St. Michael’s Fellowship Database

We first specified the format of the database by liaising with the charity. Once this had been agreed we set out a template for the database and set to work populating it. This was a difficult task as the data were quite messy: the different residential homes had used different formats to record their data, and there were many missing values and ambiguities that had to be resolved.

Once we had populated the database we performed some analysis to demonstrate the kinds of insights that could be gained from having data in  a standardised format. We then arranged to meet with representatives from St. Michael’s Fellowship and presented the database and our initial findings to them. We took away feedback from that meeting and used it to produce the final version of the database.

“Strategic insights have already helped to strengthen funding applications & informed the development of a new pilot with partners at Middlesex.”

St. Michael’s Fellowship is a charity that works with disadvantaged families in London and the South East.

The charity wanted to be able to gain strategic insights from its data to help with funding applications.

• A single database with a standardised, easy-to-use format containing several years of data from the charity’s four residential homes
• A short report outlining some of the insights we were able to obtain from the data and suggestions for further analysis that could be undertaken

• The charity now has a central repository for all of its data
• This will make it easy to pull out statistics as and when required
• The charity will now be able to obtain strategic insights from its data
• Recording data will be far easier in future, saving valuable time