A blog by Louise Scott, Associate Director at Ecorys UK, part of the What Works Fund Evaluation & Learning Partner (ELP) team. The ELP consists of Ipsos MORI, Ecorys and the University of Bristol’s Personal Finance Research Centre.

At a time when many of the grantees have turned their attention to preparing their evaluation reports, we wanted to focus the third webinar in this series on another important aspect of the What Works Fund (WWF) – learning and sharing.

Effectively communicating the evidence that has been gathered is immensely important if the Fund is to realise its ambition of helping to shape future financial capability activity, based on an understanding of what works (and what doesn’t) and in what context.

As well as the learning that we know is taking place within grantee organisations, there is huge potential for the wider FinCap community to learn from this experience and the first part of the webinar discussed the support that the Money Advice Service (MAS), which funds the WWF, can provide for communications activity, including events, media engagement and social media. We also discussed how to communicate effectively, such as thinking through the purpose of any communications activity and tips on how to get the message right for the chosen audience.

During the webinar we heard from A2Dominion Housing Group and their partner HACT about their experience of communicating findings from the DOSH project. In particular, we were introduced to the DISC model and how it has been used, along with tailored communication, to improve influence. Also, we heard about the work done by HACT to engage and share project results with the wider social housing sector.

The webinar ended with a panel of MAS and ELP colleagues answering questions from the audience. This included clarification of the role of the Evidence Hub as a channel to support dissemination of evidence and tips on how to report on data from small samples. Many thanks to everyone who provided questions – we hope that the response was helpful and if you have further queries please send them to the ELP mailbox ([email protected]).

You can find a recording of the webinar here.

The next webinar will take place in May and will focus on the theme of legacy and sustainability.