Comic Relief's Tech for Good programme for charities and social enterprises etc
Every ending is also a beginning.
And so it is as the 2018 cohort of Tech for Good projects near their grant ends and a new programme rises up. We expect to see record number of applicants this year. If you want to know more about applying click here. [Read more…] about 3 Peeks Inside the Tech for Good Programme
We asked three of the current cohort what advice they’d give. Here’s what they said. [Read more…] about What Advice Would You Give Organisations Applying to the Tech for Good Programme?
Over the last nine months this website has published 35 articles on funding and running a Tech for Good project.
All to help you get ready for funding and running your own one.
We’ve helped you learn about user, social and financial value. We’ve talked about laying the foundations for success and failure, and we’ve interviewed current grantees about what they’ve learnt. It’s all [Read more…] about 2019 Funding Programme Open for Applications (+5 Top Tips)
You don’t have to be a designer to understand the principles of good product development. And if you’re interested in applying for a Tech for Good grant it’s going to pay to.
Product development is risky and complex. There’s so much we don’t know at the beginning. Even after days of user research you can’t predict how your users will respond or if your product will actually meet their needs.
That’s why building iteratively is important. [Read more…] about What Skateboards and Bicycles Can Teach Us About Building a Tech for Good Product
We asked four of 2018’s programme cohort to share an insight that changed the way they work. Hit play to hear what they said.
We find it interesting that all four described insights into their users, because it shows that rather than rushing into the build stage they’d all been working to understand their users better first.
Here’s a quick summary: [Read more…] about Four Insights That Changed How We Run Our Tech for Good Project
Rather like predicting which horse will win a race, the trained eye can tell which Tech for Good projects are most likely to be successful. There’s some pedigree advice in this article.
You’re a charity chief exec. You’re planning a Tech for Good project or maybe you’ve won a grant. How can you be sure you’ve got a good chance of success? How can you stack the odds in your favour?
[Read more…] about Stack the Odds in Your Favour: How to Know if Your Tech for Good Project Will Succeed (before you’ve even begun)I was conceived in the middle of winter.
My parents, a successful charity and a socially minded web agency, won a Tech for Good grant. They were delighted to hear I was on the way.
Even if you fail in doing something ambitious, you usually succeed in doing something important”
Peter Diamandis – XPRIZE Foundation
[Read more…] about My Story: By Bertie the Tech for Good App
We thought they’d say “learning new ways of working”.
But not one of the five projects we asked named it as the biggest challenge they’d met in their first three months.
Instead they chose to talk about: [Read more…] about The Big Challenges: Most Difficult Tasks Running a Tech for Good Project
Just like a little kid getting on a bike the first ride is often the clumsiest. It’s new, awkward and breathtakingly exciting at the same time. Making your first Tech for Good Grant is like that.
If you’re a funder you’ll have heard about Tech for Good. You may have read an article or even attended one of our learning events.
You’ll have noticed that more digital services are getting funded, because more charities want to build them. [Read more…] about 8 Smart Tips for First Time Tech For Good Funders
You know how it is when applying for a grant. Though the odds are stacked against you, somehow you still feel hopeful.
Usually that hope gets crushed. Rejection is normal.
But sometimes you win. Sometimes you get offered a grant. Then you feel happy. And excited. And probably a wee bit nervous too.
So we thought we’d find out if this was true [Read more…] about Why Was Your Tech for Good Grant Application Successful?
Grant making is changing because charities want to deliver more digital services. This has big implications for traditional grant makers.
I’d like to ask you, please, about how funding tech for good projects is different to funding traditional human powered services?”
That’s what I asked Martha Young and Ali Macfarlane, Comic Relief’s Tech for Good Programme leaders.
Then I opened my ears wide and listened. Here’s my report. [Read more…] about It’s All New: 5 Ways Tech for Good Grants are Different
Back in July our funded projects had a rough idea of what their users needed. Since then they’ve been developing more specific ‘user stories’. Learn how to use user stories to make sure you’re creating what your users need, not what you think they want.
In all my days of working with agile service and product designers there’s one trick they use that never fails to impress me.
It’s user stories. Or more specifically, the power of [Read more…] about What are User Stories?
The Tech for Good Programme doesn’t fund solutions. It funds solution finding projects. Understanding what this means in practice will help you apply for your first Tech for Good grant.
Samaritans had an idea. It helped them win funding from this programme. But then data analysis and user research changed their understanding of the problem. This in turn challenged their ideas and assumptions about the solution. We talked to Simon Stewart, Product Manager about how this happened. [Read more…] about Demand Spikes and Testing Loops: Why One Project Scrapped Its First Solution
Loads of us have great Tech for Good ideas. But while having an idea is relatively easy, knowing what to do with it next is much harder.
We asked Ellie Hale from the Centre for Acceleration of Social Technology what voluntary sector organisations should do with their ideas, before they try and fund them.
Running a Tech for Good project will be fun and frustrating, terrific and terrifying. Be ready for the emotional rollercoaster so you don’t get TfG whiplash.
Three months ago you spent an intense couple of weeks slogging away on your Tech for Good funding application. Evidencing the need and showing why a digital solution might be the way to tackle it was hard work. Your application also asked you to [Read more…] about “Thrilling!” Why Your Tech for Good Project will be an Emotional Rollercoaster
Dan Sutch from CAST describes what the project teams have been doing over the summer, and explains the Discover, Define, Develop model that they’ve been using.
In October we’ll be sharing some q&a videos we made with the project teams.
There’s a tonne of useful stuff here. But you gotta know that all views and opinions are those of the Tech for Good programme support team, not Comic Relief and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
