£25,000 in Free Services to Charities – New The REaD Group Initiative Announced Today
Howard Lake | 10 June 2008 | News
The REaD Group invites UK registered charities to make submissions to receive free data cleansing, consultancy and associated services over a twelve month period to the value of £25,000 via the Group’s new Charity Data Bursary announced today.
‘No, hell hasn’t frozen over,’ commented The REaD Group’s CEO, Mark Roy, in launching the new Bursary. ‘But with charity direct mail complaints to the Fundraising Standards Board hitting an alarming high recently, we feel compelled to offer some REaD-powered database management assistance at this time.’
By his own admission a hitherto vocal critic of charities’ apparent DM excesses, Mr Roy adds: ‘We’re cognisant of the considerable financial and technical constraints faced by charity and volunteer organisations, so it’s time to stop hollering from the sidelines and muck in to help make life easier and more efficient for fundraisers, I’ve decided.’
All UK registered charities are eligible to be considered for The REaD Group Charity Data Bursary, which will apply a suite of REaD Group products, including the Gone Away Suppression File (GAS), Xpression and The Bereavement Register (TBR), alongside the MPS and PAF-checking filters to the Bursary recipient’s database or mailing list – thus eliminating inaccuracies, increasing ROI and decreasing adverse environmental impacts.
Interested charities can apply online at www.readgroup.co.uk. Whilst priority will be given to charitable organisations that currently do not use any data cleansing and/or bureau services, all submissions will certainly be considered.
The deadline for submissions is 5pm on Friday 18 July, 2008. Representatives from The REaD Group will select the successful Charity Data Bursary recipient in association with UK Fundraising (www.fundraising.co.uk), which will announce the successful applicant on Friday 8 August, 2008.
Howard Lake, UK Fundraising’s publisher, says: ‘Accurate supporter data is an essential component of successful fundraising. The REaD Group’s Charity Data Bursary is therefore a valuable opportunity for one charity to ensure it can catch up with best practice and enjoy even greater direct mail fundraising success.’
‘We look forward to working with UK Fundraising and our inaugural Bursary recipient over coming months,’ adds Mr Roy. ‘Hopefully this can be the start of a robust and mutually rewarding new dialogue with our charity marketing colleagues.’
About The REaD Group plc
The REaD Group was founded in 1991 by Mark Roy, who pioneered a new, more efficient approach to direct marketing. Over the past seventeen years, The REaD Group has become synonymous with the development of data management products such as the Gone Away Suppression File (GAS), GAS Reactive, The Bereavement Register (TBR) and suppressiononline.com – all of which improve the dynamism and security of direct marketing and empower consumer choice.
About UK Fundraising
UK Fundraising (www.fundraising.co.uk) is the leading online resource and community for professional charity fundraisers and the fundraising industry in the UK. It aims to help fundraisers improve their effectiveness and share their expertise. Published online since 1994, it offers daily news updates, job listings, discussion forums, expert advice from bloggers, supplier listings, a bookshop and training and conference calendar. It publishes a fortnightly email newsletter keeping subscribers up to date with new content. The website is consistently ranked number one by Google for searches on ‘fundraising’.
Media Enquiries:
Michael Herrmann
PR Manager
The REaD Group plc
T 01732 467 955
M 07786 545 008
E mi**************@re*******.uk
Presented in association with
UK Fundraising (www.fundraising.co.uk)
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.