New tech for good funding initiative is helping charities access digital solutions

The £230,000 Explore programme will allow charities to engage in a 12-week learning journey to scope out the kinds of digital services they might provide and to explore how digital technology could transform the ways they work. The programme includes grants of £5,000 for individual organisations or £7,500 for collaborations.

It will offer organisations the chance to:

• Identify the user need they are trying to address
• Examine whether a digital solution is the best idea
• Identify the key implications of implementing a new solution
• Design a prototype which can be tested and made ready for further development
• Look at how it might be possible to obtain funding for further work.

The application process is open to UK charities and not-for-profit organisations with incomes of between £75,000 and £10 million, and applications should address one of the following core issue areas - A Safe Place To Be, Fighting For Gender Justice, Children Survive and Thrive, and Global Mental Health Matters. More information on these themes is available here. Applications addressing challenges related to disability outside of the themes specified above are also welcome, acknowledging the critical potential of digital technology in tackling this issue.

40 to 50 grants are expected to be awarded. Applications open on 20th May, and close on 22nd June 2020.