Data is an incredibly valuable resource, for some it’s the ‘new oil’ and for others it’s an asset that needs to be stewarded. For the charity sector, data presents endless opportunities. It can help us to understand social need better, boost collaboration and reduce inefficiencies, for example. These are some of the benefits that NPC explored in its new report, Valuing data; How to use it in your grant-making.

Grant-making creates lots of data: from the funding application process through to implementation and evaluation. And while more funders are making their grant-making data publicly available, to support evidence-based decision-making and improve transparency and accountability, more could be done. Indeed, by collecting, managing and using data in an effective and strategic way, NPC believes that funders can transform their grant-making.

Here are four steps for funders, and other charities, which are interested in using data to inform their work:

1. Start with the problem you’re trying to solve
Data should be used to complement and strengthen the work you’re already doing, rather than using it for its own sake. Think about what you’re trying to achieve or improve, and what you need to know in order to do that. Are there gaps in your knowledge? Write down the questions you need to answer and think about how data can help you answer them. If your mission is to support people living in the UK’s most disadvantaged areas, for example, looking at the data will help you to identify those areas.

2. Figure out the type of data you need to use
It can be tricky to know which data you should be using and why, but breaking it down into categories can help organise your thinking: transactional data is the ‘who’, ‘what’ and ‘where’ of funding, such as the number of grants made by a specific funder; contextual data is about the context in which you are working, such as data on needs and deprivation; and impact data is about the changes that your work has enabled. The data you use will depend on the problem you’re trying to solve. Keep in mind, you don’t always have to look to external, shared data sources. In fact, many funders are unknowingly sitting on a treasure chest of data in the form of grants applications and reports.

3. Organise your internal data
It may not sound like the most exciting work you’ve ever done, but in order to reap the rewards of your internal data, a data audit is a useful first step.. This means reflecting on the questions that you’ve identified in step 1, and considering how your data can be organised to help you fill the gaps in your knowledge. Is your data up to date? Is it organised consistently? Is it clean? How well you manage your data will determine how useful it will be for you. This may require an upfront commitment of time and resource, but will be worth it in the long run. The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, for example, have coded and tagged their grants data to gain a more granular understanding of their different categories of funding.

4. Well-organised data is useful for everyone
If everyone cleans and organises their data in the same way, data from different organisations can be more easily compared or combined. Using the same data standard opens up countless opportunities for analysis – and improvement - across the sector as a whole, and beyond. 360Giving has developed a data standard for funders as an important step in this direction.

Data has the potential to greatly improve the charity sector. But it’s worth having a think about how you can use it in a way that will best meet your needs before diving in head first.

Shona Curvers is a Researcher at NPC and co-author of Valuing data. The report can be downloaded for free from http://www.thinknpc.org

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