Often the most effective way to manage your data is to invest in your people to grow your data knowledge internally. Let Actually Data work with you to identify and plug the gaps by training and mentoring your team.
Why it is important.
If charities could invest in their database people and grow them into a top team then there is huge benefits to the organisation as that domain knowledge stays and consistency is at the heart of excellence. Otherwise, database people will move on after a couple of years to either gain more money or more experience or both.
One of the things that the sector has been crying out for is support for back office staff. If you’re a fundraiser there are lots of courses that you can go on to grow your experience but there’s not the same level of support for database people.
When I first started working with the database team at a Domestic Violence charity, a couple of the team members mentioned to me that they weren’t sure what opportunities existed in terms of next steps all members of the team believed that they would need to move jobs to be able to have career progression.
The first thing that we would do is a skills audit to work out what is required as well as understanding what the needs of the organisation are. Any training we provide is then built and run alongside the data team specifically to meet their needs and the needs of the organisation.
Actually Data have helped lots of charities get timely answers to many of these questions but here are some examples of where we’ve helped and added value.
Examples of how we have helped:
Database training: We have helped many charities with database training, ranging from queries and reporting training to actually working with database teams to set up a framework that they could take forward with forms and templates for things like mailing processes, project briefing documents, setting up new records on the database.
Team Development: We can offer a range of services to help database teams increase their overall skills either on a 121 basis or as a team. We have worked on soft skills from time management and simple project management things to taking a step back and explaining key areas of fundraising systems to Microsoft Excel and data manipulation skills using the new Microsoft Power Platform. We have also delivered training on Microsoft SQL Server in terms of basic TSQL and creating SQL Statements
For a no-obligation chat on how we could help your organisation upskill and motivate your database team