A DATA solution company in Swindon is helping charities to increase their income through better understanding of donor behaviour.

Tailored Data Solutions, based in Stratton, offers a range of data analysis, cleansing and identification services which help charities get to the bottom of their existing data and really understand what it is telling them. This supports fundraising and marketing teams with their decision making, often leading to income maximisation and waste reduction.

MD Mike Lenard said: "Our data management services have been shown to give charities measurable ROI, with increased average donation value, higher income per channel and more value extracted in the longer term.”

All charities will have large amounts of data within the organisation. However, much of this is likely to be on separate systems. Legacy processes and smaller budgets mean that charities use a blend of spreadsheets, networked software and even local documentation to keep a track of donor data. This valuable huge resource cannot be tapped into without the right organisation, strategy and cleansing approach.

Then it can be organised to glean highly valuable insights - and to create a new system of customer data collection that continues to mine those insights in a cost-effective way whilst being compliant with data protection laws, including the GDPR.

The team uses two analysis approaches; top-down analysis involves taking some ideas and testing them for their validity and value. Bottom-up analysis is data mining focussed and involves letting the data speak for itself, showing statistically significant trends that can be turned into organisational actions. The company never forces through any conclusions, instead, presenting objective results in a comprehensive report, to which stakeholders apply their extensive experience and know-how to glean insights and understanding.

Data mining can also help identify areas for improvement. This results in a twofold gain from better data management - more income and lower costs, surplus which can then be reinvested back into service delivery or internal development priorities or the longer term.

Mike Lenard has been working in the charity sector for over a decade, building up a clear understanding of the data challenges that charities face, the potential gains that they can benefit from when the right data management solutions are implemented.

Mike said: "Our team is comprised of highly experienced data analysts who use a mix of top-down and bottom-up analysis to help charities identify what is working for them, and where they need to make changes. When analysed the right way, charity data has tremendous power to help guide management decision making."