Voluntary Sector Data Conference 2018

Use data to improve what you do not just prove what you do…

Delivered by Inside Government, the conference took place on Thursday 11th October at etc. venue in London.

The aim of the conference was to provide a vital platform to assess how all voluntary sector organisations can effectively manage, protect and utilise data to ensure high quality regulatory compliance whilst maximising social impact across the voluntary sector.

We heard from policy experts and leading practitioners on ensuring successful compliance with GDPR, using data analysis to effectively attract and retain supporters and managing database and information systems to meet the needs of donors, supporters, service users and staff.

Here are our learnings and some free tools to help you work smarter with your data:

Key learnings:

• 45% of charities don’t have a digital strategy. Funding is the biggest obstacle to development of digital. Think about how to use your technology to better support beneficiaries

• Be transparent – release information about the charity/campaigns even if it is negative. Analyse it, explain how you addressed it and how you made it work

• Involve your members/donors – ask them what they think of a project in the pipeline, ask for opinions, distribute surveys, tell them how important their information and data is to the charity’s decision making process

• Charity Digital Code Framework is being produced as a resource for charities (NCVO)

• Make your data accessible – create infographics and webinars

Open Data: Why use 360 Giving?

• Find your local grant-makers/see who else is funding these organisations

• See what other are doing in your local area

• Help you make your application more targeted

• Find out if you are duplicating work that others are doing

GDPR/Data Protection:

• Use data in a way the person would expect which has limited impact on their personal life (Funding Regulator summary of legitimate interest)

• If you have a data breach you have 72 hours to report to the Charity Commission

• ICO reported there was a 15% rise in complaints in 2017-18 (pre-GDPR). This may be because people are more aware of their rights with charities and organisations holding their data

• NEW e-privacy regulation to be approved in the next six months and launched in 2019/20. Prior consent must be given for all electronic communications including WhatsApp and phone calls

Protection from cyber-crime:

• Keep your operating system up to date

• Patch regularly

• Don’t forget all applications, printers & WiFi router

• Harden servers

• Role based access control – least privilege

• Change ALL Default passwords

• Encrypt laptops

• Encrypt removable media – but prevent copying to removable media if possible

• Have a process for managing lost /stolen devices

• Limit Access

• Be extra careful with information you send via the internet on remote servers like Dropbox. The free one is hosted in USA so does not need to abide by EU laws. They have the ability to decrypt your files and view them whenever they want

Free tools/resources:

• NCVO membership - over 13,000 voluntary sector organisations across England. Free to join if your annual income is less than £30,000 and contains lots of resources on governance, volunteer management, funding, HR and strategy: https://www.ncvo.org.uk/about-us/join-ncvo

• NCVO - free e-learning for charities, social enterprises and community groups: https://knowhownonprofit.org/

• Fundraising Regulator - free guidance: https://www.fundraisingregulator.org.uk/

• ICO - guidance on GDPR: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/

• DataKindUK- helped a Foodbank analyse their data to predict who needs help. DataKind UK runs office hours the first Wednesday of every month. If you work for a charity, social enterprise or local authority and have a project idea that involves data analysis, or you just want to better understand what you can do with the data you hold, you can pick their brains: bit.ly/DKUKofficehrs

• Charities Security Forum – protect your charity form cyber-attack: http://charitiessecurityforum.org.uk/

• GrantNav – how to use open data: http://grantnav.threesixtygiving.org/

• Beehive - Support for grantseekers/find donors: https://www.beehivegiving.org/