The promise of digital partnerships to transform civil society
Reflections on 12 months matchmaking charities, NGOs and digital agencies.
Super Global is digital copilot to impact organisations around the world. We help them navigate creative & tech projects and partner with experts from our global agency community. What do those partnerships achieve? See for yourself.
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The UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport is developing a new Civil Society Strategy to shape how the government will work with civil society over the next 10 years. Part of that strategy is tech for good.
Super Global was invited to share our observations from 18 months of partnering digital service providers (user research, UX/UI design, software development, data science & AI, video, VR & AR) and civil society organisations, including charities, NGOs and social enterprises.
What have we learnt?
Digital maturity ≠ buyer maturity
Even the most digitally mature social organisations are poorly equipped to:
- Ideate around applying technology to improve their impact and operational efficiency;
- Scope and structure digital projects, making it even more difficult for them to;
- Source, assess and select digital implementing partners, be they freelancers, agencies or consultancies.
Commercial clients ≠ civil society clients
Meanwhile digital service providers (research, design, software engineering, video/VR/AR, data science & AI) often do not understand this type of customer well enough to make responsible purchasing recommendations.
An impending supply <> demand gap
There are very few exceptions who work primarily or exclusively with the social sector and who are technically expert. As digital literacy increases across civil society, demand for digital services will far outstrip available supply from these providers who know how to work effectively with civil society organisations.
Normalising doing good
To meet this demand the mainstream of digital service providers must be engaged through movement building, education, coordination and support: Enabling them to effectively serve, build trust with, and become transformative working partners to civil society. Just as they are to the commercial sector.
Conditioning optimal partnerships
The untapped potential of partnerships between civil society orgs and digital service providers is massive. Well structured convening of organisation across these sectors, around specific areas of impact, and drawing on user-centred and collaborative innovation methodologies, offer the possibility of closing the domain and technical knowledge gaps that stifle ideas for of truly viable, effective tech-based solutions to social and environmental problems.
Cross-sector partnerships typically evolve ad-hoc and bilaterally. Given the right facilitation, thematically grouped clusters of organisations across sectors would increase partnership building capacity and produce more effective solutions.
Funders can stimulate better partnerships
Similarly, funding approaches by organisations like Comic Relief, Nominet Trust (now Social Tech Trust), and (soon) Big Lottery, need to embrace the requirements of, and optimal conditions for, technology innovation.
This means looking beyond the traditional assessment horizons for grant-making, and playing a more activist role in stimulating worthwhile applications and supporting awardees’ project development.
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We digital copilot for the likes of Amnesty International and the Tech Trust. We coach them through validating and planning transformational projects, and help them to partner with creative & tech experts from our agency community.
What do those partnerships achieve? See for yourself.
