Specifically for the charity, publishing and mail order sectors, First Direct Solutions recently launched a data co-operative. Data co-operatives provide a channel for acquiring new donors or customers using sophisticated modelling of RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary) activity to identify potential prospects.

Using information on what consumers actually spend their money on as an effective predictor of future purchasing behaviour, prospects are considered to be more valuable if they donate or purchase from multiple organisations than if they only transact with one (multiple-buyers). Multiple buyers are shared within the data co-operative, while single buyers or donors are protected.

Using analysis to create a unique perspective of how Australian consumers donate and buy from multiple organisations members can segment Australian consumers by such criteria as:

• when they last donated / made a purchase
• how many times they have donated / purchased
• how many organisations they donate / purchase from
• how much they spend or donate
• if they are committed givers or single time donors.

Here are some important points about participating in the First Direct Solutions data co-operative.

• You may have heard of data pools or data sharing – data co-operatives are a different opportunity.
• Each member of the co-operative must have privacy compliant data. There are stringent rules for participants.
• In a data co-operative, you are sharing transactional information on your donors/customers as opposed to the actual customer. The contact details are only shared with other members when they appear on more than one database.
• The First Direct Solutions data co-operative is a closed co-operative which means members do not know who the other members are.
• First Direct Solutions does not own the data, but manages the co-operative on behalf of the members.

Want to learn more about data co-operatives?

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