Deloitte Digital Connect

Overview

Deloitte Digital Connect, a 5 Million Futures initiative, was developed in response to the challenges faced by the UK voluntary sector due to COVID-19. In partnership with CAST, the programme connects charities and social enterprises with digital expertise and advice.

This 6-month training and support programme helps charities and social enterprises make progress on an existing organisational digital project or challenge by putting their beneficiaries at the heart of the solution.

Participants will receive support from Deloitte experts and their own social sector peers, to get a better understanding of the challenges faced by their beneficiaries and learn how to create simple but effective solutions to address them.

Key Benefits

• Explore innovative techniques from the digital world like user research, idea generation, prototyping to test solutions and agile working.
• 1-1 mentoring on projects delivered by Deloitte UK volunteer digital experts.
• Masterclasses and workshops on digital and design practices delivered by Deloitte UK volunteer digital experts.
• Peer support and learning opportunities delivered by CAST facilitators.
• Bespoke digital resources shared through an online Resource Hub.
• A grant of up to £5K is available to support participation on the programme (please note that not all participants may be eligible for this grant).

Up to 40 UK charities and social enterprises who are eligible can apply for the third cohort of the Deloitte Digital Connect programme running from December 2023 – May 2024. The programme is delivered in partnership with CAST, a charity helping organisations use digital for social good.

Eligibility criteria

This programme is open to UK-registered charities or social enterprises which meet the following criteria:

• The applicant is either A UK registered charity; A UK registered Community Interest Company or Community Benefit Society; or A UK registered social enterprise.
• The applicant can provide evidence of Public Liability Insurance to the value of £5m.
• The applicant can provide financial accounts from the past 3 years.
• The applicant can show its missions or one of its programmes contributes to driving positive outcomes in the UK in at least one of the following areas - in alignment with Deloitte’s Responsible Business and industry groups’ areas of interest.:
  • Education progress
  • Employment opportunities
  • Equity, diversity and inclusion
  • Early years services
  • Sustainable and ethical finance
  • Financial inclusion
  • Public health (and health equity, i.e. addressing disparities in the health system)
  • Security and justice
  • Climate and Sustainability
• The applicant can show that it is developing its use of digital across the organisation, investing in technology and developing skills
• The applicant has identified a service delivery challenge that they want to address (e.g. improve its website accessibility; offering real-time online chat; remote counselling or mentoring).
• The applicant can demonstrate that it is keen to learn about User Centred Design to explore solutions to their challenge.
• The applicant can appoint one project lead to commit the equivalent of approximately ca. 20 days from December 2023 to May 2024 to the programme. Find out more about the programme roles.
• The applicant can appoint one project sponsor to commit time equivalent to approximately 1 day per month from December 2023 to May 2024 to support their project lead (totalling hours equivalent to 5 days over the course of the programme). Find out more about the programme roles. Find out more about the programme roles.

The above criteria will be assessed through an open application process. Find out more about the application questions and guidance for applicants.

Programme roles

For applicants

Organisations will need to put forward two roles to take part in the programme:

• Project lead: This is a member of staff who is actively involved in improving or developing digital products and services in their organisation. They will have a good understanding of their organisation’s existing services and challenges. They might be working alone in improving a website, working as part of a digital team to improve online community engagement or a team leader keen to bring in user-centric approaches in their work. They will also be the one benefiting the most from the expert and peer support on offer.

They will have support from the senior team (project sponsor) to take on responsibility for bringing in best practice and be in a position to further develop ideas and potential solutions.

The project lead should be able to commit approximately 20 days in total over the course of the programme (an average of about 1 day per week).

• Project sponsor: This is a senior person in your organisation who will support the project lead’s participation in the programme, providing the oversight and resources to make it a success. The project sponsor will also have the opportunity to learn from their peers on the programme through leadership round tables. The project sponsor should be able to commit approximately 5 days in total over the course of the programme (an average of 0.25 days per week).

The Programme Support Team

From Deloitte

• Jess Reddy - Programme Lead
• Alexandra Murphy - Programme Support
• Katie Higginson - Volunteer Manager

From CAST

• David Scurr - Programme Co-Lead / Peer Support Facilitator
• Ellen Smyth - Programme Co-Lead / Peer Support Facilitator
• Sonya Hayden - Communications Lead

The programme will run from December 2023 – May 2024. Find out more here.