Adding coding to your fundraising resource

Do you know enough about your donors to increase their value and make them long term supporters? If you don’t, it could be the case that your data capture and analysis is falling short. A major cause of this is that many fundraisers don’t code donor data consistently or extensively enough.

Identifying intent is also easier: from spotting early signals that a donation amount upgrade or conversion to regular giving is viable, to pinpointing reactivations - the people who are keen to reignite their support for your charity.

Of course, many charities already code. But there is much more that coding can tell you beyond the basics, as long as you do it at the right time - in the moment when a donation is being made - and across donor touchpoints.

As it stands most charities are missing the chance to fully code donation forms, capture a greater amount of data and ensure it’s useful for further analysis.

Let’s consider why coding isn’t as widely used as it should be in fundraising, and how you can harness it, in conjunction with AI tools, where possible, to your advantage.

Tricky economic climate

According to an annual analysis of UK giving by Charities Aid Foundation, charities now rely on donations from just half of the population. That figure has fallen from 58% in 2019: around 4 million fewer donors compared to six years ago.

Against this backdrop - and amid an ongoing cost of living crisis when many people account for every penny of their household spend - the need to understand how and why individuals donate to charity is critical.

Once you understand your supporters’ motivations and behaviour you can create smoother and more satisfying donation experiences, and forge stronger connections to keep your charity at the front of donors’ minds.

Coding is fuel for the insights that drive fundraising today. Charities have a wealth of donor data at their fingertips, not least from interactions with past and present supporters. How you use this valuable information can make a big difference to donated income - particularly during a period when online fundraising is thriving.

Digital journeys

Annual analysis of £25m-worth of UK charity income received by leading charities showed 2024 was a year of growth for overall online income. For example, single donations made online rose by 8% compared to 2023.

Meanwhile, mobile accounted for 61% of monthly donations and 40% of single donations across the year.

But digital donation channels - fundraising through your website - aren’t just convenient for supporters. They are also the natural home for capturing all of the information you need to be able to code, so that subsequent data analysis can reveal vital insights about how to increase donors’ value.

Once you have coded donation data in your database there’s plenty more you can discover about donors beyond which appeals they’ve backed.

For example, coding can help you to understand the source of each donor. A supporter might have arrived on your website to donate after clicking through from Facebook. You may also glean it was an organic post rather than a paid ad that did the trick.

In this instance, it would make sense to target the same supporter via Facebook since it’s a channel that has already prompted them to donate.

Personalisation is another powerful outcome of coding. Consumers have come to expect a high level of personalisation in communications they receive from brands. Charity donors should not be viewed any differently.

The more personalised, convenient and satisfying a donor experience on your digital channels is, the more likely someone is to donate and to also become a long term supporter.

The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) tools for the charity sector is revolutionising how coding can be used to personalise donor journeys.

AI tools

AI isn’t a futuristic concept for charities. It’s here already, and many charities are already using tools to turbo charge their fundraising strategies. There’s no reason why you can’t do the same, as these tools are widely available.

Having used AI to analyse donor data and discovered aspects such as propensity to give, frequency of donation and campaign effectiveness - all thanks to the initial coding - you can then enhance personalisation.

Donation pages can provide a tailored experience using an online fundraising platform - from adding a donor’s name to reflecting their preferences about how the donation page is designed.

Dynamic donation pages are also possible: using AI-derived information about a supporter’s previous donations to tailor your online ask, requesting a reasonable increase for their next gift.

Another use of AI for coded donor data is predictive analytics. This entails forecasting a donor’s lifetime value, considering how likely they are to increase their donation frequency or amount, but also assessing their risk of lapsing.

A further benefit is automated segmentation, with AI tools to group donors based on patterns that may not always be obvious to human analysts.

Coding’s secret advantage

Coding donor data counts towards more effective fundraising because it enables charities to tailor appeals and messaging for different groups of donors. This can sharpen the relevance of your campaigns and boost conversion rates.

As well as external benefits coded data also improves internal efficiency in several ways. Information can be shared more easily across departments improving collaboration, stewardship and reporting.

Like many aspects of fundraising strategy coding starts with understanding the extent of the data your charity holds as well as a view of what’s missing. This stage requires dedicated resource and attention but will prove to be time well spent.

When assessing the state of your current donor data you should pinpoint and solve duplication, and also identify gaps and inconsistencies. For instance, there may be clear flaws in the way the data is structured; starting off on such uneven ground will make coding harder.

Coding framework

Once you’re satisfied that you have the data you need and it’s all in order the next step is to agree a coding framework. This entails devising simple and consistent code sets that the whole team can understand: codes for campaign type; acquisition channel; donor relationship stage, and so on.

Now those aspects are in place more exciting work can begin. At this point you can start to apply UTM codes (Urchin Tracking Mode codes for readers who want to know!). They are snippets of text added to a URL which help to track where web traffic comes from and how campaigns perform. This information is vital to monitor donor journeys and assess how easy it is for supporters to donate.

“Tag and track” techniques can also involve creating custom fields on your donation form, or assigning donor IDs to visitors so they stay visible as they travel through your website.

These are some of the ways in which you can identify and track individual supporters across your site, donation pages and marketing platforms.

In parallel

It’s worth noting that you don’t have to rip up everything you’ve done and start all over again to code your data. The work can be done while regular campaigns are “in flight” through back-end engineering. There’s no need to simply down tools and stop fundraising while you enhance coding activity.

Meanwhile, there are a number of ways to optimise how data is managed and used so that coded data becomes as valuable and efficient as possible for fundraising initiatives.

Ensure the CRM systems you use, along with email tools and donation platforms that are in place, can seamlessly and autonomously pass codes and tracking data between each other.

As part of this approach, choosing an online donation platform which can capture data automatically and link directly to CRM systems without manual input, significantly lightens the load.

The good news is that coding doesn’t have to cost the Earth, swamp your systems or swallow up resources. It’s a clever way to make the most of your prized donor data and, when done well, can contribute greatly to your fundraising efforts.