Data poverty and how it impacts the charity sector

The collection and analysis of data can be a valuable tool in helping charities respond to the needs of their users and take the guesswork out of fundraising. But it can sometimes feel like it isn’t a level playing field – you’ve got big charities with budgets and staff to play with on one end and small charities on the other, for whom access to the world of data can seem like a privilege that isn’t theirs.

The Institute of Fundraising’s report ’What’s data got to do with it: a beginners guide to data’ puts it this way: “For many charities, the time and resources needed to collect, analyse and implement data as part of the decision-making process can seem like an unaffordable luxury...It may seem overwhelming to fundraisers to deal with the sheer amount of data that exists if they feel they or their team lack the knowledge they need to get started.”

Smaller charities have often felt left behind in many areas of digital, and fundraising data is no exception. But there are a few myths we’d like to set straight and one is that small charity are somehow cut off from the ’data elite’ or that data is something they should be afraid of.

Start with a first step

Yes, being able to effectively use data to achieve better outcomes from your fundraising efforts takes time, but there is help and support to be found. And the rewards are even bigger for small charities where small changes can make a big difference to outcomes.

Using data in fundraising can:

• Give you insight into your donor base
• Provide evidence to support what you do
• Tell you which channels and messages resonate most with your supporters
• Help you employ personalised (and effective) strategies that tailor communications

All of the above can empower a small charity to make better decisions that help them achieve better outcomes from their fundraising efforts.

Small charities have a unique opportunity in that effective use of data can make stretched resources go further. According to the most recent Charity Digital Skills report, for example, 72% of charities say that making better use of data will help them save money and time.

Small charities also have the advantage of being freer to experiment and break things than a larger organisation that might be caught up in process or suffering from siloed teams or data trapped in too many different places to count. It’s likely you have access to more valuable data than you think.

Take stock of what you have

It’s amazing how much data even the smallest charity deals with on a daily basis. It doesn’t need to be complicated at first and it’s all potentially valuable. The best place to start is to focus in on what data you have access to or could easily collect, such as on:

• How users are interacting with you on your social media, website and other channels
• Who is giving, how often and when

A common first step is to segment your existing donor database by the actions they’ve taken. This is usually by the frequency, recently and amounts they give – just by taking this action, you’re on the way to understanding more about how best to ask them again, how much to ask for and how often.