Case Study: Blind Veterans UK Data Transformation Journey
Blind Veterans UK wanted to make better use of data to understand its audiences, improve services, strengthen fundraising and show its impact.
The difficulty was turning that aim into practical change. The charity had useful systems and expertise, but data was split across teams. Reporting could be inconsistent, manual processes took time and it was not always clear who was responsible for data quality.
An independent review by AAW Group had already identified the main issues and opportunities. The next step was to clarify what they meant in practice and agree on a realistic plan.
AAW helped Blind Veterans UK appoint Stuart March as Interim Head of Data & Insight. Over seven and a half months, Stuart worked with leaders and teams across the charity to develop a Data Strategy, clarify governance, assess the charity’s technology and set out a 24-month roadmap. His assignment took the findings of the earlier review and turned them into decisions and next steps.
Starting with discovery
Stuart began by finding out how data was used day to day, before writing any strategy.
Over eight weeks he ran 24 workshops with 22 colleagues from across the organisation. The sessions looked at how data was collected, managed, shared and used, from audience journeys and service delivery to fundraising, volunteering and reports for the executive team.
The discussions covered technology and the processes and working practices around it. They asked where information was being duplicated, which manual tasks were creating unnecessary work, whether teams trusted the reports they used and who was responsible for defining key measures and fixing data quality problems. Colleagues described what happened in practice, including the workarounds they relied on and the decisions that were hard to make with the information available.
Blind Veterans UK used several systems for different needs, including Studio, Raiser’s Edge, Assemble and an Azure SQL data warehouse. The number of platforms mattered less than how they connected, how information moved between them and how consistently people understood and used the resulting data.
Fragmented data flows, manual fixes and differing definitions made reports hard to reconcile. The charity did not yet have a reliable, joined-up view of its supporters, beneficiaries, volunteers and other audiences. Replacing every system would not necessarily solve these problems. The charity needed a clearer plan for how its technology, data, processes and people should work together.
Turning the findings into a Data Strategy
The discovery work provided the evidence for a Data Strategy with six pillars: vision and value, people and culture, operating model, technology and architecture, data governance and a roadmap.
The strategy started from the value better data should create for Blind Veterans UK and the people it supports. It linked data to the charity’s purpose of empowering blind veterans to live independent and fulfilling lives in an inclusive, barrier-free world.
It also set values to guide future decisions, including accessibility and inclusion by design, audience empowerment, outcomes and impact, sustainability, trust, security and ethical use. Better data was there to support better services, more effective engagement, sustainable fundraising, more efficient operations and stronger evidence of impact.
Making the strategy practical
Teams can read the same strategy in different ways, so Stuart translated it into practical data use cases. These showed how better data could improve everyday experiences and decisions. Examples included giving people more control over their information and preferences, sparing them from repeating their story, improving accessible digital services and making engagement across channels more effective.
Other use cases covered fundraising value and supporter retention, service planning, volunteer support, operational efficiency and measuring outcomes over time. Leaders also wanted dashboards they could trust and information they could act on.
The use cases helped teams see how the strategy applied to their own work. They also gave a basis for linking organisational priorities to key performance indicators (KPIs) and objectives and key results (OKRs). The approach began with what the charity wanted to achieve and the decisions better information could support, and chose measures to fit.
Clear ownership of data
Better systems and reporting would only go so far without clearer accountability.
Stuart developed data governance and data quality frameworks that set out responsibilities and how problems should be handled. They covered data owners, stewards and custodians, critical data elements, quality standards, escalation and regular review. The aim was clear responsibilities with as little bureaucracy as possible. Teams needed to know who could agree a definition for the whole organisation, who was accountable for data quality and where problems that crossed teams should be resolved.
The work also laid the groundwork for a Data Steering Group, with terms of reference covering strategy, governance, quality, architecture, risk and roadmap priorities. With clear ownership and decision-making in place, teams would no longer have to negotiate responsibilities afresh each time a problem came up.
Technology choices
Discovery had shown weaknesses in the charity’s data architecture that could hold back its plans.
Integrations and scheduled processes needed a lot of manual intervention. The Azure SQL data warehouse played an important part, but it was mostly used to pass data between systems. It was not yet a governed foundation for analysis.
That created risks: fragile data pipelines, duplicated effort, inconsistent reporting, workarounds that would be costly to fix later and reliance on what individual staff knew. It also limited how confidently the charity could expand its use of data.
Stuart produced an analysis of the data architecture for the board, setting out options. His recommendation was proportionate. The charity should keep its major platforms where they remained fit for purpose and strengthen integration, governance, analytics and ownership around them. It did not need to commit to replacing its systems wholesale, but it did need to fix the weaknesses that made its current setup hard to manage.
The analysis turned technical problems into decisions leaders could weigh in terms of operational risk, staff time, confidence in reporting, investment, impact on services and long-term sustainability. It also proposed a next step: a short Data Solutions Architect assignment to look in more depth at integration, the resilience of data processes, how reporting could grow, resources and delivery options.
Planning a future operating model
Data could not be tackled in isolation. Responsibility for it was spread across information services, fundraising insight, transformation and operational teams.
Stuart therefore developed a high-level future digital, data and technology (DDaT) operating model with five connected capabilities: digital products and delivery, data and insight, technology and platforms, governance and service management.
The model set out how work should be owned, prioritised and delivered, and which capabilities the charity would need to build. Its principles included keeping veterans, supporters and volunteers at the centre of decisions, designing for accessibility, giving products and audience journeys clear owners and building a governed data platform that could support a reliable view of each person.
It also covered privacy, security and trust, and the balance between in-house expertise and outside support. The charity needed to keep critical knowledge in-house while using specialist partners where they had the right skills or capacity.
This shaped a plan for future recruitment and skills, covering permanent data leadership, architecture, data engineering and analysis. A key aim was that progress would continue after the interim assignment ended.
A 24-month roadmap
Finally, Stuart brought the strategy, governance, architecture and operating model together in one 24-month roadmap.
The roadmap covered connected priorities including data quality, integration, decisions on the customer relationship management (CRM) system and data platform, Power BI dashboards, contact centre capability, digital membership, retiring old systems, data literacy, recruitment and the design of day-to-day services.
It also showed how these pieces depended on each other. Dashboards people can trust need reliable integrations, agreed definitions and clear accountability. A joined-up view of each person needs a CRM, and also consistent identifiers, consent and preference management, governed data flows and shared processes. More advanced analytics and responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) need trusted data, proper privacy and security controls, human oversight and a clear case for the value they will create.
With those links visible, Blind Veterans UK could sequence its work, weighing quick improvements against the foundations needed for longer-term change.
What the assignment achieved
In seven and a half months the assignment produced a Data Strategy with vision and values, practical use cases, governance and quality frameworks, a proposed Data Steering Group, an architecture analysis, a future DDaT operating model, a framework for KPIs and OKRs, a 24-month roadmap and a plan for future skills and recruitment.
Each output built on the last. Discovery gave a shared understanding of the problems, the strategy set the direction and governance made responsibilities clear. The architecture analysis gave leaders options, the operating model identified the capabilities needed and the roadmap put the work in order.
Together they gave Blind Veterans UK a clearer basis for prioritising investment, making decisions and planning the next stage. The longer-term benefits will depend on the decisions, resources and implementation that follow.
Independent review and interim leadership
The assignment shows what independent review and interim leadership each contribute.
An independent review brings an outside view, sector experience and a structured assessment of where an organisation can improve. It identifies the issues and builds the case for change.
Acting on the findings takes different skills: building relationships across teams, understanding operational constraints, involving people in decisions and turning broad recommendations into priorities, responsibilities and next steps.
At Blind Veterans UK, AAW’s review provided the starting point. Stuart’s assignment tested its direction against day-to-day reality and developed it into a strategy, governance arrangements, recommendations on architecture, an operating model and a delivery roadmap. For charities going through major change, a good diagnosis matters. So does having the leadership and capacity to act on it.