Data: from stress to strength

For too many charity leaders, data feels like a burden rather than an asset. Despite the technological advances of the past decade, data remains a source of anxiety – caught between compliance fears, under-resourced teams, and a nagging sense that you're missing crucial opportunities.

Yet within your CRMs, fundraising platforms and even those infamous spreadsheets lie the answers to some of your most pressing questions: How can we increase our impact? What do our supporters truly need? Are we reaching the people who need us most? The gap between where you are now and where data could take you might feel impossibly wide, but the truth is that closing it is less about technology and more about leadership, culture and making a few critical shifts in how you think about and use data.

Drawing on conversations with over 50 sector leaders and the collective wisdom of transformation consultants who have guided countless charities through this journey, we've distilled the challenge into nine tangible shifts that any leader can champion. These aren't technical fixes requiring you to become a data scientist. Instead, they're about creating the conditions – the culture, the investment, the questions, the skills – that allow data to move from overhead to strategic asset, from compliance headache to mission driver.

Whether you're wrestling with siloed systems, trying to build a business case for investment, or simply wanting to foster more curiosity and learning in how your organisation uses evidence, this toolkit offers practical first steps grounded in the reality of how charities actually work. It acknowledges both the systemic challenges of the sector and the genuine excitement of what becomes possible when you get this right: services that reach the people who need them most, supporters who feel truly understood, adjusting organisational focus from general AI excitement to the real problems you're facing, and an organisation confidently using evidence to learn, adapt and increase its impact.

This toolkit is for change-ready leaders who know that data should be powering better decisions, deeper relationships and demonstrable impact – but aren't quite sure how to make that shift happen in practice.

This Toolkit is in beta, so after reading, please give us feedback.