Data conscious fundraising

When Age UK migrated their lottery programme from CFP to StarVale in June 2005, they recognised the critical role of supporter insight and data management which was especially important given the sheer volume of lottery entries the software had to cope with. Evidently, this was one of the main reasons the lottery migrated over to StarVale. By leveraging accurate data, we were able to precisely identify, and segment supporters based on demographics, giving history, interests, and engagement levels. This granular data provided us with deeper insights, ultimately driving significant fundraising success.

With robust data management as a core priority, we achieved a remarkable 29.42% increase in lottery ticket sales within the first year of their programme. In fact, every single decision we make is informed by client and supporter data, combined with our intimate understanding of what makes a fundraising lottery succeed.

Our approach to data

We are fortunate to be working with some of the UK’s largest national and regional charities, many of whom have either started with us, or switched to us and stayed. Over the past decade, we’ve raised over half a billion in partnership with major charity and non-profit organisations. Our approach with every client is to an extent the same tried and tested best practice method of relying on data to steer positive fundraising achievements.

The business has always been data-driven. From the outset, we recognised the transformative power of developing a smart supporter data strategy, robust data infrastructure and the importance of empowering our people to be data-minded. Utilising insights from every campaign and ticket sold provides us with an unparalleled data capability, enabling strategic decision making and opportunities to scale. For most charities and not-for-profits, fundraising growth and an ongoing resilient revenue stream is the ultimate objective.

The importance of data in non-profits

Good data practices are essential for maximizing impact and achieving sustainable growth. While the industry has shifted from intuition to data-driven decision-making, we set ourselves apart through a deeply personalized service and an unwavering dedication to every client’s individual needs.

How we deliver impact:

• Insight-led strategy: We solve real-world problems by ensuring every decision is informed by actionable insights.
• Market-leading acquisition: Our supporter acquisition and retention strategies are refined on a campaign-by-campaign basis.
• Bespoke analysis: Using our proprietary in-house systems, we analyse data by any unique criteria to provide a level of detail others can’t match.
• Scalable data management: Regardless of a client’s current data maturity, we effectively manage and share data to empower their internal strategic decisions.

Our culture

At StarVale our culture is shaped by refining and challenging good decision making. Our supporter acquisition and retention strategies are market-leading and are informed by data-driven insights on a campaign-by-campaign basis.

Data for insights and improvements

Our teams work closely with our clients to evaluate campaign performance and to recommend improvements. Regular strategy sessions with clients provide an opportunity to evaluate, brainstorm and refine the approach. It also allows us to talk about adapting to changing market dynamics and to plan for ongoing lottery growth. Having the right data on hand to guide these discussions is key to instigating improvements to our fundraising efforts.

The importance of data for scaling

Over the years we’ve learnt that analysing data is crucial for understanding the effectiveness of our lottery campaigns. It allows us to identify both successes and failures, providing a baseline for future initiatives. By evaluating supporter data, we can personalise messages and offers, building stronger relationships and ultimately boosting ticket sales. Understanding supporter behaviour is crucial, as they are our most valuable source of feedback.

Data-driven insights enable cost-effective marketing strategies and help us to measure the return on investment, average ticket sales, and acquisition costs. This analysis is essential for determining the necessary improvements to optimise future fundraising efforts and to predict growth and scalability potential. 

For example, by comparing the performance of various campaigns and analysing winner sentiment, charities can use this insight to test if offering an alternative to the monetary headline prize – such as a holiday or car – would be more impactful. 

Whilst our research and analysis informs us that in general, winners like to receive money, this insight only proved valuable when an alternative was offered and we were able to analyse the data and gain a clear understanding. Because of this approach to reviewing performance, we’ve expertly grown our current client lotteries through analysing their campaign data and advising on revenue growth initiatives, relevant to their budget.

We’ve learnt from experience that these 4 key areas makes a difference when planning for growth:

1. Campaign optimisation – Supporter data can be used to track lottery campaign performance and identify areas for improvement.
   • It’s important to evaluate key metrics such as ticket sale conversion rates, cost per acquisition, and supporter retention rates.
   • Where necessary, we’ll perform A/B testing and other data-driven techniques to optimise campaigns.
2. Predictive analytics – The supporter data we analyse helps to predict future ticket sale patterns, revenue income and lottery growth potential.
3. Measuring impact and ROI – Relevant supporter data is used to measure the impact of lottery campaigns and to demonstrate return on investment.
   • With every campaign we track key performance indicators (KPIs) and report back on results.
   • This is important for achieving budget efficiencies. 
4. Data privacy, security and compliance – All supporter data is stored securely and void of compromise. We are known in the lottery sector for delivering top-tier compliance.
   • Adhering to Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice and the Remote Technical Standards, we support our client operators with relevant policy documents as well as conducting annual returns, complaints logs and detailed breakdowns of payment types, entry origins and funding sources – to the Gambling Commission.

If you’d like to find out more about our approach to data and growing your lottery programme, contact the team to learn more about how data consciousness could maximise your lottery ticket sales.