Datawise London title text above grass, river and purple search icons

Superhighways led the Datawise London partnership from 2019 to 2025, which was dedicated to unlocking the value of community data to improve the lives of Londoners.

This included data skills development, resources, new and improved data tools and more to support systemic change in data use by small charities and community groups and the support that was available to them via funders and infrastrucure organisations.

Systems change priorities

A presentation slide venn diagram showing that the 5 areas of work overlap

Datawise London was focused keenly on systemic change for 2022 to 2025 as part of our Cornerstone Round 2 funded work.

We identified six areas where we could influence interconnectedness, resources, practices, and relationships to enable community organisations and those that supported and funded them to better use data to meet the needs of Londoners.

We produced a range of training courses, resources and data talks in the first three years of our data literacy and skills partnership.

Our Excel bite-sized series can be accessed for free online. It has a range of datasets based on a fictitious charity, so that you can play along before looking at your own data.

We continued our training and advice package through our Trust for London funded programme, Realities of Poverty, which closed at the end of March 2026. This helped grassroots organisations use data to raise the voices of the people they worked with to influence change.

Explore our full list of resources.

Small charities face barriers to developing their data maturity. Our data journeys research asked if there were common experiences, challenges, motivators and enablers that could support progress with data. We continue to share findings with infrastructure bodies, specialists support organisations and funders so that they can respond with appropriate opportunities and interventions.

Read our Small Charity Data Journeys research report, published in November 2023.

Tools for making best use of data, particularly analysis tools and external data sets, can be too complex or impenetrable for people who are not data specialists. Sometimes cost can also be prohibitive for small organisations.

We considered a range of digital and data tools that were useful for smaller organisations and assessed where there were gaps. We built community-led and owned tools where needed, and increaseed access and affordability where possible.

We investigated database systems that were suitable for small organisations and built on our 'Choosing a database for small charities' step-by-step guide with practical support.

Data is still a bit scary for many people working in smaller organisations. We know safe spaces and playful discovery can help overcome the fear of making mistakes or feeling that data isn’t for me.

We built on Datawise London’s previous success in training to provide a test and learn environment. This included further case study examples, fictitious data sets and practical, interactive, scenario based / simulation tools to help model good practice in data use.

Data about the sector in London isn’t accessible in one place​. There are a multitude of siloed directories and databases, with sector organisations submitting data in multiple locations. A lack of data standards and external publication means it’s difficult to collate data at a regional level. Open data sets rarely hold grassroots community information.

We explored the potential for agreeing minimum data standards about community action in London, linking data sets at a regional level and how we could further understand the scope, scale and make up of civil society in London.

Through this work, we created a user-friendly tool, shaped through co-design sessions, to support exploration of London’s voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector. Explore the London VCSE dashboard.

Our previous focus on skills-based practical training gave limited peer sharing or learning opportunities based around shared goals or different perspectives.

Facilitating peer-to-peer data spaces provided opportunities for frontline and infrastructure charities to learn from each other.

The London Data Community of Practice was a focal point to connect various data initiatives across different sectors and be a collective voice to influence new data practice in the sector.

Impact statistics

491

organisations accessing training and events.

1357

total participants accessing training and events

124

training sessions and events delivered.

392

one-to-one advice & support sessions delivered.

See the Datawise London impact dashboard

Evaluation of Datawise London

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Superhighways worked with Collaborate CIC, learning partner in the Cornerstone programme, to independently evaluate our six year programme.

The evaluation found that Datawise London improved how organisations collect, share, and act on data, encouraging collaboration and more strategic use of evidence.

Read the full evaluation report

See more at Datawise London

Visit the Datawise London legacy site to find out what the programme achieved, including data stories from across the sector and the live VCSE dashboards.

Or look at our current training and events to improve your data skills.