Charities are struggling to manage the abundance of data available about their supporters, according to a new study.
The feeling among charities about their use of data is not positive. The majority (57 per cent) report that they are not making the most of supporter data for marketing and fundraising, according to a new industry survey. Just 30 per cent feel they are doing a good job of it.
One in four charities struggle to manage all the data which is created in their systems, according to a report released today by nfpSynergy and CRM company Blackbaud. The companies surveyed 334 individuals at charities who claim responsibility for IT infrastructure at their organisations.
While a third said that IT had had a positive impact on fundraising and marketing at their own charities, many revealed that they were not able to manage the data available to them. New sources of data prove difficult to utilise, according to the Data Driven Fundraising report. Only one in eight charities can integrate data from social sources into their CRM systems. Just one-third are able to incorporate data from third-party sites like JustGiving and less than half (45 per cent) say they can even integrate data from their own websites into their CRM.
Blackbaud Europe product manager Azadi Sheridan said that the amount of data which charities potentially have at their fingertips is bewildering. “Many are struggling to make sense of the data they hold on donors and supporters,” he said. “Data can be invaluable for marketing and fundraising, but not-for-profits must be able to analyse that data to get the maximum value from it. Not utilising social media data is a major missed opportunity to better understand supporters.”
But maintaining this data is not cheap. Some 28 per cent of charities surveys said that maintaining the quality of data they do hold is a drain on resources.
Charities overpaying for IT
While the majority of respondents to the nfpSynergy/ Blackbaud survey said that IT was critical to the future of their organisations, another study discovered that charities might not be getting the right price for the IT systems more generally.
A study by software developer Mercato Solutions estimated that charities are paying an average of five times as much as industry standard for their IT services. The survey of 200 ICT managers found that charities paid an average margin on IT services of 18 per cent, far higher than the recommended industry standard of 3 per cent.
The company’s head of benchmarking Al Nagar said charities must attempt to get better transparency within their relationships with IT suppliers.
Join our Fundraising First Thing breakfast debate: From social to CRM, exploring how charities can use social data.
