Day 9: What we’re working on at CAST — challenges and happy things
A co-written daily post as part of my 30 day open working experiment. Written in 5 minutes by three members of the CAST team during our Programme Leads catch up today.
Tools used: Google docs, Medium
Time to create content: 7 minute activity during our catch up today, responding to questions in Google Doc
Time to format and publish: 15 minutes, using Medium
Re-use in action: Re-using and inspired by an activity our friends at Catalyst shared
Meet some of the brilliant CAST team, fellow Programme Leads Raj and Natalie share one thing they are each working at the moment.
Disrupt Foundation programme
by Rajwinder Cheema
A little about me first!
I like walking in parks and mountains.
What am I working on?
Digital solution designed to help frontline practitioners to signpost effectively, make and manage referrals better and analyse emerging data.
More about the Digital Disrupt Foundation programme
It’s a single platform that can be used by partner organisations across geographical areas involving functions and features to support the signposting, referral making and data analysing job of frontline practitioners easier.
What’s making my happy about this programme, right now
Hearing the ideas and thoughts from frontline practitioners about their needs, perspectives and challenges especially in an under-funded policy area. And the kind of support people are receiving during these tough times from professionals who are dedicated to making their journey in the UK a positive experience. Having the knowledge that the digital solution will make their lives easier.
What is challenging about this programme, right now
Managing the different mindsets and practices of the different stakeholders and ensuring people are using the same language and have a shared understanding about what we are doing and what we are planning to do at every step of the programme. Communication can be a challenge in this respect but also a big learning opportunity.
What we’re doing about the challenge
Reflecting on what has been learned through this process and thinking about how to do a better translation job for a different programme of work — which will involve a similar journey. The learning will also help me to be more facilitative around the process. For now, I am responding to this challenge by asking questions and ensuring we’re speaking in non-tech language.
CAST Website project
by Natalie Marshall
A little about me first!
I love a spin class! There’s nothing better than to get your heart pumping and your body moving to dance/electronic music. Every Thursday over lunch I take part in a 30 minute session at my local gym and it sets me up for the weekend.
What am I working on?
Sonya and I are working with the DEV society to develop CAST’s new website.
More about the CAST website project
Our newly designed website will provide social impact organisations, funders and other users with information about CAST, what our offer is and the ways in which they can get involved in our work.
What’s making my happy about this project, right now
I’m really enjoying having the time to deep dive into this project, exploring how Wagtail works and experimenting with the different blocks that can be used in the CMS. I’m also spending time developing a set of graphics for the site in Canva which is getting my creative juices flowing!
What is challenging about this project, right now
I have a tendency to be a bit of perfectionist which doesn’t align with agile ways of working. I can spend hours creating graphics and playing with formatting and design when really we need to be in a position to create an MVP that can be tested first.
What we’re doing about the challenge
I’ve set a deadline for user testing and am working towards that. If the site is not “perfect” by that point it doesn’t matter. It’s important to take a test and learn approach and that’s what we’ll be working towards.
Interested? You can have a look at the current CAST website here (and then you’ll be able to spot what has changed in the next few months!)
GrantAdvisor UK
by Ellen Smyth
A little about me first!
I love cold water swimming! Great way to start the day or feel refreshed at the end — favourite spots include the Ladies Pond in Hampstead Health or a little rocky spot hidden away in Malmousque in Marseille.
What am I working on?
GrantAdvisor UK is a digital service that helps grantseekers share real time anonymous reviews of their experience working with funders.
More about GrantAdvisor UK
Grantskeers can share an anonymous review of any UK funder, even if they are not registered yet, and can gain useful advice from their fundraising peers by reading over 400 reviews on the service. Any UK funder can register and gain in depth insight into what they are doing well and where they can improve — it is a great resource for both groups and we hope to improve communication, transparency and create more equitable grantmaking processes.
What’s making my happy about this project, right now
Some funders have expressed that they are sharing the insight with their trustees which feels really positive. It makes me happy that lots of the reviews are really positive — that is lovely to read. But on the flip side, speaking to a funder this morning they expressed that they are worried about how positive the reviews are! They want to make sure that grantseekers feel that they can and should challenge them, because they want to improve. I hope the anonymity of the service can allow people to be truly honest.
What is challenging about this project, right now
As the reviews grow I am starting to think about the best way to synthesise the data and pull out useful themes and actions to support funders to make sense of their data. I want to make sure it is really useful for funders, but the functionality on the website is limited for this and I am struggling a bit to work out what the best approach is.
What will you do about this challenge
I want to do some desk research to see what formats other organisations (including CAST) use to create digestible, interactive insight reports. I will also mock up some reports and would love to get some feedback from funders on how to make them more useful, what would meet their needs, and the needs of their trustees. I am keen to test out some options for reports before we build in any new functionality into the website that we might find out we don’t need later.
Interested? Grantmakers can register for GrantAdvisor UK here. Grantseekers can share their anonymous review of any UK funder (even if they are not registered yet) by completing this 5 minute survey.
If these are the kinds of collaborative, open and innovative partnerships you are looking for, we would love to hear from you. If you think you can support us with any of the challenges Raj, Natalie and I shared — drop us a message hello@wearecast.org.uk
Hello! I am running a 30 day experiment in open working to help me understand the benefits and challenges, so I can get better at supporting social impact organisations to work in the open. I would love to hear your comments, ideas and feedback! Thank you, Ellen
