Catalyst is a remarkable network of people, organisations and support. This post describes how we’re thinking about making it easier for grant makers to find the best value from this community and to contribute to our collective ambitions.
“Longleat Hedge Maze” by Cyberslayer is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
There are so many different aspects to the work across the Catalyst community — whether it’s the chance for any civil society organisation to get some volunteer expert digital support; ways for charities to share and learn from one another — whether synchronously or asynchronously; access to informal peer learning or involvement in experiments into more inclusive, collective action.
Because there are so many interconnected parts it can feel huge — and maybe difficult to locate the part that is most value to any one person or organisation.
The starting point may be browsing the wide range of resources that are available; it may be exploring the range of support on offer; or searching for a relevant story of how other civil society organisations are using digital, data and design. Other times it might be reaching out to the Catalyst Producers or being signposted by someone who is already familiar with Catalyst.
We’ve spent some time thinking specifically about the routes that grant makers take, or might take, and how we can help them benefit the most from Catalyst, and make their best contribution to our collective goals. We’ve outlined the main five routes — based on a grantmakers’ existing experience of Catalyst (from those who have just come across this community, to those who were critical to starting Catalyst). We’ve also outlined a set of characteristics of funding organisations and their relationship to digital — whether they’re confidently funding digital work or just starting out.
We’ll continue to test and iterate this work — and we’d love to hear from you if you think it’s right, wrong, or if you’d like to follow one of these routes. Mostly, we’re very aware of the amazing work across Catalyst, and we’ll continue to help expand the network and to realise the most value from this collective effort.