Data-centric approach is key to charities’ survival
Howard Lake | 16 June 2014 | News
Charities that don’t invest in understanding and using data effectively will face increasing problems, according to charity staff at a recent roundtable hosted by software company Advanced NFP.
Representatives from charities including Médecins Sans Frontières, RSPB and the Woodland Trust discussed the growth in data and the need to capture and manage it in the morning event in central London, which was chaired by UK Fundraising’s Howard Lake.
There was a consensus that charities that failed to grasp the issue would at best miss out on major opportunities, and at worst face a threat to their survival.
The views backed up research published recently by Advanced NFP which reported that 96% of charities and membership bodies were struggling to manage, decipher and capitalise on the large and growing amounts of data they hold about their members and supporters. The Advanced NFP State of the Nation Data Report round that 75% of surveyed not-for-profit organisations in the UK did not have the time, skills or funds to resolve this problem.
Simon Fowler, Managing Director of Advanced Business Solutions, said:
“NFPs are struggling to manage and understand online supporter data. We believe an inability to manage data to gain a competitive advantage is the single biggest threat facing NFPs right now.”
One way forward discussed by the roundtable participants was the need to educate and secure the support of senior management. Some shared details of how they had managed to do that, as well as securing support and shared objectives from colleagues.
The roundtable attracted staff from RSPB, Childreach, Alzheimers Society, British Ballet, Médecins Sans Frontières, Amnesty, International, Guide Dogs for the Blind, Institute of Fundraising and Firefighters Association. They were joined by Advanced NFP staff together with Janet Snedden, Chair of the Institute of Fundraising’s Insight Special Interest Group and CEO of MetaMetrics, and Iain Pritchard, Partner at Adapta Consulting.
Photo: files by Garsya on Shutterstock.com
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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.