From May to July 2018, we’re ‘digging the data’ as part of our Quest for Questions. This will be a journey to answer important questions about funding, led by our expert data analyst, Edafe Onerhime.

We are taking our Data Expeditions – fun and dynamic group workshops to learn data skills – one step further.

Do you want to learn how to draw insights and use data as part of your decision-making? We’re looking for up to 12 explorers to join us on this journey. You don’t need data skills to take part but you will be curious about what is happening to funding at a local level and willing to share your insights to help guide the expedition. Ideally you will have experience of providing funding and/or developing funding strategies.

About the process

On this journey we’ll take you through the 360Giving data pipeline, covering the basics of data use and teaching you data skills along the way. You will learn to ask and refine questions that can be answered with data and how to find data to combine with 360Giving data to answer these questions.

Once the data is in place, you will be supported to use tools and analyse data to discover patterns. Finally, we will work together to tell stories with data to make the results of the expedition easy to understand and share.

Exploring local funding

A journey needs a focus. In this journey we will explore funding at a local level, looking at statutory funding from central and local government, and grants made by charitable trusts and foundations and public bodies. Our questions are:

• • • Where are the geographical and/or sectoral funding gaps due to reduced availability or termination of statutory funding?
    • What can the current 360Giving dataset tell us about the funding being provided in those areas?

Over three months you will be asked to attend up to three workshops in person, as well as weekly online check-ins to feedback and reflect on the expedition process. You can also expect to spend around two hours each week developing data skills and connecting with your fellow explorers to dig into funding data. There are no costs for participating in this project.

Registration for this project is now closed. Participants were selected in May 2018 and the project was completed in August 2018. 

If you have any questions about this project or are interested in going on your own data journey, please email: labs@threesixtygiving.org