Our Data Journey: Evolving how we share, learn and influence

At Access, we’ve always used data to learn and improve – now we’re taking it further.

As our strategy has evolved, so has our thinking around data: what we collect, how we share it, and how it can help us—and our partners— to make more informed, transparent and ultimately impactful decisions. 

As Data and Insights Manager, my role has grown from a programme support function into something more strategic, evolving organically just as Access has. We were originally set up as a time-limited organisation, but many of the issues we sought to resolve are still prevalent and persistent and our presence is still required to ensure that the investment eco-system works for all. Recently, we received confirmation of additional Dormant Assets funding, and this has been partnered with a renewed long-term vision. With renewed funding and a longer-term horizon, we’re in a strong position to use data more intentionally – not just to track what we’re doing, but to use our data in smarter ways.   

Our 2025 strategy has a clear focus on sharing and mobilising: influencing others across the funding landscape, by publishing insight and building momentum for concessional finance as a means of creating a better and fairer investment eco-system. 

Data sits at the heart of this work. Whether we’re tracking the reach of finance into underserved communities, understanding the journey of a social enterprise, or highlighting the impact of enterprise grants, our role is not just to fund—it’s to learn, and to share that learning widely. 

Yusra Ali Data and Insights Manager

Making Our Dashboards Work Harder 

One of our first areas of focus has been our Power BI dashboards, which we’ve published quarterly since 2021. While we’ve been sharing data on our funding since 2016, these digital dashboards have become a key tool for transparency –and we’ve been working to make them more meaningful and user friendly.  

Recent improvements include: 

• More rigorous data cleaning and consistency
• Greater alignment with programme KPIs and input from programme managers
• New graphs that give deeper insight into equity, IMD and rural vs urban reach
• New format and style improving user experience
• New narrative boxes that provide insight into the graphs with additional context 

Each dashboard includes a cross-programme overview, programme-specific pages, and now dedicated pages on Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) and EDI reach—for example, how many organisations are Black or Ethnically Minoritised-led, women-led, disability-led or LGBTQ+ led. While we’ve always measured this internally, we’re now making it more visible publishing these pages through our quarterly dashboards. Look out for our upcoming blog post on some of the lessons we’ve learned from measuring our EDI reach and setting realistic targets.  

This year, we’ve started exploring new ways of cutting the data—such as rural vs urban distribution. While not a lead theme, this was a useful exercise to test assumptions, question narratives, and see how else we can deepen our understanding of reach.  As a result, we’ve now included a new graph on our cross-programme overview, showing the number of investments delivered to rural vs urban areas. Other explorations will follow, including cross-cutting analysis by primary beneficiary and outcome area. These help us—and the social investment sector—uncover patterns we might otherwise miss. 

Using Data to Support Relationships 

While we publish data externally, a lot of the insight starts from internal use—supporting programme teams, partner relationships, and fund management conversations. Some of our data feeds directly into how we assess progress against programme goals. 

More recently, we’ve started piloting partner-facing dashboards, allowing delivery organisations to see their data in real time, reflect on their impact, and learn from patterns across the programme.  This model—already underway in one programme—has the potential to build more collaborative, data-informed relationships across our funding portfolio. The hope is that it helps partners to share their stories and deepen their learning, not just meet reporting requirements. 

What We’re Learning Along the Way 

This journey hasn’t been without growing pains. Like many organisations, our data systems started off small and manual. As our portfolio and ambitions grew, so did the complexity—and the gaps. We’ve had to rework forms, overhaul processes, and build automations to scale effectively. We’ve leaned heavily on the skills of the whole team, and we’ve embraced every Excel trick we can find! 

We’ve also realised that our commitment to flexibility—especially in how we support partners—doesn’t always translate easily into rigid data systems. It’s pushed us to think hard about what we collect, why we collect it, and how it can be useful to others. Governance, structure, and clarity have become just as important as responsiveness and empathy. 

One key learning is the need to share back, not just collect. For example, in our Local Access programme, we’ve co-created a live dashboard that transforms monitoring data into real-time visuals for local partners. It’s been described as crucial for local influencing and advocacy—particularly in places without in-house data teams or capacity. 

What’s Next: From insight to influence 

Looking ahead, our focus is on: 

• Tracking organisational journeys through our programmes to understand what works and when
• Expanding partner dashboards, so more organisations can reflect on their impact alongside others
• Apply more cross-cutting analysis to identify patterns, correlations and opportunities for deeper understanding  

We want our data to help build an investment eco-system that works for all. We also hope our insights highlight where the gaps still are—especially when it comes to reaching underserved communities and protected groups—and what’s needed to close them. 

Join us on the journey 

This is the first in what we hope will be a regular drumbeat of insight-sharing—starting broad, going deeper over time. If you’re doing similar work, have feedback, or want to collaborate, we’d love to hear from you. 

You can explore our most recent dashboards here, and keep an eye out for future blogs, data drops, and deep dives. 

Let’s keep making data clear, useful, and powerful—so charities and social enterprises get the finance they need to thrive.