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Using open data from grant-

makers to explore below-the-radar
organisations
Voluntary Sector and Volunteering
Research Conference 2014

David Kane, National Council for Voluntary Organisations
Joe Heywood, National Council for Voluntary Organisations
Peter Bass, National Council for Voluntary Organisations Associate

This paper outlines a potential methodology for obtaining data about below the
radar organisations, using data made available by grant making foundations. The
project is one of five projects funded by Nesta as part of their call for proposals for
Data Driven Methods for Mapping Below the Radar Activity in the Social
Economy
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.
When NCVO's flagship Almanac publication was expanded to cover a range of civil
society organisations, and not just the registered voluntary sector, we realised to what
extent the coverage of BTR activity was poor, particularly from a data perspective. The
nature of BTR organisations means they are difficult to quantify and measure, and so
our assessment of them in the Civil Society Almanac series has always been a partial
one. The estimate used in the Almanac is based on Low Flying Heroes, a 2001
publication published by the New Economics Foundation. By aggregating a number of
data collection techniques they produced a figure for the rate of micro social
enterprises per head of population. This number was aggregated to produce the
600,000 figure used in the Almanac.
Approaches to measuring BTR activity have used techniques such as the LOVAS
method developed by the Home Office, or the Third Sector Research Centre, who
are using micro-mapping to identify and analyse BTR activity in a locality. These
methods allow a comprehensive and detailed survey of an area. However, they are
labour intensive, and without significant resources could not produce a UK-wide
dataset for data analysis.
Approach and methodology
We aim to develop a method which uses open data released by grant-making
foundations and other funders on the organisations that they fund to identify BTR
organisations. We will identify BTR organisations within this data by matching it with
official registers of organisations, such as the Charity Commissions register of
charities. After validating this method in one area against on-the-ground knowledge,
we will then open up and visualise the resulting data.
A recent emphasis on transparency and open data has led to some of these
organisations making data about who they fund freely available. This effort has been
led by the Three Sixty Degree Giving campaign, which has set a moon-shot ambition
that within five years, 80% of grants made by UK charities, foundations and other
grant-makers are reported as open data to agreed standards.
A number of funders have already published data, meaning that there is already
material to work with. These funders include the Big Lottery Fund, Nominet Trust,
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http://www.nesta.org.uk/data-driven-methods-mapping-below-radar-activity-social-economy
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Nesta and the Wellcome Trust. There is also a large amount of data published by local
authorities and central government departments.
This project will also provide a valuable pull factor to convince further funders to
publish their grant data openly, by showing that the data is useful and there is demand
for it. By working with other funders, particularly those that are more likely to fund
BTR organisations such as Community Foundations, we will increase the amount of
data made available for others to use, and in doing so increase the amount of source
material for our method.
The method itself will take this source data made available by funders and identify
BTR organisations. By matching with lists of registered organisations, such as the
Charity Commission register of charities and the register of companies held by
Companies House, BTR organisations will be identified by a process of elimination.
Extensive testing and refining will be needed to ensure that above the radar groups
are correctly identified, checking for both false positives (where BTR organisations
are incorrectly matched to a registered group), and false negatives (where registered
organisations are not matched). The project will involve developing and refining these
matching techniques to improve their accuracy. The data will also need to be de-
duplicated against each other to check for those organisations that appear on more
than one list.
As well as refining and testing for consistency within the data itself, the method will
also include external checks. To do this, we will look at the data gathered for BTR
organisations in a particular local area - for example, a London borough. By comparing
this data with more in-depth data from the local area - for example, lists of
organisations maintained by the local voluntary sector infrastructure body and
noticeboards in local public venues and shops - we will gain an understanding both of
the potential error rate of the data, and the degree to which it covers the BTR sector.
As the data generated is based on data from funders we know that it will only be a
partial picture of BTR organisations. This phase of the research will assess what
proportion of organisations is likely to be covered in this method.
The resulting dataset will provide a list of organisations that are likely to be BTR. The
data will also include further details on those organisations, based on the data
attached to their record in the source data. In contrast to official registers of
organisations, this data is likely to be more ad-hoc, variable between data sources, and
without standard classifications or identifiers. This will present challenges for data
analysis, and techniques will need to be developed to overcome them, such as
applying a classification scheme to textual data.
After classification and cleaning the data will be available to analyse and visualise. The
exact nature of the analysis will depend on the range of data fields available from the
source material, and is likely to vary by funder, but it is likely that it will include:
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mapping of the organisations' locations and any geographical trends
analysis of the sectors that these organisations work in, and the activities they
carry out
basic analysis of the size of the organisations, based on the size of the grants
they receive.
Using datasets that contain both registered and unregistered organisations - the data
released by funders - it will be possible to analyse and visualise the connections and
differences between the two types of organisations, to answer questions on whether
BTR organisations are more likely to work with particular beneficiaries, or work in
particular areas of the country. This analysis will be enhanced by focusing on the case
study area used for validation, and using the data gathered at the validation stage.
Risks with the methodology
The biggest risk to the success of the project is a lack of suitable data. This could either
come from low numbers of funders willing to share their funding data publicly, or
from the data that is shared having poor coverage of BTR organisations. However, we
do know that some funders have already released data which is relevant to the
project, so there is source material to work with. Additionally, if funders are reluctant
to release data in an open way, we could also work with them to share data with us
confidentially.
Another risk is the confidentiality and protection of data about the BTR organisations
themselves. The nature of these organisations means they are often closely associated
with an individual for example the organisations contact address is the home
address of someone involved with the organisation. The implications of this for data
protection and confidentiality will need to be managed during the project, especially
when opening up data. Processes for managing this could include, for example, only
providing a geographical area, rather than exact address, when locating an
organisation.
Project timeline
There are four phases to the project.
1. Data collection April 2014 to June 2014
This phase will involve gathering existing published datasets from funders, and
compiling them into a single database. It will involve contacting likely funders and
working with them to publish their datasets in open formats, and working with
campaigns like Three Sixty Degree giving to locate more datasets.
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2. Data matching May 2014 to July 2014
This phase will involve matching the source datasets as they are received with
reference data such as the Register of Charities or the Companies House register in
order to identify the registered organisations and remove them from consideration.
Matching will be done using a reconciliation service developed by NCVO. This service
will need to be tested and refined to ensure matching is correct.
3. Real world validation August 2014 to
September 2014
We will then compare the resulting data generated for one area with on-the-ground
knowledge of that area, to validate the results and assess what coverage of BTR
organisations has been achieved. This will involve selecting an area with a large
number of cases in the collected data, and working with a local partner to assess how
well it has covered the organisations in the area, and if there are particular areas where
data coverage is poor.
4. Analysis and visualisation September 2014 to
November 2014
Using the source data and the knowledge gained on the coverage of the data, we will
then analyse and visualise it, looking for patterns in the activities that organisations
undertake, where they are located and the beneficiaries they serve.

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