At the start of my career, I worked for Lloyds bank as a Data Analyst. There I picked up skills in analysis, reporting and coding. I then started working for a church and they asked me to use some of my skills to tackle a reporting problem (read the story later). It helped me to see that many smaller charities were facing the same problem: lots of data and reporting to do but a lack of skills and time to use it to their best abilities. I therefore launched Core Insights in Jan 2016 to meet this need and have since supported a number of small and large charities, with my team, to improve the way data is recorded, collected and reported on.
The church mentioned were struggling to reclaim gift aid and had a backlog of £270k because the reporting just took so long. I implemented a solution for them which cut the reporting time by 90% and they can now regularly reclaim gift aid.
All my work is charity focussed. I have recently made my service more accessible and widely available by launching 5 online courses and an online community, all of which are aimed at charities and help them to save time, money and reduce stress around data and reporting. One course charities to choose the right database, another helps streamline their existing database, and there is also a course on speeding up reporting (just like the example I mentioned above).
I also run a consultants online network which provides support for those working for and freelancing in the charity sector.
I don’t believe data and reporting should be complicated. I also believe that when used properly, good tech can save time and money and reduce stress for organisations. I’m passionate about de-mistifying data and reporting and making it into something everyone can do rather than just ‘techy’ people. I’ve seen so many people in the charity sector go from being afraid of using programmes like excel to being confident in their reporting and abilities! I see tech as the future so we need to continue to be using it for us and for good.