise some grants which have very broad aims such as social inclusion. However you can search for key terms on the site and project descriptions can describe beneficiaries.

You can search for multiple phrases/key words at a time to narrow down your search. Perhaps in the future a more intelligent search can be applied to group multiple terms (such as older people/eld- erly).

It is potentially useful to map data against indices of deprivation and historical investment.

It would also be interesting to look at grant outcomes. Comic Relief is looking at whether it is a ‘gate- way funder’, paving the way for others to invest.

Some organisations have expressed an interest in publishing social investment data and contracts.

Ideally grants by 360 organisations would be published every quarter.

Case study of City Bridge Trust from Sufina Ahmad (Head of Strategic Review)

City Bridge Trust (CBT) is London’s largest independent funder. Sufina Ahmad has been developing its CBT’s quinquennial review, to look at the organisation’s broad priorities for the next five years.

CBT was one of the early adopters of GrantNav because it is committed to transparency and streamlining information. As a London-wide funder, CBT is keen to discover ‘cold spots’ in the capital. GrantNav also provides an opportunity to define shared interests and identify potential future collaborations. Surveys, focus groups and SWOT analysis all took place.

CBT commits all of its funding through meetings with its board. The strategic review has been an open and collaborative process, with a variety of stakeholders within the sector consulted. The draft strategy has been published and al feedback is welcomed. The strategy’s emphasis on openness resonates with the ethos of 360 Giving.

In the draft strategy CBT has made a commitment to map the London Funding ecology. Initial research has taken place between the Big Lottery Fund and Gulbenkian. Big Lottery Fund has also made a commitment to better understand its portfolio.

CBT has commissioned work with Collaborate to look at how other funders perceive City Bridge Trust and to help identify its responsibility.

Progress update on The Way Ahead data sharing and use recommendations from Kate White (Manager, Superhighways) and Lea Gorgulu Webb (Data Strategy Consultant, NetworkedPlanet)

Kate and Lea introduced The Way Ahead as a piece of work looking at what needs to be in place for a thriv- ing civil society in London, and ultimately better outcomes for Londoners. There are five work strands (task

and finish groups) looking at how to fulfil the recommendations of the original report. The groups all over- lap with their interests, and the data group in particular encompasses a lot of themes.

The data group has been blogging on systems approaches, and has been seeking advice and best practice from outside of the usual players. It has been looking at the size and scope of civil society in London. 360 Giving, The Charity Commission and NCVO can all play a role in helping to quantify data.

The GLA has recognised that it has a role in collecting data and developing tools. It is also important that civil society creates as well as consumes data.

The data group has a broad and large vision. It is looking to:

Bring in new data

Educate on data literacy

Engage with academics and the private sector.

Provide tools to capture and better quantify data.

Engage with innovative organisations (such as NESTA)

Engage with the public sector- particularly healthcare and education.

Data is the new currency. It is important to keep ahead in the current political/economic environment. 360 Giving is a great example of pioneering work in the data sector.

Commissioned funding can also be put on 360 Giving and made publicly available.

The data standard of Local Authorities aligns with the expectations of 360 Giving.

360 Giving has been engaging with some Livery Companies about private sector funding. This can be a bit trickier as it can be perceived as donations (CSR). Corporate foundations do need to be engaged with further. Some private sector organisations do not have a foundation but give significant grants.

360 Giving does come across technical issues from time-to-time with interpreting data. It has a friendly support team which can help iron out any problems.

It was acknowledged that Local Authorities often lack the capacity to unlock data. London Funders is happy to be a conduit for assistance. 360 Giving will also be providing data workshops in the future.

London Funders is working with the New Local Government Network to look at strategic investment and alignment between independent trusts and local authorities- this will consider data sharing in more detail.

360 Giving is looking at developing an app for community foundations, as they all use a similar sales-

force-like system.

Going forward, Local Authorities need to have a more complete view of what they give (across teams). Inputting simple data into 360 Giving will save time in the long run.

It is important to identify beneficiaries for grants, so as not to skew locations of grants received to- wards charity headquarters (for example LB Islington has lots of national charity offices). This can be done through a variety of methods.

The standard offers the opportunity for as much information to be inputted as possible. Blagrave Trust and the Big Lottery Fund included extra data.

360 Giving knows that some grants are passed along and this can be made clearer in the software. Dis- cussions have been held to see if ‘granted grants’ can be separated out. It is important to flag passed-on grants as it helps inform that although a lot of money comes into London and then spent outside of the capital.

Data protection is important, especially for services such as women’s hostels as well as emergency funding. 360 can advise on this further, and data protection is considered when information is dis- played.

Wrap up and next steps

David Warner told members that he is happy to follow up with any enquiries about 360 Giving. It may be desirable for a separate meeting to be held for London boroughs. It was also noted that ACF may have a role in influencing common reporting standards.