Data projects for charities · Maths CAS idea
Build a fundraising tracker for a charity
CreativityServiceProject-ready
Design a simple spreadsheet tracker that a small charity can update itself to track donations, events and progress towards targets.
Where the maths comes in
Spreadsheet formulas, percentages, running totals and choosing the right chart.
Which CAS strand it fits
- Creativity: The arts, and other experiences that involve creative thinking.
- Service: Unpaid, voluntary work with others that also has a learning benefit for you.
Your CAS coordinator decides how an experience counts at your school. Strand summaries are provisional (our words, being checked).
How to run it
- Ask the charity what decisions the tracker should help with.
- Sketch a design and agree it with them.
- Build it with dummy data and train a volunteer to use it.
- Check back after a month.
This can grow into a CAS project if your CAS coordinator agrees: see planning a maths CAS project.
How to evidence it
- Design sketches and versions
- Training notes
- Charity feedback after a month
Date everything and keep it in your school's CAS portfolio as you go. More on what counts as evidence.
Reflection prompts
Questions to think about, not answers to copy. Write your reflections in your own words, in whatever form your school accepts.
- How did you design something other people have to maintain?
- What did the charity need that you had not expected?
- How did training someone else change your design?
Learning outcomes this often gives a chance to show
- Initiative and planning. What did you plan, and what did you have to change once you started? Who did you need to ask for permission or help, and how did you go about it?
- Challenge and new skills. What could you not do at the start that you can do now? Which moment felt most uncomfortable, and what did you do next?
- Collaboration. What did someone else bring that you could not have done alone? Describe a disagreement or a mix-up in the team. How was it resolved?
Whether you meet an outcome depends on what you actually do and reflect on, not on the idea. Outcome labels are our short summaries, being checked.
Safety and ethics
- Build and test with made-up data; the charity enters its real figures itself.
Agree every plan with your CAS coordinator first. Safety and ethics for maths CAS.
Need the statistics? The statistics guide (written for the IA) explains tests and charts step by step. Keep CAS and your IA separate.