Web platform to aid funding bid process

Arts and cultural organisations will soon have access to an online platform that aims to help them write stronger funding bids. ‘Culture Everywhere’ will collate publicly available data sets, which its developers hope will enable them to “more efficiently construct proposals that support and engage their communities and are attractive to funders”.

The web platform will host more than a dozen data sets from sources such as the UK Census, Index of Multiple Deprivation and Arts Council England, and will encourage users to upload impact data from their own projects. It aims to reveal where funding is currently being directed and highlight any gaps in cultural provision. It will also host relevant research and good practice guides.

The initiative is being developed by Ignite Imaginations and The Better With Data Society, with a £50k grant from innovation foundation Nesta and the Open Data Institute, after it won the Heritage and Culture Open Data Challenge.

Jag Goraya of Culture Everywhere said: “Culture Everywhere puts open data into the hands of arts and heritage providers that don't have the time, capacity, skills or inclination to become data experts. It gives them the insight and evidence to create better targeted projects that can help them engage their communities with culture.”