I’ve said this before, but I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve heard something along the lines of “We don’t really do data stuff, we’re way too small.”
Let’s do a quick deep dive.
- You’re an organisation = yes
- You have people interacting with you = yes
- Therefore, you have some data = yes
- But you don’t do data stuff = no
Admittedly it wasn’t much of a deep dive. More of a muddy puddle.
If you have data, you are doing ‘data stuff’ – whether you realise it or not. At the very least you have a legal responsibility to manage and protect it. That’s not new. Even before GDPR, PECR and DUAA, the Data Protection Act 1998, laid the groundwork. This has been part of running an organisation for decades.
So, are you still sure you don’t do data stuff?
Let’s look at something more practical. You’re doing everything you can to use donated funds responsibly – but are you collecting Gift Aid properly? The number of organisations that either don’t claim it, or only partially claim it, is still surprisingly high.
- only claiming on gifts with a declaration
- not including regular gifts
- not claiming on donations made alongside ticket or other purchases
Still not doing data stuff?
And then there’s this one: “We don’t have a CRM.” Sometimes said as a badge of honour. Sometimes as a challenge – especially when people know I work with data. I’m not here to sell you a CRM. I’d much rather help you get your data working, whatever you’re using. A decent cuppa is still a decent cuppa – even if it’s served in an old welly.
A CRM isn’t the only way to do data well.
It doesn’t matter how small you are – there’s always something you can do to make your data safer, more accurate, and more useful. You’re sitting on information that has real value. You wouldn’t employ someone and have them sit doing nothing all day – so why do it with your data?
If this sounds familiar, I’ve got space over the coming months to help smaller teams get a bit more out of what they already have.
And if you know a team that’s a bit stuck with their data – whether that’s processes, their CRM, or just getting things to work as they should – I’d really appreciate an introduction.
#DataQuality
#CRM
#CharitySector
#DataGovernance
#Nonprofits
