On Catalyst’s Digital Practice work-stream: digital learning & leadership programmes & tools

To support better services and organisational resilience in civil society we will initially focus our work on: codifying definitions of digital maturity, practical training programmes and peer community learning tools, digital leadership and digital trustees.

Catalyst was established to mobilise a step-change in civil society’s use of digital. Ours is a networked approach, with the vast majority of our work led by partners and by charities themselves, so our focus has been to identify how Catalyst can best support existing delivery organisations to increase the volume and quality of voluntary and charitable organisations’ digital practice.

We have incredibly strong foundations to build on within our widening network, with a host of specialist tech-for-good training, leadership and mentoring organisations already delivering a range of tried-and-tested programmes and tools.

But, despite much excellent work, it is clear that there is a gap between existing provision, and its impact.

Over the past four years, we’ve spoken and worked hand-in-glove with literally hundreds of voluntary and charity sector professionals. Time and again they’ve told us of their despondency when confronted with the question of how to integrate digital in their organisation, and their apprehension that they lack the experience to know whether they’re on the right track.

If we are to truly change charity culture on the scale that’s needed, and for the long term, we need to radically improve the quality and increase both the uptake and the awareness of the support available to charities.

Myself and colleagues Tori Ellaway and Ellie Hale have been working with charities, digital agencies, delivery partners and sector organisations to scope and research how Catalyst might collectively break this impasse and to determine where we should best focus our energies as an ecosystem.

What is clear is that in order to effect a step-change in the sector’s use of digital processes and tools we need to create a culture of long-term, deliberate, everyday practice. This will help give people working in charities across the UK the authority, motivation and focus to embed digital in their strategy, services and culture.

Creating a culture of everyday digital practice could involve a variety of things, including;

• increased support for charity decision-makers to foster responsive organisations that harness digital, design and data;
• support and training for tens of thousands of charities in embedding user-led, test-driven responsible practices;
• mapping existing learning programmes, cultures and approaches in the sector in order to create new or strengthen existing digital training within such programmes and in order to learn from or replicate what works;
• signposting to and amplifying existing opportunities for charities to learn about and experiment with digital;
• developing new digital support and training to meet any gaps in existing provision;
• finding ways for the sector to effectively measure and monitor their progress in digital;
• providing space (both on and offline) for charities to come together for peer support and learning; and
• ensuring sector staff, supporters and volunteers have the confidence, focus and motivation to begin their digital journey.

This is not an exhaustive list, and the more we work with voluntary and charitable organisations and the structures that exist to support them, the more ideas and interventions we’ll uncover for collective action.

In the meantime, we have identified four areas which we are confident underpin the fostering of this deliberate, everyday culture of digital practice:

1. Digital Maturity and Progression

Over the past few years, we’ve seen a steady increase in the number (and use) of digital codes, diagnostic tools, principles and frameworks to support voluntary and charitable organisations in benchmarking themselves and defining what “good” digital transformation, leadership and practice might look like. The three leading tools are CAST’s digital principles co-designed with the sector, the Charity Digital Code of Practice and NCVO’s Digital Maturity Matrix.

But to measure the impact of these tools, define progress and evaluate interventions we need an agreed standard of what ‘good’ looks like. This is what Nissa Ramsay from Think Social Tech and Helen Lang from Innovation Unboxed have set out to create with their Digital Maturity Work, which they’ve been developing since April. They’ve already published their ambitions for the project, with full results and the next steps coming soon. To find out more and get involved, please contact me.

Nissa Ramsay from Think Social Tech, who’s developed the Digital Maturity Work for Catalyst

Elsewhere, Catalyst is supporting the development of the Charity Digital Code of Practice for its second year. This work is in its early stages: do contact Zoe Amar, Chair of the Charity Digital Code to learn more.

2. Practical Learning and Training

Next, comes the vital work of ensuring that sector professionals can easily find the right support at the right stage of their journey, learn at a pace that makes sense to them, have the tools and support to bring that learning back to their teams and that interventions are based on demonstrable evidence of impact. Much of the training on offer across the UK is reliant on grant funding cycles, meaning that much good practice exists in regional silos and is at risk of changing funding priorities.

Digital tools and peer communities offer ways to deliver and scale learning that can be more self-directed and sustainable, and Catalyst has worked with Super Being Labs to research the sector’s digital learning needs. We’d love to work with more practitioners with experience in online learning development and peer support. If this is you, please get in touch.

In parallel, we’ve been testing and developing resources which might form part of the charities’ digital learning and training journeys. These include:

• The free half-day introductions to digital offered on the CAST Design Hop programme. To attend, or run, a workshop in your area please contact Ellie Hale.
• Tools and resources supporting charities to carry out user research with their beneficiaries. To help test or develop these, please contact Tori Ellaway.
• Early stage development of an online introductory training programme to mirror the outcomes of face-to-face programmes such as Design Hops.

3. Digital Leadership

Catalyst has worked with Doteveryone to research the digital needs of civil society leaders, and of how the support marketplace is developing. Having spoken with a broad spectrum of charity leaders and digital and traditional support organisations, it’s clear that, while amazing digital training opportunities exist, leaders’ awareness of and ability to draw on these programmes is low.

We’ll be publishing the full results of this research in the coming weeks.

Catalyst is about extending and developing strong practice that already exists, so our initial plan is to work with 2–3 leadership support organisations (both digital and non-digital) to identify ways to increase the numbers of leaders they train to use digital to advance their social and environmental objectives. To support this work or find out more please contact Tori Ellaway.

4. Governance and Trustees

Addressing the digital skills deficit on boards has been an urgent priority for the sector for some time. SCVO, Reach Volunteering, Zoe Amar Digital and CAST began to drill into this issue last year, and Catalyst is supporting this collective to gather greater insight from trustees and charities and devise practical approaches to increase digital leadership on boards. Please contact Tori Ellaway to get involved in this area of work. In the meantime, this resource published by the collective last year is a great place to start.

Next Steps

While we are confident that these four areas are the right initial focus to help charities make more effective use of digital, data and technology, this is the very start of a collective journey. These priorities will evolve in response to changing needs and feedback of the sector, and we are keen to engage large numbers of social organisations: those delivering digital learning and training to the sector as well as charities across the UK interested in shaping, developing and using the support programmes and tools from our network.

Please get in touch if you have experiences, insight and expertise to contribute to our shared ambition, and stay tuned for more detail on plans.

Summary of ways to get involved

1. Digital Maturity and Progression Contribute to and learn more about the development of our Digital Maturity Work — contact Sam Sparrow; discuss the next iteration of our Charity Digital Code—contact Zoe Amar.
2. Practical Learning and Training Support the digital and peer community digital learning tools being developed by Catalyst, contact Sam Sparrow; attend or run a Design Hop workshop, contact Ellie Hale; develop and test tools and resources to help charities conduct user research, contact Tori Ellaway.
3. Digital Leadership Collaborate on our work to increase charity leaders’ awareness and readiness to access digital training, contact Tori Ellaway.
4. Governance and Trustees To help the team addressing the digital skills deficit on boards, contact Tori Ellaway.

You can read more about Catalyst and its wider aims and objectives in the various posts already published.