Hi everyone! I’m Sam, a staff software engineer based in Cambridge, UK.

I’m currently exploring the big problem that hold back non-profits doing meaningful work: funding.

Over the past few months, I’ve been working with a Cambridge non-profit on a recurring issue: a lot of valuable frontline work happens every day, but much of the evidence needed for funding, grant applications, reporting, and organisational learning either gets lost, stays informal, or requires too much manual effort to collect and turn into something useful.

The pattern I’m seeing is:

• funders increasingly want clear evidence of need, activity, outcomes, and learning
• frontline teams/orgs are already stretched and don’t need more admin burden
• useful stories, observations, and signals often exist, but are scattered across notes, conversations, spreadsheets, CRMs, casework systems, and people’s heads
• reporting and grant-writing then becomes a painful reconstruction exercise, rather than something supported by the organisation’s day-to-day work

The direction I’m exploring is not "more process". Instead, how can we help organisations capture useful funding related evidence as part of work they’re already doing. Then to make that evidence easier to use for funding, learning, and decision-making.

I’m particularly interested in whether similar problems exist in conservation organisations, especially around things like:

• funding discovery
• evidence collection for funders and grants
• impact reporting
• field observations and frontline knowledge
• connecting operational work to funding narratives
• reducing the fundraising and reporting burden on delivery teams
• making small organisations more "evidence ready" without needing heavy systems

I’m still early in this exploration, and I don’t want to assume the conservation sector has the same problems as other non-profits. That’s why I’d really like to partner with people working closer to the problem.

I’d love to speak with conservation organisations, fundraisers, grant writers, programme leads, researchers, or technologists who have seen this challenge up close.

In particular, I’d be interested to learn:

• What are the biggest challenges with applying and securing funding at the moment?
• Where does evidence collection currently break down?
• What do funders ask for that is hardest to provide?
• What reporting work feels repetitive, painful, or under-supported?
• Where do useful stories/data get lost?
• What would make conservation organisations stronger in funding conversations?

I’m mainly looking for people who are close to these problems and would be open to shaping the solution with me through conversations, examples, pilots, or simply pointing me towards the right questions.

If this resonates, I’d be very grateful to chat!

Best,

Sam