Practical thoughts on CRM, data and fundraising, with a focus on simplifying complex topics and sharing useful ideas from day-to-day charity life.
Like a lot of things I’ve written about, I’ve written about this one before. It’s important enough that I feel it needs mentioning again. And possibly a few more times after that. If you’re using a system – for instance a fundraising CRM – and it’s not working, do you...
Being self-taught is something we have to embrace once we’re adults. There’s always something new to navigate, and even when we get some instruction, we still have to dive in and learn by doing. Sometimes that works. Sometimes it doesn’t. And when it doesn’t, it’s...
Every so often I get an email from Alex Evans and Barely Civil Society. Like all good commentators, he makes me think, even if I don’t always agree. The most recent one (at the time of writing this) was about whether the sector should have a union. I’m not getting...
Have you ever seen one of those maps showing where all an organisation’s supporters are? Looks impressive. And genuinely useful. The good news is - you don’t need expensive tools to do it. But before you get to the map, there’s one simple step most people miss:...
I usually come straight into a post and go “No, you’ve got it wrong!” but I can’t on this one. Honestly, often times data is the most arse-numbingly boring job on the planet. But then so are many things. Waiting in the queue at the supermarket. Listening to someone in...
I get asked this a lot. “I know what you’ve told me you do, but what do you actually do all day?” Honestly, I wonder that myself sometimes. I get up, wander into the office and suddenly it’s 6pm and the dogs are acting like they’ve never been fed and are planning a...
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...
Mojibake (mo-jee-bah-keh) from the Japanese meaning character change I’ve recently discovered the joy of using AI with Excel. Despite plenty of support, I’m still incapable of writing anything more than the most basic SQL. I can just about manage something like...
When it comes to data, there is a culture of “we’ll sort it out later”. And later… And later… And later… Until nothing quite works, people are building workarounds, key information lives in spreadsheets, and frustration starts to creep in. This doesn’t mean data...
You didn’t tell me not to murder someone! Over the last few years I’ve had to flag up several cases where a client has sent me data in a manner that poses a security risk. I’m not going to make out that is a frequent occurrence – it really isn’t, although risk-averse...
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