16th April 2025
Always Another Way, based in Frizington, provide a range of services to support the mental health of young people and adults in West Cumbria. They undertook an audit of their digital needs with support from Charity Technology, who are providing free expert advice as part of the Bedrock Digital scheme.
Lynn Cavaghan, Executive Officer at Always Another Way, said: “We recognised a need to invest in a Management Information System. After discussing our requirements and options with Charity Technology we realized that, rather than buying something brand new, our best option was to upgrade a system we were already using for one project and roll this out across the wider organisation.
“The new MIS has been beneficial for a number of reasons, including online registers for groups, monitoring and evidencing our work, allowing online referrals, and helping us to comply with GDPR. It provides a much more efficient service for everyone; our clients, our staff and volunteers, and our funders.
“Charity Technology were able to help us download the data from our current systems and move this across. They also advised us to update some of our hardware, and as a result we were also successful in applying for funding for two good quality laptops.
“If you’re thinking about incorporating more digital ways of working into your organisation then the Bedrock Digital programme is a great support. The grant funding has made a big impact on the quality of our work and covered the costs of the new MIS for the next few years, and the support from Charity Technology was also highly valued; they really understand the needs of the third sector and worked with us to develop our plans.”
Bedrock Digital is part of Transforming West Cumbria, funded through Sellafield Ltd’s Social impact multiplied (SiX) programme, managed by the Community Foundation.