See your grantmaking in new ways

For the first time, organisations wanting to address social issues can easily combine and visualise data to get deep insights into their grantmaking.

Coinciding with Open Data Day tomorrow, we have launched a free online platform called 360Insights.

Using 360Insights, grantmakers who openly share their grants data to our Standard can quickly see information on seven key areas, revealing how much they give to different types of organisations, when, where, how old and how big their recipients are.

In the testing and preparation of the platform we have already had some great feedback.

Paul Streets OBE, Chief Executive of Lloyds Bank Foundation, believes 360Insights is of crucial help to them. He said “Data informs everything we do – our strategic direction, allows us to check we’re making the impact we set out to and to challenge and improve our work. Sharing data enables transparency and accountability. That’s especially important for a funder community whose customers can’t walk away.”

“What’s exciting about 360Giving’s work, and the new 360Insights platform, is the chance for us – and indeed for anyone – to view the funding world with a wider lens, reflecting both on the synergy between funders, but also to expose the places and people that need more help. It challenges funders like us on every level, from flagging specific place-based issues, like rural homelessness in Lincolnshire, to highlighting underfunded groups, like those in the criminal justice system, that really aren’t getting the support they need.”

Rob Williamson, the Chief Executive of Community Foundation Tyne & Wear and Northumberland – the UK’s biggest community foundation – is excited to have this new visual information tool.

He said “By putting our data as a resource out in the world, we hope it can do good in ways we can’t imagine. Putting it out there and having a tool like 360Insights to visualise it, making that data even more accessible and quick to understand is hugely appealing for us. Those who want to learn more about us can do so at a glance before hopefully delving deeper into the data behind it. The data reflects who we are; a place-based grantmaker getting generous donors’ money to small and medium-sized charities working in the heart of our communities.”

The philanthropist who started it all, our Chair Fran Perrin, is excited at the potential of this new platform. “When I set up 360Giving three years ago, I would not have believed that in such a short time we’d have so much useful data being shared, enabling insights into issues such as homelessness and the distribution of funding.”

“As the numbers of funders sharing their data approaches 100, we saw the need to make it easier for anyone to see what the £26bn of grantmaking says about them”, she added. “That’s why we built 360Insights and I am excited to see how grantmakers apply this fantastic functionality into their decision making”.

All of the grants data included in 360Insights is published by funders in a common, open format, so that anyone can access and use it. 360Insights is part of our suite of tools developed to help people easily see and understand the different flows of charitable funding across the UK.

Grantmakers: feel free to share what you’ve learned from 360Insights with your communities, perhaps including screenshots or the URL of your data, and using #360Insights onTwitter