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A funded four-week programme for groups of charities to work with a digital partner to learn how to undertake a Discovery phase - validating a problem area through engaging directly with the people affected by a problem. Charities were grouped into cohorts of 8-10 organisations with a similar level of digital maturity, and matched with a digital partner to identify user needs and related digital support. The programme began in October 2020. There were 103 grantees (of whom three dropped out before the end of the programme).

A note on why we made it mandatory for almost all organisations to progress through Discovery before moving to Development:

• We had learned from our initial Digital Teams crisis response work that (with the exception of a tiny minority that could prove they'd independently validated their assumptions), a discovery phase was needed before nonprofits and digital partners began working together to develop or adapt services.

We also knew from running Design Hops and Explore that organisations needed to have an understanding of what discovery is - and what it means - in order to get the most out of digital funding and their relationships with digital partners, hence creating this programme as a prelude to what is sometimes seen as being the 'real work'.

Find out more about the Discovery (and Development) assessment process in this blog on what we didn’t fund and why.

See which 100 charities received Discovery funding in this blog.

<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/49d65f43-dfde-4e71-91fa-82f46ab433f8/Cast_icon_set_-_colour_(updated_Jun_21)_Magnify.png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/49d65f43-dfde-4e71-91fa-82f46ab433f8/Cast_icon_set_-_colour_(updated_Jun_21)_Magnify.png" width="40px" /> Results and impact

• Video featuring grantees’ experiences (1)
• Video featuring grantees’ experiences (2)
• Zara’s story: one charity’s experience of Discovery
• Collective experience summarised in a stats-based blog
• Aesop blog: how the charity moved its programme online
• Animation showcasing key testimonials
• Infographic
• Evaluation report
• WECIL case study
• One Voice Blackburn case study </aside>

<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/d0ea3f69-9575-4fa4-853c-1eef91df084b/Cast_icon_set_-_colour_(updated_Jun_21)_Lightbulb.png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/d0ea3f69-9575-4fa4-853c-1eef91df084b/Cast_icon_set_-_colour_(updated_Jun_21)_Lightbulb.png" width="40px" /> Learnings, insights and recommendations

• Insights for funders
• Lessons for digital trainers
• How to make Discovery more participatory
• What charities need from Discovery
• Agencies’ experience of working with charities
• Comparison with Explore </aside>

<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/4432f9d8-e45f-4999-b976-ac9c4a409627/Cast_icon_set_-_colour_(updated_Jun_21)_Tools.png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/4432f9d8-e45f-4999-b976-ac9c4a409627/Cast_icon_set_-_colour_(updated_Jun_21)_Tools.png" width="40px" /> Assets

• Application questions for the Discovery programme
• Brief for procurement of digital partners to deliver the Discovery programme
• Example email templates for successful / unsuccessful applicants </aside>

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