How Canteen debunked IT myths in the not-for-profit sector

Limited budgets and legacy systems are a common issue in many industries and that is also true for not-for-profit organisations. When Raul Caceres joined Canteen, an Australian support organisation for young people living with cancer, in 2019, Caceres found a failed CRM implementation, issues with the organisations websites and projects blowing out the budgets.

For Caceres, general manager for data and technology, previous experience as a volunteer in a beekeeping enterprise in Sierra Leone inspired him to focus on exploring the use of social innovation methodologies to enable individuals and organisations to create positive change. At Canteen, he and his team have used digital tools to improve the quality of life for young people with cancer.

Speaking recently at CIO Australia parent company Foundry’s CIO Summit, Caceres demystified some of the long-held beliefs about being a technology leader in the not-for-profit sector such as the value of data sets, what IT can do with tight budgets, and competing with big tech for talent.

How data sets can create value

Canteen uses machine learning technologies to predict donor income and reduce customer attrition. He and his team created an algorithm that helped predict expected income for the organisation provided by regular donors by analysing about 10 million rows of data.

He says this was one of the most important tools that the organisation used during COVID-19 to ensure it was making the right decisions about staffing across the organisation and to determine if workforce reductions were needed. “We had confidence that we knew the income we were going to receive. Over the past couple of years, we’ve been able to predict income within a 0.5% margin of error. This has been fantastic for the organisation,” Caceres says.

The same data set has also been used to find signs that donors are wanting to cancel their regular contributions. “We can prioritise these [donors], call them to thank them for what they are doing and remind them why it’s so important to give to Canteen. It’s a lot cheaper to do than look for another donor,” he says.

Machine Learning