Book your ticket to the Insight in Fundraising Conference and Awards

On Monday 14 October 2024 in London, the long-awaited Insight in Fundraising Conference returns, with its awards ceremony following afterwards.

This year’s theme is ‘data to decisions – creating impact through insight’ which, as you can imagine, is right up our street! So, it made perfect sense for us to sponsor the conference reception, to give everyone a warm Wood for Trees welcome on arrival. Plus, we’re also proud to be headline sponsor of the awards ceremony too!

Award finalists

Not to toot our own horn too much, but we’re honoured to up for several awards ourselves:

• Supplier of the year

Wood for Trees has been nominated by our wonderful client Cats Protection for our long-standing relationship and collaborative approach working with them.

• Supplier of the year

Our fellow Salocin Group brand, Join the Dots, has been nominated by Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex (KSS) for their ongoing work with them – and recent unbelievable campaign success with an innovative helicopter appeal.

• Most powerful insight using BI dashboarding

Our InsightHub work with Pancreatic Cancer UK (PCUK) allowed the charity to measure the effectiveness of their communications and supporter journeys across all their activity, leading to more informed decision-making and optimised resource allocation.

• Most powerful demonstration of strategic insight

Our work with Scleroderma and Raynaud’s UK (SRUK) went beyond a standard ‘data and digital strategy discovery’ project, setting the charity on the path to sustained growth and increased positive impact within their community.

• Most innovative use of data or analysis to drive insight AND most powerful insight using data analysis

We love working with Cats Protection, and we we’re thrilled our collaborative work, along with The Nursery, is up for not one, but two awards! We were able to show the true value of their retail operations, giving them a whole new view of their supporters.

Conference sessions

During the course of the conference by day, there’ll be three streams of insightful sessions, technical workshops and a focus on insight on a shoestring – which is exactly what we all need in the cost-of-living crisis.

We’ll be taking part in three talks ourselves:

• State of the charity sector

Our Consultant Analyst, Jessamyn Parker will be joined by Anna Frodsham, Head of Engagement, Marketing & Communications at PCUK, to present the ‘state of the charity sector’, analysing sector performance during the first six months of 2024 and comparing this to the past few years.

Anna will share PCUK insight into sector performance from the charity’s own perspective, looking at audience experience and fundraising strategy since rebranding and being announced as the London Marathon 2025 charity of the year.

The session will explain high level trends drawn from Wood for Trees’ InsightHub benchmarking data, which allows charities to rationalise their performance and weigh up how the opportunities and challenges the sector is facing may impact them.

• Driving campaign success with data-driven insights

Join Symon Russell, Executive Director of Individual Giving, and James Dallaway, Senior Data and Selection Analyst, both from KSS, and Jodie Hanrahan, Media Account Director at Join the Dots, to hear how a strong partnership between KSS and Join the Dots led to record-breaking fundraising results through a data-driven, collaborative approach.

They’ll deep dive into the recent KSS ‘Buy it for Life’ campaign, which raised almost £2m to buy a helicopter in only a few weeks. The session will outline how Join the Dots’ insights were crucial in exceeding income targets across multiple channels, including door drops, press inserts and radio.

They’ll also explore the strategies employed to navigate common challenges in cold fundraising/acquisition campaigns and how data-driven decision-making can mitigate these challenges. You’ll learn how past campaigns are shaping future strategies, including the importance of continuous testing and learning.

• AI and machine learning in the charity sector

Alex Holt, Strategic Consulting Director and Marc Dallimore, Practice Director of Salocin Group will be talking about their experiences working with AI and machine learning in the charity sector. They’re increasingly finding that organisations feel like they want to begin using AI but don’t know where to start. Despite the excitement around the opportunities AI and machine learning can bring, most people have concerns and not only struggle to mitigate these, but also to even vocalise them in the first place. Alex and Marc will discuss how AI and machine learning can be used in a charity setting, the practical things you need to consider before embarking on implementation.

• Transforming ambitions into reality – strategic growth journey of Scleroderma and Raynaud’s UK

In addition to our collaborative sessions, please join our lovely client Gemma Cornwell, Head of Fundraising and Communications at SRUK talking about the transformative journey SRUK has been on – a small yet dynamic charity dedicated to improving the lives of people affected by Scleroderma and Raynaud’s. This session will explain how SRUK, with just 12 staff, is leveraging strategic insights with a data-driven approach to elevate their operations and drive sustainable growth. This session will be great for small charities looking to scale their operations, while staying true to their mission.

Book your place

If you haven’t got a ticket to the conference or awards ceremony yet, there’s still time! Lots of our team will be there, not just to present and sponsor, but to also learn from everyone else too, it’s set to be a really valuable and insightful event. We’d love to see you there, if you’d like to catch up over a coffee (or a glass of fizz!), give us a shout and we’ll arrange to meet up.