Catalyst is a UK collective of digital, design and data organisations, charities and funders. UK charities and the communities they serve are currently facing profound challenges; as a result the Catalyst collective is mobilising to do everything we can to respond.
This piece lays out the role that Catalyst is playing, the progress we’re making and what’s being made available for charities, funders and others to access, re-use or adapt as part of their response to COVID-19.
What role is Catalyst playing in the response?
Catalyst was launched in the summer of 2019 with a five year ambition to create a more resilient and responsive sector, particularly through digital, data and design. Since then more than 800 charities, more than 50 digital teams and ten influential funders have been working to strengthen networks; create digital infrastructure and resources, and to develop and share best practice. The current crisis has rapidly accelerated and expanded these initiatives and increased the pressure on this collective to act quickly.
From the moment the gravity of the COVID-19 crisis became clear, Catalyst has been collecting and analysing the urgent needs of UK charities in order to mobilise significant additional digital, design and data skills and expertise for the sector.
The role of Catalyst right now is to ensure the best digital, data and design capacity is focused on the highest priority challenges facing the sector, ensuring this is done in continued collaboration between charities, funders and digital experts. However, it’s clear that alongside this urgency for providing support, the way in which we respond is part of how we strengthen our sector and civil society. By developing our shared capabilities, creating open support structures and strengthening charities’ ability to harness digital, we can respond in a way that builds a more resilient sector.
We are building a scalable system which consists of three interdependent components:
Current status
Catalyst collaborators have been working tirelessly around these three components.
Insights generating and collecting data on needs of charities across the UK, including:
CALL: If you have data on charities’ needs, or are looking to engage your community to generate insight, please contact insights@thecatalyst.org.uk to discuss how we collaborate.
Capacity: accelerating the growth of the Catalyst collective and assessing the role and extent of available resources, including:
CALL: If you are creating resources for charities, or want to commit to supporting charities with your digital, data or design expertise, please do so here.
Response: making resource available to a growing number of charities across the UK in a range of forms, including:
CALL: If you are committed to providing urgent support for charities to respond to COVID-19 in a way that builds a resilient and more responsive sector, join us capacity@thecatalyst.org.uk
What is in the Catalyst pipeline?
There is a huge amount of work going on across the Catalyst network to create an open, scalable and collective approach to supporting charities: making more digital teams available to address collective needs; creating and sharing open needs analysis tools and standards; working to bring together the very best evidence and support for charities needed digital support — and so much more. This is regularly being shared through blogs and at thecatalyst.org.uk.
Catalyst is a collective approach. If you are committed to providing urgent support for charities to respond to COVID-19 in a way that builds a resilient and more responsive sector, join us capacity@thecatalyst.org.uk
Cat Ainsworth, Nick Stanhope, Dan Sutch on behalf of Catalyst collective
