At the Institute of Fundraising’s National Fundraising Convention, Mike Bugembe , JustGiving’s CAO, and Paul Jackson-Clark , Parkinson’s UK’s Director of Fundraising, co-presented Algorithms of the Heart and encouraged charities to look at data in a fresh new way. They lifted the bonnet on how data science can be used to revolutionise the way people connect with causes and how algorithms can reveal the connections between people, understand what they really care about, and inspire them to act.

Key takeaways from Parkinson’s UK

Since 2010, Parkinson’s UK’s income from major gifts has grown from £1.1m to £3.5m.How have they achieved this?

  1. By cultivating good and meaningful relationships with their supporters. Parkinson’s UK really understand the value of good supporter care, building relationships and understanding the connections between people. For example, between a fundraiser on JustGiving and one of their sponsors.
  2. A rigorous fortnightly process of data analysis that looks at every new supporter added to their fundraising database. The goal of this process is to identify high-value donors. Systems and tools that help them in this process are Prospecting for Gold, GOV.UK and Wealth Engine.

After this analysis, they are left with a list of people that the team at Parkinsons’s UK eyeball, looking for names and donations that stand out. On one occasion their analysis revealed someone that had made a £1,000 donation....more

Source: Just Giving