Last year I started an ESRC funded programme of 'strategic data use' workshops with nonprofit organisations. I wrote a blog called 'Starting a programme of strategic data use workshops' in which I said I'd reflect on the programme afterwards, so here it is. Between October 2022 and March 2023 I ran a programme of 15… Continue reading Strategic data use programme – reflections and action points →

We often assume that data mature organisations have a positive data culture. This isn’t always the case and it’s important to separate data maturity, data literacy, and data culture from each other to understand the role that each one plays in an organisation’s data journey. As part of the strategic data use programme I recently… Continue reading Separating data culture from data maturity →

A template for thinking about data for strategy and strategies for data for nonprofit organisations who are time-poor, just getting started in their data journey, or feel overwhelmed and need a 'reset'. In working with organisations through the programme of strategic data use workshops, I've been challenged to develop resources that hit the 'just enough… Continue reading Developing a bitesize data strategy →

This blog post is based on a talk that I gave at UK Community Foundation’s Annual Conference in October 2022 to UK community foundations and other funders. The takeaway is that we can reframe nonprofit data and technology initiatives and work by focusing on ‘Strategy’, ‘Stewardship’, and 'Sustainability'.Content warning: this blog post is fairly speculative… Continue reading Reframing how we talk about nonprofit data and technology work →

Major changes in the health and care landscape present opportunities for charities to use data relationally: to broker partnerships, influence priorities and legitimise their knowledge The Health and Care Bill (which will most likely become law in the summer of 2022) will formalise the shift to integrated care systems (ICSs) that has been taking place… Continue reading Opportunities for relational charity data use in the new health and care landscape →

It may appear that charities and proponents of cryptocurrencies benefit from working together. However, charities should consider the risks posed to their legitimacy by partnering with actors in the cryptocurrency space.As someone who researches the use of data and technology by nonprofit organisations, I've been intrigued by the deepening relationship between proponents of blockchain technologies… Continue reading The charity-cryptocurrency complex →

This was a guest blog post first featured on Catalyst's blog on 3rd March 2021 and is independent of Catalyst. It is a whistle-stop tour of a diverse range of practices, so please get in touch if you wish to know more. Many thanks to David Ainsworth for his editorial skills. “Everything happens somewhere” says the… Continue reading Catalyst guest blog – How charities use geospatial data: research findings from a study of UK organisations →

The phrase 'data-driven nonprofit' is used to describe how traditional nonprofit organisations adapt to using data, but there's an emerging ecosystem that can be described by flipping the phrase around. 'Nonprofit-driven data' describes an ecosystem of data institutions that place the key tenets of the nonprofit form (non-distribution constraint, trust, public benefit, accountability) at their… Continue reading From the data-driven nonprofit to nonprofit-driven data →

"Diffusion is the process in which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system" Everett M. Rogers. In looking at how charities use spatial data, the majority of cases I've explored so far have been large charities that could be classed as 'innovators' or 'early adopters' of… Continue reading Charities, change agents and the diffusion of data-driven practice →