Events

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As we grow and develop the Data Collective, we want to make sure we 

create a community where you feel comfortable and confident to ask for support and share your learnings

That's why, over the next couple of month weeks, we’re asking people who’ve worked with data in the social sector (you!) to 

 with the Data Collective, a peer learning community for people who work with data in the social sector.

​The research is being conducted by Kate, Ellie and Kirstie Ken from an intersectional feminist group called 

Alongside our survey, we’re hosting an informal focus group to find out more, and we’d love for you or another representative from your organisation to join us.

​In the focus group we’ll be chatting about: 

​The focus group will be 1hr 30mins long. Kate and Ellie from the collective will ask a few different questions, and we’ll just let the conversations flow! 

​This focus group is open to anyone who works with data in the social sector in the UK who 

comes from a background that is underrepresented in the data and social sector.

For example, you may come identify with any or many of the following backgrounds: ethnic minorities and/or racialised folks, gender minorities, LGBTQIA folks, working class folks, D/deaf and Disabled folks, migrants and asylum seekers.

​The information you share with us will be used to help us understand more about the Data Collective community, and may be shared in a report. If you join our conversation, we won’t quote you by name, and we will strive to anonymise you as much as possible. We will ask you if we can use what you say in our report. You can withdraw your consent at anytime. The Data Collective will administer the focus groups, but we may safely store your email address and names for the duration of our project. After the project closes we will destroy your contact details and we won’t pass them on to anyone. 

​If you work for a small organisation and / or would be unable to participate without support, we encourage you to accept a £50 honorarium for your attendance. Please tick the relevant box in the sign up form, and we'll be in touch to let you know how to claim this.

​The focus group will be a Zoom meeting online. We will have Zoom’s live captions available for those who need it, and you are welcome to bring in any support you would need to participate. Please let us know anything you need to support you to take part in the focus group.

​If you’re interested, but not able to attend on these days or times, just let us know and you can share your responses in a way that works best for you. Email 

Data Collective User Research Focus Group - people from underrepresented backgrounds only

The research is being conducted by Kate, Ellie and Kirstie Ken from an intersectional feminist group called 

In the focus group we’ll be chatting about: 

The focus group will be 1hr 30mins long. Kate and Ellie from the collective will ask a few different questions, and we’ll just let the conversations flow!  

This focus group is open to anyone who works with data in the social sector in the UK.

The information you share with us will be used to help us understand more about the Data Collective community, and may be shared in a report. If you join our conversation, we won’t quote you by name, and we will strive to anonymise you as much as possible. We will ask you if we can use what you say in our report. You can withdraw your consent at anytime. The Data Collective will administer the focus groups, but we may safely store your email address and names for the duration of our project. After the project closes we will destroy your contact details and we won’t pass them on to anyone. 

If you work for a small organisation and / or would be unable to participate without support, we encourage you to accept a £50 honorarium for your attendance. Please tick the revelant box in the sign up form, and we'll be in touch to let you know how to claim this.

The focus group will be a Zoom meeting online. We will have Zoom’s live captions available for those who need it, and you are welcome to bring in any support you would need to participate. Please let us know anything you need to support you to take part in the focus group.

If you’re interested, but not able to attend on these days or times, just let us know and you can share your responses in a way that works best for you. Email 

Data Collective User Research Focus Group - General

Join the Data Collective for an enlightening webinar on "How can non-profits use AI responsibly?" on 23 October. We'll kick things off at 12:00 PM and wrap up by 1:00 PM. 

In this one-hour session, we'll be joined by 

 to talk about Artificial Intelligence and explore how non-profits can harness its power responsibly. We'll discuss the ethical considerations, potential benefits, and best practices to ensure AI is used ethically in the non-profit sector. 

Approach with caution: Crucial questions for the charity sector ChatGPT hype

 asked some poignant on the ethical use of AI in the non-profit sector. She'll share her knowledge on labour and worker rights issues, data privacy issues, and the ethical development and use of AI.

Zoe is widely regarded as one of the charity sector’s leading digital experts. She produces the annual 

, pivotal research on how the charity sector is engaging with digital tools, and is the chair of the Charity Digital Code of Practice. She will share the learnings about AI use from that report, providing a general overview of trends and practises across the sector.

​This will be run as a Zoom webinar, and there will be an open chat (we promise this time!) and Q&A section. Zoom's automated live captions will also be available.

 is a writer and communications expert with a broad range of charity and tech advocacy experience. She has worked at technology and human rights focused organisations: campaigning, writing and researching on issues such as surveillance, copyright, and censorship. 

What gets her passionate is approaching technology from a perspective of consent and inclusion. This is why she co-founded the 

, a feminist take on how tech is changing how we live, tackling topics like rituals, resilience and rockstars. 

She is also on the Advisory Council for Defend Digital Me, who work for children’s privacy and data protection rights in the UK education system. Ruth is currently Comms and Marketing Manager at the Health Foundation.

, a social enterprise and digital agency who help charities lead change with confidence, developing strategies which increase their resilience, income and influence. She is chair of 

, and  blogs for Third Sector and others.  

Zoe is the co-author of The Charity Digital Skills Report and co-host of the leadership podcast Starts at the Top. She has 15 years’ experience of sitting on charity boards. She is currently a trustee of Charity Digital Trust. She is a previous winner of an Inspiring Communicator award from Charitycomms and was named Changemaker of the Year at The Pros Awards this year.

How can non-profits use AI responsibly?

Dreamy

Join the Data Collective for our September lunchtime webinar.

As charities, we've always had ways of collecting bits of data across our organisations - but not always been able to figure out how to build a healthy and enthusiastic data culture, streamline our data collection, and upskill our staff to be data knowledgeable.

, Head of Digital Transformation at the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts will talk about the journey around data happening in the Wildlife Trust federation. Moving from their 2030 strategy ambition to be more data informed, to developing a roadmap for data culture, running tests of working in new ways across the federation to develop data maturity, skills, ways of working and infrastructure. 

Northumberland Wildlife Trust Board member, 

 will give a real example of what the journey can look like years on, talking through 

 and how learnings from that have fed into what we do at the Trusts.

This will be a great opportunity to get an honest look into the steps and hurdles to to improving your organisation's data maturity. 

This will be run as a Zoom webinar, and there will be an open chat (we promise this time!) and Q&A section. Zoom's automated live captions will also be available.

We take accessibility seriously. If you have any further access requirements, please feel free to say so in the form or email 

 has been with RSWT for nearly two years, leading the ‘root and branch digital transformation’ elements of their 2030 strategy. She is a specialist in change, transformation and creating a digital culture which creates benefits for all users. She has worked for a wide variety of third sector organisations including small and medium sized charities, national funders and development organisations. She is qualified in process engineering and business analysis and experienced in building and developing products using agile methodologies.  

An experienced leader who undertook a Clore Cultural Leadership fellowship focusing on partnerships, system thinking and landscape scale working, Alice is used to working with dispersed remote teams and contractors and building up these teams from scratch. She has previously delivered a full systems overhaul including supporting a new data warehouse capability in her previous role. She enjoys facilitating workshops with LEGO and running round lumpy parts of the countryside eating cake.

 worked for the British Geological Survey, initially as a field geologist; he became Director of Information and retired from BGS as Operations Director in 2012. His expertise is in geoscience and environmental information strategy development and delivery, corporate digital transformation, development and implementation of spatial data architectures and infrastructures. At BGS he was responsible for the transition to corporate digital operation, including the delivery and management of national databases for geological maps and other corporate geocience datasets. He has worked as a consultant to government environmental and natural resource agencies in Canada, Australia and the Netherlands and was seconded to the European Commission team responsible for developing and implementing the INSPIRE Environmental Information Directive. He has also worked as a consultant on geoscience informatics to ESRI Global and Rio Tinto and was a member of the US National Academies Committee on “Spatial Data Enabling USGS Strategic Science in the 21st Century”. He developed and led a 120 nation project to improve the accessibility of digital geological map data for the Earth – OneGeology. 

In 2012 he received the Distinguished Service Award from the UK Geological Society for services to national and international geoscience informatics and the Outstanding Contributions in Geoinformatics Award from Geological Society of America in 2014. He now lives in Northumberland and is a Trustee of the Northumberland Wildlife Trust and author of three geology coffee-table books for lay people; he hikes in northern England most weeks and still attempts to run.

Getting to the root of data at your organisation - learning from the Wildlife Trusts

At nonprofit organisations, data visualisation plays a crucial role in communication. However, it often falls short in terms of accessibility. 

In this workshop, presented by Thiago Carmo from 

, we will delve into the world of Digital Accessibility and explore commonly used data visualisation tools.

This interactive workshop follows on from our Introduction to Accessible Data Visualisation webinar, and is a more hands-on and practical guide - we'll be using tools (decided by you) and showing how you can embed accessibility principles into your work.

This workshop is exclusively for people who work in the non-profit sector.

Also, by attending this workshop, your organisation has the chance to win a free digital accessibility audit from Passion4Social!

​This event will be hosted on Zoom, in the meeting format. We will provide live captions, the chat will be open, and there will be breakout rooms.

If you have any other access needs (eg BSL, tech support on the day, etc), please let us know in the sign up form, and we'll be in touch asap!

, Passion4Social’s Managing Director, will bring his experience and knowledge gained with Accessibility Audits. His team of disabled testers delivered almost a hundred audits for the private, public and third sectors, and collected several insights from people that experience different barriers: dyslexia, ADHD, autism, blindness, hard of hearing, motor disabilities, etc.

​Passion4Social also runs the programme ‘Accessibility for All’, funded by the Scottish Government.

Workshop: Introducing Accessible Data Visualisation

Data visualisation is such an important part of nonprofit organisations’ communication, but it often isn't accessible for everyone. 

In this webinar on Accessibility and Data Visualisation, Thiago Carmo from 

 will explore Digital Accessibility and and receive practical tips on how to deploy its concepts effectively.

Learn how to to design inclusive and accessible reports, graphs, infographics, and all your data visualisation needs - so that everyone can benefit from the information you want to pass on.

This webinar will be followed up with a more 

practical workshop on Data Visualisation and Accessibility

 on Wednesday 19 July, 10am to 12 noon. This workshop is for those who work in the non-profit sector only.

This event will be hosted on Zoom, in the webinar format. We will provide live captions, the chat will be open, and there will be a dedicated space to ask questions.

Passion4Social also runs the programme ‘Accessibility for All’, funded by the Scottish Government.

Introducing accessible data visualisation (webinar)

 for this free webinar. The ONS is the UK's largest independent provider of official statistics, and they collect and share vital data sets for that the non-profit sector can and should access and use.

In this webinar, the brilliant ONS Outreach & Engagement Team will join us to talk through the 

, including a tour of the outputs and interactive tools created to help everyone use the data. 

They'll also introduce you to the ONS and the range of other data they produce.

We're also really keen on finding out what areas of the ONS data you're interested in, your data opportunities and if you'd like to collaborate with them, so there will also be some time for discussion.

This event will be live-streamed on Zoom. Zoom's auto live captioning will be available.  Should you have any access needs or questions, please let us know on sign-up or email 

ONS Census 2021 data, and how to use it

​This is a social event with breakout rooms - you'll also get a chance to chat with a couple of other Data Collective members!

​This call will be online and you will be able to access Zoom's live captions. We will also be using Mentimeter and sharing screens. You will also be put in some breakout rooms.

If you have any questions or access needs, please let us know in the form, or email 

Welcome to the Data Collective!

This event is open to people who work in charities and nonprofits only.

What is Natural Language Processing? How can it help your organisation better deliver services? 

DataKind UK volunteer and Natural Language Processing expert 

, will be teaching this webinar. Heiko is the founder of 

, which offers consulting services and training to help organisations accelerate their adoption of AI & Machine Learning.

, which will provide a high-level overview of NLP, which will introduce you to these topics :

There will be plenty of time for questions at the end!

A Beginner's Guide to Natural Language Processing

Charities and local authorities are facing increased demand and rising costs, while also having to deal with a reduced income. In our last event, 

, we saw how Citizens Advice were using their personal data to map out impact across England and Wales. We also learned about the work NPC were looking to develop to support charities through this rough time.

This event showcases two more organisations using predictive modelling data analysis to mitigate the impact of the Cost of Living Crisis. 

 worked with Business Intelligence to model the impact of the Cost of Living Crisis on their local area. 

, Dorset Council's Principal Research Analyst, will share what data they are using to build a predictive model to measure the impact on residents on their local area, and how that data can support the voluntary sector better distribute resources.

The Cost of Living has also increased the cost of running local charities. With running costs high and demand even higher, community-owned buildings are struggling to survive. 

, the Director of Impact and Learning at 

 will share their data-led approach in supporting these buildings through these current crises.

: You will be able to access live captions. If you need any other support, please let us know in your registration or email 

Using Data to mitigate the Cost of Living Crisis

With energy prices skyrocketing and rising inflation, many people across the UK are facing unprecedented debt, and a challenging winter. Charities are working hard to support those in need, but are also struggling themselves with their own financial crises as donations reduce but demand increases.

As part of our first in a series of events on the Cost of Living Crisis, we will be joined by Morgan Wild, the Head of Policy (Families, Welfare and Work) at Citizens Advice and Tris Lumley, Director of Innovation and Development from NPC.

Morgan will share the work that Citizens Advice have been doing to inform and advise on the Cost of Living Crisis, and how data visualisation has been pivotal. Find out more about all their data work, including the 'In the Red Index' (published in May) and the 'Cost of Living Data Dashboard' (published in August).

Tris will show us the work NPC have been working on to support funders and charities with the Cost of Living crisis, including how they have continued to use the Local Needs Databank, and their "Confronting the cost of living crisis" resource hub.

Data & the Cost of Living Crisis

Every charity deals with data. Whether it’s data on your members, impact and evaluation data, research data, service delivery data, or data which supports fundraising - a data strategy can help your organisation use data effectively and with impact. 

But where do you begin? What makes a good data strategy? What challenges might you face? Once you have a data strategy, how do you implement it?

 - one of the founders of the Data Collective - develops data and insight strategies in a practical, open way for describing social impact and telling human stories. He works with charities, community / voluntary groups and other people who are trying to change people's lives for the better. He founded Sheffield Data for Good and has years of experience working on building data strategy for small, medium and large social sector organisations.

 has been the Head of Data across a number of different organisations. She wrote Prostate Cancer UK’s first data strategy last year, and is now supporting Art Fund in implementing their new data strategy.

 This event is online, and will be run on Zoom. This event will be run as a panel discussion, followed by plenty of time for any questions. There will be live automated captions.

If you have any other access requirements, or any other questions, please email 

How to Build a Data Strategy

Small charities and community organisations often don’t have the funding to get bespoke legal advice. However they still have the need for processes and policies about data use in order to guide best practice, abide by regulations and manage organisational risks. The Data Collective will be running a surgery session for you to raise any questions you have in relation to data use within your organisation. We’ll also be sharing templates for your use.

You'll hear from Chloe Parker, service user database expert, and from Alex Matheson, Senior Associate at DLA Piper. This event is aimed at smaller charities and community organisations, who do not have significant HR/legal functions.

Data and the Law

Facing the question of when and how to move from local to cloud-based systems? In this session, we’ll hear from two experts on the challenges and benefits for small and medium sized charities.

Stuart Pearson is Head of Business Delivery at Citizens Advice SORT (Stockport, Oldham, Rochdale and Trafford), and will talk about his experience of moving from on premise to Office365 and then onto Google. He will share the impact both operationally and culturally on the charity.

Holly Smith, Senior Solutions Consultant at Databricks, will talk about the pros and cons of the cloud vs on premise vs your laptop, reflecting on a decade of experience in the sector.

DataKind UK’s Data Science Lead, Dulcie Vousden, will also be available to answer questions. We’ll have lots of time for discussion, and invite you to ask your questions and share your own experiences with the group.