Lara Kinnear, Snow-Camp’s Operations Director said:
“Upshot has been a fantastic addition to the charity! The system has enabled us to speed up our monitoring and evaluation processes and allows our Programmes team to spend more time working directly with young people rather than on administration. Young people complete surveys on iPads to evaluate our sessions and the results are instant. The Upshot team have been fantastic and are always on hand to provide training and technical support to our staff, so we are able to get the best from the new system!”.
When Snow-Camp started looking for a new system, they asked several questions including:
- How do we as a growing, successful charity ensure consistency as we expand?
- What would make it easier for our hardworking staff to capture details of participants, while standing on a ski slope and ensuring people don’t fall over!?
For reporting to funders and stakeholders, it is vital for Snow-Camp that each regional organisation maintains an accurate and consistent approach and that the central team can see and report easily through live performance monitoring. With Upshot’s dual-platform set up, which has a facilitating account with an overarching view of several regional delivery accounts, Snow-Camp were able to do this easily and are now beginning to reap the rewards of insightful reporting.
With 4 innovative programmes, taking young people on their first tentative steps on the slopes, through life-skills workshops, employability sessions, apprenticeships and volunteer opportunities, Snow-Camp have empowering stories to tell about their participants. Through the timeline feature of Upshot, organisers are able to easily record a narrative of milestones achieved by a young person, both within the Snow-Camp programmes and outside, as their life changes; for instance going from unemployed to part time work, changing accommodation or building physical fitness and mental resilience.
Much of Snow-Camp’s great work relies on the commitment and skills of volunteers, who are often faced with a group of young people who are trying activities for the first time, needing their support and attention. Inputting registration forms, attendance data and notes immediately and on site, needs an easy-to-use system, useable on smartphones, devices as well as being able to input later back at base. Upshot’s flexibility and easy-to-use interface means that participants can sign up directly via a link (a real plus from a GDPR perspective), volunteers can quickly and easily capture who has attended as well as more detailed data, such as who performed well, notes on what happened, who paid etc.
Upshot delivered face-to-face training to all Snow-Camp regional organisers as well as the central team, and with a quick and responsive support service as well as clear, accessible guides on the system – they were up and running swiftly and confidently in time for their First Tracks summer programme.
If your organisation is looking to overcome similar challenges or you would like to discuss how to improve your data collection, MEL and your overall impact reporting in general, give us a call on 020 7842 8899 or email info@upshot.org.uk to have a chat or demo with one of our friendly consultants.
