Fundraising Database
Howard Lake | 5 July 2012
Why keeping your database up to date is so important when communicating with charity supporters
A fundraising database is invaluable to any charitable organisation, and is indeed an absolute necessity in today’s economic climate where the vast majority of individuals have less available funds to donate. Therefore, it is smart to know which supporters are giving, how much they giving, and the velocity of their giving, i.e. they give weekly or monthly, annually, etc?
Not only does a fundraising database keep a note of potential donors’ personal details such as names, addresses and telephone numbers, but also of we can use it to do pretty much what we want it to do, some examples of which are as follows:
- We can use a fundraising database to communicate only with those donors who are most likely to donate, and similarly save an incredible amount of time and money by not contacting those who are least likely to donate;
- It can be used record a potential donor’s reaction to previous campaigns with a view to predetermining their reaction to the forthcoming campaign;
- It can be used to record the amount of donations received. For example, if one donor has only ever given amounts in excess of £100, you could send out a form only showing donations in excess of £100. Similarly where one donor’s maximum donation has been say £10, you could send out a form only showing donations in small denominations up to £10;
- A fundraising database can be used to list those donors all within the same post code if, for example, your fundraisers are likely to be conducting face to face meetings; an
- In addition, you as a charity may have fundraising activities that are not suited to all of your donors, and the use of a fundraising database will really come into its own here. You really do not want to run the risk of upsetting any potential donors unnecessarily.
Although you can buy off the shelf fundraising database software for your charitable organization, it may be prudent and just as easy to set up a simple spreadsheet in this regard, adding the relevant filters that are important to your own charitable organization. On the other hand a larger charitable organization may require something more complex, in the form of bespoke fundraising database software. It all depends on your budget.
No matter what type of fundraising database you opt for it is essential that it is a clean database in the sense that you are only recording the information you wish to record. It is therefore vital that all of your management are agreed on what this information is. In addition, this should ensure that any missing information is made obvious, and such information can be easily requested at a later date.
Regardless of the size and scale of your charitable organisation every charity can benefit greatly from keeping an up to date fundraising database, with up to date being the operative word in this regard!
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.