Our Christmas 'Round Robin'

Before the advent of ‘Your Year Wrapped’, it used to be the case that when Christmas Cards arrived in the post, at least a few would have a ‘Christmas round robin’ tucked inside. A chance for long lost friends and distant relatives to casually drop in what a triumphant year they and their family had had, before the term "humble-brag" was even a thing. While those don’t seem to happen quite so often now, we thought we’d revive the tradition with our own little update — our own Round Robin of what we’ve been up to this year.

If you’d like the accolade of one of your projects being included in next year’s round up – drop us a line to see how we can work together in the future.

Wishing you all a wonderful festive period and best wishes for the new year x

Head of the Family, Jon Kelly

Leading the charge with wisdom and a steady hand, our ‘family patriarch,’ Grandfather Jon has been in his element this year, diving headfirst into data with the enthusiasm of a kid on Christmas morning. He’s travelled far and wide (well, mostly to Dublin) to crunch numbers and craft strategies that deliver real-world impact.

“This year it has been great to be able to support St John of God Foundation on rebuilding their cash file through geographical analysis of their core supporter base. It was a relatively simple but powerful piece of work identifying their strongholds across Ireland and revealing opportunity areas for further work. The analysis has led to a range of targeted activity with mail, door drop and face-to-face fundraising all supporting each across their target areas. It has also meant a few opportunities to visit Dublin and get my annual quota of Guinness.”

Our Whizz Kid, Tim McKenzie

The family BI prodigy, Cousin Tim, has been busy passing on his Power BI wizardry, transforming data enthusiasts into analytics superheroes. When he’s not building cutting-edge data models, he’s been fine-tuning his teaching game.

“It has been fantastic this year to mentor two of Swim England’s analysts. Both have shown real interest in how to design and implement better semantic models for Power BI, and great seeing their work and skill sets progress throughout the process. It has also been quite a learning curve for myself, considering how to communicate processes that I do regularly and realizing how much I do via muscle memory.”

Wise Uncle, Matthew Tamea

Uncle Matt still keeps us grounded with sage advice and years of experience. You may be surprised to hear that he traded in his usual Apteco toolbox for a broader business strategy toolkit, helping organisations untangle complex processes and map out actionable solutions.

“2024 kicked off with an exciting project for Age UK, exploring their ambitions for email automation and supporter journeys. By interviewing staff across the organisation, we uncovered how challenges in data collection, processing, and latency were hindering efficient, automated data management. Our recommendations, delivered in a comprehensive and prioritised action plan, highlighted what could be tackled immediately and what required varying levels of effort and time. This work has empowered Age UK to build business cases for development, software investment, and to clearly communicate the potential impact of implementing—or not implementing—our suggestions. Better supporter journeys offer so much potential for charities that I expect to see some real improvements across the sector in 2025"

Cool Aunt, Lesley Duncan

Auntie Lesley continues to turn our wild ideas into something extraordinary. She has spent the year weaving data magic, turning complex supporter datasets into actionable strategies with precision and a sprinkle of creative flair.

“I’ve enjoyed continuing to work with UNICEF Ireland to help refine their selection process for campaigns. We have implemented a supporter segmentation to ensure all appropriate supporters are now included in selections. As well as the supporter segmentation, we have also worked with Dataro to introduce predictive modelling to help optimise cash appeal selections further as well as being able to identify Legacy and High Value prospects for communications. This work over the past year now means that selection processes run much more smoothly and with results to match.”

Free-Spirited Son, Andrew Sargent

Our adventurous son, Sarge, took a gap year to chase new experiences and broaden his horizons. Now he’s back and did a wonderful job on some insight audits:

“I got to take on an Insight Audit with Refuge which was the perfect way to get back into charity analysis and catch up on what I’d been missing for the last couple of years. It was so great to see their approach to engagement that also considered reaching, engaging and mobilising supporters. We helped them get a more holistic view of what their supporters were doing and show how valuable that can be. I think we’ll continue to see more of that in 2025 as teams try to get more from their CRM investments and the ongoing AI explosion”

The twins, Andy and Alex:

The twin boys, Alex and Andy, are still so in synch they can finish each other’s sentences - and sometimes each other’s projects. This year they took on one of the year’s biggest data adventures - helping RABI transform its CRM system. With a combination of data finesse and sheer determination, they ensured a seamless transition.

“This year we were delighted to support RABI in migrating from their old legacy CRM to a newly implemented MS Dynamics system. To ensure a smooth transition, we conducted a thorough data cleanse, identifying duplicates, removing deceased records, and transforming existing data into the correct format for the new system. This detailed preparation helped set RABI up for success, enabling them to manage supporter relationships more effectively and streamline their operations moving forward. It was a rewarding project that combined technical problem-solving with a clear impact on their ongoing mission.”

Together, we’ve had a busy and rewarding year. Here’s to more adventures, data breakthroughs, and hopefully some longer round-robin-style updates in the future!