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Voluntary Sector Data Use and Needs Strand three – sector survey and interviews Joe Heywood, NCVO Royal Statistical Society, 25 September 2013
Voluntary Sector Data Use and Needs
Strand three – sector survey and interviews
Joe Heywood, NCVO
Royal Statistical Society, 25 September 2013
Online survey• Sample of 2,000 organisations in
England/Wales stratified by size of organisation by annual income and then randomly selected
• Number of respondents: 92
1. Methodology – mixed method approach
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Less than £10k
£10k-£100k
More than
£100kRespondents
Population
Telephone interviews • Interviewed 13 organisations• Each interview – 30 minutes• Included grant-making,
infrastructure and service delivery organisations
Do not use data, do not need to
Do not use data, would like to
Use Data
37
6
49“we are a small band of people who manage our village hall, largely volunteers”
“We keep a list of elderly citizens to whom we give [very small] grants”
“we don't have the resources or time spend researching or searching for data. It would be useful to have some sort of central database.”
“As a choral society... …We use data held by other bodies to obtain music and research programme material.”
2.1. Do organisations use data to inform their work?
Source: TSRC/NCVO/RSS Base: 92 respondents
2.2. Use of data: by size/geographic scope
• Stronger relationship between geographic scope of activity and use of data
• Weaker relationship between size of organisation and use of data
Under £10k £10k - £100k £100k or above N'hood Local Authority Regional or beyond
19 of 36 17 of 31
16 of 21
9 of 26
18 of 3028 of 36
Data about voluntary sector
Directories of voluntary sector
Data on voluntary sector topics
Local authority area statistics
Data about community
Data about best practice/impact
National statistics
Internal data
466810
1415
32
478
1214
1610
4
Often Sometimes
3. Types of data used (cont.)
Internal data:o Operational and financial data
about their organisationo Monitoring and evaluationo Membership/CRM datao Information collected for or by
funders
Source: TSRC/NCVO/RSS Base: 45 respondents. All applicable options were selected
External data:• Publicly available data sets• Data “by” or “about” the
sector• Data generated from
internal/commissioned research
• Data purchased from private companies
Info
rmin
g policy
For c
ampai
gning/a
dvoca
cy
Fundin
g applic
ations/
bids
Asses
sing n
eeds
mem
bers
Underst
andin
g ben
eficia
ries
Compar
ing s
ervice
s
Help ta
rget
/deliver
ser
vice
s
As bac
kgro
und/con
text
32
15
26 27
1714
33
23
4. Purposes of using data
Source: TSRC/NCVO/RSS Base: 47 respondents. All applicable options were selected
Improving quality of work- Developing strategy
- Demonstrating impact- Assessing and
understanding need
Offering a service• Offering tools/information to
members/stakeholders• Supporting/communication with
members• Campaigning/lobbying
• Getting data that can be merged/aggregated with other data• Some data is there, but difficult to use, “buried” or “not
functionally unavailable”• Getting data that are specific to organisation’s work• Cost of purchasing private data• Risks and opportunities of open data
Snr managers/trustees don’t support using data
Not confident using data
Not knowing how to judge if data are available
Lack of skills/expertise to interpret data
Lack of skills and expertise using data
Not knowing where to find the right data
Not knowing if data are accurate
Lack of resources
66710101314
22
916
2018
232021
15
Big Barrier Small Barrier
Source: TSRC/NCVO/RSS Base: 41 respondents
5. Barriers to using data
“The real problem for us is not so much data analysis - it’s more a question of collating raw, reliable data in the first instance and establishing continuity and mechanisms throughout the business to record it”
5. Potential Solutions• Practical support
• Guidance and signposting on how to use data and which ones are the most useful
• Storage/data repository – bringing data together• More support for smaller organisations
• Shaping the future agenda• Coordinated approach to data use• Examples of how data has transformed charities – both large and
small• Stakeholders and collaboration
• Partnership across public, private and voluntary sector• More engagement from grantmakers around data-sharing23 23
14 11 11 10 9 8
