Boost your digital skills

4. Think about reuse

Explore tools that already exist to avoid duplication and save time and money

What is it good for?

  • Building an understanding of what's already out there
  • Getting inspiration from what you're already doing well in your organisation
  • Getting inspiration from other organisations and services that might be solving the same challenges as you
  • Rapid prototyping
  • Saving time and money
  • Minimising project risk
  • Getting your team involved

When to use it

Once you've got an idea you want to start testing or developing.

How to use it

This phase involves further desk research to explore existing solutions.

  1. Create an inventory of your organisation's skills, tools, and assets—these can inspire your project development.
  1. Look beyond your organisation and the charity sector to identify similar services addressing the same user needs.
  1. Research whether others have previously attempted to solve this problem and what you can learn from their experiences. Shared Digital Guides is a valuable resource for this.

Inspiration can come from anywhere—consider signing up for the CAST newsletter, or joining the Digital Leads Network to hear what other charities are working on.

Listen to CAST's Head of Technology discuss the Super Power of Reuse, presented during the Festival of Learning (see further reading):

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Further reading on Reuse

  1. A blog on What is digital tool re-use for charities and why do it?
  1. Read more about the creative commons licence
  1. To see the posters Chris mentions in the video, visit the Festival of Learning resources