Interview: How a fundraiser became more data-savvy

Data analysis is critical in the charitable sector but research has found that charities in the UK are missing out on funding due to poor data management.

The Sagacity survey of 50 finance and revenue professionals in UK charities and not-for-profits found that almost half (47%) of charity revenue leakage can be traced back to problems with data. Lack of oversight along with poor processes, governance and controls were found to have contributed to revenue leakage of £835m per year.

In January, training provider Corndel, in partnership with Imperial College Executive Education, ran a Data Learner Networking event at Imperial College Business School. Computer Weekly spoke to Emma Liney, who attended the event. Liney works as a community fundraiser at Claire House Hospice, which helps seriously and terminally ill children.

Liney is part of Hospice UK’s Data Academy cohort, which provided 96 learners from 64 different hospices with the opportunity to enhance their data skills and knowledge through the Imperial College and Corndel Data-Driven Professional Programme. This was enabled by over £1m in gifted levy from Corndel’s corporate partners. 

Liney’s data journey began during lockdown, when she found she had “a lot more time in my role to look at our database and kind of clean up some data and do bits and bobs”. While she admits she did not really know much about what she was doing, the experience she gained piqued an interest in data.

In 2023, Liney attended a data and insight fundraising conference with her manager, which she says opened her eyes to how big a part data plays in fundraising. Her manager later received an email about the Imperial and Corndel Data-Driven Professional Programme and recommended Liney apply.

While her husband, who is doing a similar course, and her colleagues could show her a few things in Microsoft Excel, she says: “It was really about not knowing where to look to find out how to use it.”

“Before joining the programme, I didn’t understand how data could sit within my role. It’s amazing what I can now do for both my team and the wider hospice team. Now we make decisions based on analysing results and data”

For instance, she points out that a Google search on how to do something in Excel returns hundreds of videos, some of which she found hard to understand. “That was the intimidating part,” she says.