Why The Way We Think About Fundraising Data is Dead Wrong

Here’s an outline of the talk and the thinking behind it. If you agree, disagree or want to try and build a better approach to data, why not come and join our free community where we discuss individual giving, supporter experience, data, insight and AI.

This is not a talk about AI.

It’s not a talk about systems, CRMs, or dashboards.

This is a talk about culture, about thinking, and about whether our sector is finally ready to unlock the potential that has sat just out of reach for far too long.

I’m not here with all the answers.

I’m here with an invitation.

An invitation to reimagine how we work with data.

An invitation to demand better — from ourselves, from our organisations, and yes, from our suppliers.

An invitation to build a future together, one rooted in confidence, curiosity and community.

Because if we get this right, the next decade could be the most exciting breakthrough for fundraising since relationship fundraising was first imagined.

Part 1: The cultural problem no one wants to admit

Let’s start with the hardest truth:

We don’t have a data problem.

We have a culture problem.

For years, we’ve worked in silos that should never have existed:

“Data is with the CRM team.”

“Insights sit with analysts.”

“Fundraisers don’t need access to that.”

“IT doesn’t want us to connect those systems.”

We’ve created a world where fundraisers feel shut out of their own information — where the people who most need insight feel the least confident asking for it.

And here’s the thing:

This isn’t anyone’s fault.

Not fundraisers.

Not IT.

Not data teams.

It’s the result of a sector that has never seen data as everyone’s business.

But supporters don’t see silos.

Donors don’t care which team owns the data.

They expect us to know them, understand them, remember them.

And we cannot do that unless we build cultures where fundraisers feel confident to ask:

“How could we do this quicker?”

“What would happen if we combined these two datasets?”

“Could technology help us understand our supporters better?”

“What’s possible?”

If we don’t change that culture — no amount of AI will save us.

I’ve split this main talk into three. I’ll start with the art of the possible. What we could have as a sector. Then I’ll examine why we don’t. I’ll end with how we can change it.

Part 2: The art of the possible

This is my biggest frustration. While we’re stuck in permission paralysis, the art of the possible has already left us behind. I’ll share moonshot ideas later, but on a day-to-day basis, what is possible now?

Open systems.

APIs that connect everything.

Automations that remove manual tasks.

AI that drafts personalised communications — then reviewed by humans.

Real-time dashboards.

Instant analysis.

Dynamic budgets.

Integrated journeys across channels.

And let me give you a simple story:

Last week,, using Gemini, I created a fully mapped, wireframed website for a charity… in under five minutes. Five minutes later I had five versions of a potential homepage for a campaign.

The cost? My time and £20 per month subscription.

From a blank page to something a fundraising team could see and react to. In the time it takes to make a coffee.

This isn’t the future.

This is happening today.

And here’s the most exciting thing:

For the first time in decades, we can deliver true relationship fundraising at scale.

Ken Burnett painted the vision. But the tools weren’t there.

They were too expensive, too disconnected, too complex.

Now?

We have everything we need.

If — and it’s a big if — we choose to use it.

So let’s look how we got here.

Part 3: The cost of underinvestment

Let’s be honest with each other:

We have underinvested in our CRMs, our data structures, and our processes for years.

We are running 2025 missions on 2005 infrastructure — and then wondering why everything feels hard.

Innovation in our systems has been glacial.

We still tolerate CRMs that:

• can’t talk to anything

• break when you add a new field

• require manual imports

• and force fundraisers into workarounds

And we’ve internalised that as normal.

But here’s the reality:

The art of the possible has changed.

It is now possible to build products, processes and insights that would have been unthinkable even five years ago.

And I know this because I’ve lived both versions.

Twenty years ago, I worked on a project mapping supporter clusters around shops, care services and communities.

It took six months.

It cost £20–25k.

We used fantastic consultants and cutting-edge tools.

It was worth every penny and delivered some incredible insights.

But last year, I did a project for a client that was essentially the same thing.

Using AI as my analytical assistant and modern tools, it took under a day.

And cost less than £50 plus my time.

This is the gap we’re dealing with:

The cost of insight has collapsed.

The friction around insight has not.

And that is no longer acceptable.

But here's what worries me more:

We're not just underinvesting in infrastructure.

We're celebrating the wrong things in the sector too.

A few years ago, I attended a conference. I went to a session on the project that had won 'Data and Insight Project of the Year' — because I was curious to see what excellence looked like.

And it was a well-thought-out project. It delivered strong outcomes.

But then someone in the audience asked:

"How did you automate all the insight and analysis?"

The speaker casually replied:

"Oh, we didn't automate it. That would've been far too complicated. We built spreadsheets and stitched things together manually."

Now — did the project achieve its goals? Yes.

Were the team brilliant? Absolutely.

But should a project reliant on manual intervention really win the sector's top award?

And if it does — what does that say about our standards?

It's not just data.

I've seen the same pattern in fundraising awards.

There was a new fundraising product a few years ago that looked incredible. It was innovative. It was clever. It won multiple awards — and was copied by charities across the sector.

But when the original charity finally analysed the long-term results?

The supporter retention was terrible.

They were losing money in the medium term.

And yet it had been held up as the gold standard.

Copied. Celebrated. Shared at conferences.

Here's my point:

We're not standing on the shoulders of giants.

We're learning from examples that may not have worked.

And that's not because people are doing bad work — they're not.

It's because we get distracted by the shiny and new, rather than the tried and tested.

We celebrate innovation without measuring impact.

We share ideas without sharing results.

We copy approaches without understanding context.

And in the meantime?

The cost of compute has collapsed.

The cost of insight has collapsed.

The tools have evolved beyond recognition.

Only our thinking hasn't.

And that needs to change.

Part 4: A challenge to suppliers — tear down your walls

And as a supplier myself, let me say this with love:

We need to demand more from our vendors.

If CRMs remain closed systems…

If platforms block integration…

If IT policies treat 2025 tools like 2010 security risks…

Then nothing will change.

Ronald Reagan once stood at the Brandenburg Gate and said:

“Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

Well, I think it’s time we said the same to our suppliers.

Tear down your walls.

Open your systems.

Give us APIs as standard.

Let us connect the tools our fundraisers actually use.

Stop locking down our data like it’s plutonium.

The commercial world demands this integration. It’s why Salesforce now has MPCs, but how many charities are using this functionality?

Why are we still tolerating systems in our sector that refuse to talk to anything else?

Why are charities still told they can’t use Make, Zapier or N8N because of “IT policy” shaped 15 years ago?

If our partners aren’t helping us innovate — they are holding us back.

And let’s look at costs. The cost of computer power has collapsed. The cost of data and insight has plummeted. We need to elevate our thinking accordingly.

Brilliant code can be written in minutes with AI.

Apps to help solve problems in a couple of hours.

We can do incredible analysis in lightning speed and (practically) for free.

A supplier I won’t name recently planned to charge £2k to do something for one of our clients we knew was under an hour’s work. I called them out on it. They sheepishly backtracked.

Yes, we need to pay suppliers and data experts fairly, but that’s extortion and relying on lack of understanding and our fear of data and lack of knowledge. We need to do better.

Part 5: GDPR — the fear that’s costing us relationships

Now let’s talk about a different kind of barrier.

GDPR.

Let me be clear:

Protecting data.

Respecting consent.

Ensuring security and transparency.

These are non-negotiable.

But we’ve developed a culture of fear around GDPR that is damaging fundraising. It’s become the stuff of nightmares, like a dementor sucking the life from fundraising’s soul.

We have become so scared of getting it wrong that we have stopped collecting the information that would let us get it right.

Donors want us to understand them.

They want us to use the data they freely give.

They expect us to remember their stories.

And when we don’t, it hurts.

I’ll tell you a story.

I once interviewed a major donor who had given six-figure gifts to a hospice.

He loved the hospice.

He was profoundly grateful for the care they gave his wife.

He wanted to continue supporting them.

But he was thinking about stopping.

Not because the cause had changed.

Not because the need had changed.

But because he had to keep retelling the most painful story of his life, every time a new fundraiser joined the team.

Why?

Because their GDPR policy didn’t allow staff to record personal information about family stories.

The system — and the policy — didn’t allow them to steward him properly.

A man who had given so generously was ready to stop giving because the organisation’s systems couldn’t hold his humanity.

This is the cost of getting GDPR fear wrong.

Let’s be compliant.

Let’s be ethical.

But let’s not be scared of data that donors want us to use.

Part 6: Be brilliant at the basics — the pizza base problem

We have what I call the pizza problem. You can have the best, Michelin-star toppings, the finest Italian tomato sauce and fresh Mozzarella, but if the pizza base is doubt, soggy or half baked then the whole thing ends up as a congealed mess.

For too many charities, our work, impact, stories and people are the Michelin star toppings, but our data and CRM is a 3am kabab-shop pizza base...

We can dream AI all we want. But you can’t automate chaos.

So none of this matters if:

• source codes are inconsistent

• data is a mix of ALL CAPS and random abbreviations

• addresses are half-formatted

• spreadsheets sit on desktops like little data time bombs

Before we build the future, we must fix the foundation — the pizza base.

And in 2026, no charity should be manually importing data week after week.

Automation is here.

Integration is possible.

The only thing missing is permission and confidence.

Part 7: The Manifesto

Here is our manifesto for the future of fundraising data:

1. We believe culture beats technology — every time.

2. We believe fundraisers deserve confidence, not gatekeeping.

3. We believe insight should be accessible, not siloed.

4. We believe suppliers must tear down their walls.

5. We believe open systems are essential infrastructure.

6. We believe GDPR should protect donors, not alienate them.

7. We believe automation should remove friction, not create it.

8. We believe AI should augment humans, not replace them.

9. We believe brilliance at the basics is non-negotiable.

10. And we believe the next era of fundraising will be built by a community — not by any one organisation.

Part 8: The invitation

So here’s my rallying call.

We are looking for curious fundraisers.

The ones who want to experiment.

The ones with ideas.

The ones who don’t want perfection — they want progress.

The ones who want to explore the possible.

We don’t have all the answers.

We’re learning, testing, iterating.

But we know this:

The sector has never had more potential than it does right now.

We can increase loyalty.

We can deepen relationships.

We can understand supporters like never before.

We can free fundraisers to spend more time inspiring and connecting.

We can build remarkable experiences at scale.

If we get this right, we unlock a new golden age of relationship fundraising.

So the question is simple:

Are you ready to join us?

To challenge?

To rethink?

To build something better?

Because the way we think about fundraising data is dead wrong.

And that means — wonderfully — we have the chance to get it right.

Not five years from now. Not when budgets allow. Not when systems finally catch up.

Now.

Let’s build the future together.

Come join us in our community: https://threadlearning.app.clientclub.net/communities/groups/thread-fundraising-community/home