A decade of data4good: reflections on our 10th birthday and plans for the future
Sian Basker, Co-chief executive, Data Orchard
This month marks a major milestone in Data Orchard's life. We're celebrating our 10th birthday and launching our 2023-26 strategy with renewed focus and excitement.
Over the last 12 months we've been reflecting deeply on our purpose, our achievements, our impact, and future direction. Earlier this year we published our new Theory FOR Change and, in the light of this, we’re delighted to be able to share our goals and ambitions for the next three years.
Data Orchard’s Strategy 2023-26
Building people’s data skills and careers in nonprofits will sit at the forefront of our efforts. We’ve already launched our first open training courses ‘Data for nonprofit leaders’ and ‘Key data skills for everyone’ (which also has a ‘Train the trainer’ version). We’ll continue to build our support offering around assessing organisations’ skills and competencies and helping with recruitment for new data roles and teams. We’ll also be exploring how supported apprenticeships and fractional data roles might help smaller organisations. For those already working in nonprofit sector data roles, we’ll continue our monthly Datafolk club connecting professional peers to learn and share knowledge on hot topics.
We’ll be investing again in our innovative and pioneering products: our Data Maturity Assessment Tool and Mapio Cymru. We’ll also continue to build our consultancy services around data strategy, research and analysis, and impact measurement alongside our newly launched Outsourced Data Team. And, as well as continuing to work with charities, social housing providers and public sector organisations; we’ll be focusing particularly on building data capabilities amongst our peers in the social enterprise sector.
Animated UK map showing Data Orchards geographic reach between 2018 and 2023 from the West Midlands to almost all of the UK
Our achievements
We're proud to have achieved so much over the last five years. We've expanded our reach into all four UK nations and last year even had our first international client.
In 2022-23 we worked on 42 projects with 33 different clients, primarily charities, public sector organisations, and social housing providers. All our projects were about using data for social, environmental and/or community good: housing, children and young people, health and wellbeing, unemployment, environment, volunteering, arts and culture, animals, government, transport and more.
Logos of organisations Data Orchard worked with during 2022-23
Building organisations’ data capabilities and skills
We expanded our services around building organisations’ data capabilities and skills – notably through our training and capacity building, data strategy, impact measurement and data maturity assessments.
Training and capacity building
Our training and capacity building projects were wide-ranging. We worked with a housing association to produce accurate and timely performance data and built dashboards to view the state of services in real time. We trained and supported staff in another housing association to map their data assets, assess data quality and establish data governance. We trained public servants in Wales on data maturity, local authority social workers in using spreadsheets, and volunteers to create Welsh language mapping data.
Data strategy
We creatively engaged with hundreds of staff to develop data strategies with our clients. This year these included Three national charities in Scotland, England and Wales and a Borough Council in Southeast England.
“We've been able to develop and start to implement a data strategy that focuses as much on the culture change as on the data itself. The implementation plan and key milestones feel manageable and within our gift to deliver which has been a welcome confidence boost and is something we can sustain going forward. The focus on building capability within our organisation has been a huge benefit.”
Joan McNeill, Head of Operations, Clan Childlaw
Impact measurement
We delivered all kinds of impact measurement projects. We worked with a national network of 20 third sector infrastructure organisations in Wales to co-produce an impact measurement framework. We provided impact measurement support to a social enterprise running a community farm in the West Midlands. We conducted an independent evaluation of healthy lifestyle services for a local authority. And we completed a third, final evaluation report for the Building Better Opportunities programme in Herefordshire and Shropshire, where a partnership of over 20 organisations supported disadvantaged unemployed people to overcome barriers to employment.
Data maturity assessment
We continued to provide both free and paid versions of our online Data Maturity Assessment Tool. To date, there have been over 6,000 users, mainly from the nonprofit sector. We delivered customised organisational Data Maturity Assessments for 29 organisations including charities, social enterprises and public sector organisations. We also delivered cohort assessments for Scottish Government public sector organisations and Superhighways’ Datawise Programme for small charities in London.
Gathering, exploring and analysing data for organisations
Our research and analysis work was also pretty varied. We analysed the outputs of a community consultation on healthy weight for a London borough; explored data about pet ownership across the UK; gathered and assessed data about travel behaviour in a city as part of a long-term tracking study; and conducted research into smoking and vaping behaviours to inform public health interventions. We also investigated spatial datasets for Transport for Wales to support them in providing bilingual journey planning and information services for the benefit of Welsh people.
What our clients say
We received a 78% response to ‘end of project’ client feedback requests. Of these 95% told us they were ‘very satisfied’ with our service.
“The work produced was of an excellent quality and we liked your style of working, being flexible, open and honest, confidence to challenge our thinking.”
Sara Selleck, Assistant Director of Strategy and People, WCVA
Across the board, clients reported our service quality as 'excellent' or 'good' with 'working relationship/customer service', and 'advice/guidance' rated most highly. None of our clients rated any aspect of our service as less than OK. Our Net Promoter Score this year was 61 on a scale of -100 to +100.
“Professional organisation that go above and beyond the expected remit. Communication and project management were both outstanding and they positively engaged with key stakeholders throughout.”
Iain Gillett, Advanced Public Health Practitioner for Worcestershire County Council
The three primary areas of benefit from our work were to ‘evidence need’, ‘improve services or products’ and ‘inform future planning and strategy’ (61% each). 50% said our work would be used to ‘communicate impact’ and/or ‘inform policies’. Other outcomes were that our work supported funding applications and increase data literacy in organisations. We now have a huge portfolio of work, case studies of impact and positive testimony on our website.
Promoting the importance and value of data for good
We’ve also worked nationally and internationally to provide evidence and raise awareness about the value and importance of data for the benefit of communities and society. In 2022-23 we reached an estimated 10,000 people through our championing work. This includes our blogs and website resources, monthly ‘Data4Good tips, tools and tales’ newsletter, our events and webinars, public speaking, and our monthly Datafolk Club where we bring staff from the nonprofit community to peer learn and share knowledge and good practice.
People who engage in our events and Datafolk club tell us they feel:
inspired about the possibilities for using data
motivated to improve with data in their organisation
more aware of useful resources and good practice, and
more connected to professional peers and support.
Building data maturity across the nonprofit sector
Data maturity was a key focus of our last strategy period (2020-23). We sought to extend our assessment and benchmarking tool to enable greater uptake by organisations and to be of value to other agencies who are working to understand and build the data capabilities of the sector. Key successes were launching the organisation and cohort versions of the assessment, and our reseller offer. In particular, our annual ‘State of the Sector’ reports on nonprofit data maturity have provided a unique and increasingly robust overview of the sector, how it is changing, and the value and benefits for those at the forefront.
State of the Sector data maturity in the nonprofit sector 2020-23
Influence (or lack of influence) on Government and Philanthropy
In reflecting on the last five years, perhaps our only disappointment is that our efforts to influence government and philanthropy have not led to any significant investment in supporting nonprofit sector around data. It’s been a decade since the sector’s lack of data skills needs were first pointed out to government, and despite consultations there was no mention of the nonprofit sector in the UKs national data strategy. However there are small changes happening behind the scenes at the Charity Commission and DCMS and we’re hopeful the next government will build on this and show more commitment too.
We had mixed feelings about The Central Digital and Data Office publication of the UK Government’s data maturity framework, acknowledging that it was derived from Data Orchard’s data maturity framework. Obviously this recognition is a positive testament to the quality and value of our research and model, and our openness in freely sharing this. However it is deeply frustrating that we had three Innovate UK smart grant applications to invest in our data maturity assessment tool rejected. (We’re still looking for funds to develop the next iteration of the tool so do please point us to any grant opportunities you know of).
On a much more positive note, we’re delighted that Scottish Government are now beginning a third cohort of public sector data maturity assessments using our tool and that this is leading to positive benefits.
“It can be really hard for organisations to know where to start with data maturity, it’s a really big thing and it can be difficult to understand where to focus with lots and lots of problems you need solve. The maturity assessments really help organisations to think about where to put their focus….and it helps us to think what can we do to help organisations improve in those areas as well?”
Shona Nicol, Head of Data Standards, Scottish Government
And also our Mapio Cymru project has continued to influence the aspirations of the Welsh Government and related bodies with regards to Welsh language mapping data.
Strengthening our board and team in skills, influence and diversity
Our board and staff celebrating Data Orchard's 10th birthday with massive '1' and '0' cakes.
Building and strengthening our team was one of our key goals for 2020-23. We are delighted that the successful recruitment of new board members and employees has resulted in an extraordinary group of people. A team that is uniquely knowledgeable in data in the nonprofit sector, diversely skilled and experienced, and with a shared commitment to our purpose and values.
So, here’s to the future!