I help charities, not-for-profits and social enterprises improve how digital contributes to their mission — from acquisition, CRM and user journeys through to analytics, technology, AI and digital leadership.
Commercial digital disciplines, applied to mission-led outcomes.
My background combines more than 20 years of commercially accountable digital experience with direct leadership experience inside the not-for-profit sector. The objective isn't to import ecommerce thinking blindly into a charity. It's to apply the disciplines that work — measurement, acquisition, conversion, retention, technology and prioritisation — to the outcomes that matter to your organisation.
At Wenta, a not-for-profit supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses, digital performance included +147% YoY client acquisition, +84% YoY lead enquiries and +90% YoY website sessions.
Much of my background comes from commercially accountable digital and ecommerce environments, where acquisition cost, conversion, retention, customer value and return on investment have to stand up to scrutiny. Those disciplines can be just as useful in a not-for-profit environment — provided the organisation defines the right outcome, rather than treating revenue as the only measure of growth.
Alan Eves is an independent UK digital growth and transformation consultant working with charities, not-for-profits, social enterprises and other purpose-led organisations. The outcome might be client or beneficiary acquisition, enquiries, programme participation, service uptake, membership, registrations, events, donations, supporters, audience growth, engagement, retention or organisational efficiency. The same disciplines apply — measured against the objective that matters to you.
“Website traffic is increasing, but meaningful actions are not.”
“The CRM is mainly being used as a mailing list.”
“Marketing channels report activity, but it's hard to see organisational impact.”
“The digital roadmap has more priorities than the team can realistically deliver.”
“We know AI could help us, but we don't know where it will genuinely add value.”
“Different agencies or suppliers are optimising for different metrics.”
“Analytics exists, but leadership doesn't have a clear view of what's working.”
“The organisation has accumulated technology without a clear operating model.”
“There's no senior digital owner tying it all together.”
“Trustees and funders want evidence of impact, but digital reporting doesn't show it.”
“Digital sits with one or two people alongside everything else they do.”
“A website rebuild is coming, but nobody owns the requirements or the risk to search traffic.”
If any of this sounds familiar, that's usually where I come in.
Talk Through Your Digital ChallengeBefore consulting independently, I led digital at Wenta, a not-for-profit supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses. The role covered digital acquisition, website performance, CRM and email, analytics, customer journeys, reporting and digital transformation.
+147%
2025 vs 2024
+84%
+90%
Performance was also +19% against budget for the reported period.
At Wenta, a UK not-for-profit supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses, Alan led digital activity spanning acquisition, CRM and email, website performance, analytics, reporting and digital transformation. The figures above are year-on-year results from that in-house role.
The results came from several disciplines working together rather than a single channel or campaign. The work included:
Targeting new and segmented audiences
Strategic content gating
Targeted paid social acquisition
Website and user-journey optimisation
CRM and email capability, with improved segmentation and automated journeys
Better digital data and reporting, using GA4 and Search Console insight
Connecting acquisition activity more clearly with organisational outcomes
Wider digital transformation and technology planning
The important point isn't that another organisation should copy Wenta's exact channel mix. It is that better acquisition, CRM, data, journeys and measurement can materially increase mission-led outcomes when they work together rather than as isolated activities.
Understanding which audiences and channels generate meaningful outcomes — enquiries, registrations, supporters — rather than just traffic, impressions or clicks. That can span paid, organic search, SEO, content and audience development, but not every organisation needs every channel. The job is to find the mix that works for yours.
More on acquisition & paid media →Making better use of the CRM and email you already have — clearer segmentation, automated journeys and more relevant ongoing communication, so the database becomes a relationship rather than a mailing list.
More on CRM & customer retention →Finding the friction between someone discovering your organisation and taking a meaningful action — an enquiry, application, registration, booking, membership, donation or service sign-up. Here, conversion means the action that matters to your mission, not necessarily a sale.
Defining digital KPIs that reflect your organisation's objectives, improving reporting, and showing leadership which activity is genuinely contributing. My experience includes GA4, Google Search Console and senior-management reporting.
More on analytics & commercial insight →Helping leadership teams prioritise digital investment across technology, suppliers, platforms and roadmaps — so individual tools support the strategy rather than becoming the strategy.
Explore services →Identifying practical opportunities where AI and automation can improve productivity, insight, content processes, the experience of the people you serve, or operational delivery — introduced with appropriate oversight, not for its own sake.
More on AI & Automation →Agencies and suppliers can be excellent at execution within their specialism. The gap often sits above the individual channels — and that's where I work, as an independent senior digital operator looking across the whole picture.
The questions that often go unanswered:
What should we prioritise?
Which problem actually matters?
Are our agencies optimising towards the same organisational objective?
Is our technology helping, or creating complexity?
Which metrics should leadership care about?
Where should limited budget and internal capacity go first?
Senior digital leadership without necessarily hiring another permanent senior role. I'm not selling media spend, software licences or a development retainer, so recommendations can focus on what will genuinely make the biggest difference.
You work directly with me — there is no account manager, junior consultant or hand-off after the initial conversation.
Independent, channel-neutral and technology-neutral, so advice isn't tied to a platform or media budget. Commercially minded and evidence-led, so priorities rest on data rather than opinion. Practical, so the output is something your team can act on.
Engagements are shaped around the problem rather than a predefined package. Most start in one of three ways.
An independent review of your organisation's digital performance and operating model — across acquisition, website journeys, CRM, analytics, conversion, technology and priorities. You receive clear findings, prioritised opportunities and a practical roadmap for action.
Support for a defined digital challenge — a transformation project, an acquisition problem, a CRM or customer-journey initiative, a measurement challenge or a technology decision.
Ongoing access to senior digital leadership without necessarily recruiting a full-time Digital Director. That can include setting priorities, bringing channels together, working with internal teams, challenging agencies and suppliers, building measurement, creating digital roadmaps and helping leadership make better investment decisions.
I've spent more than 20 years working inside organisations responsible for digital performance, rather than only advising from outside.
My background spans ecommerce, retail, B2B, D2C and not-for-profit environments, with senior responsibility across acquisition, CRM, customer journeys, SEO, analytics, technology, conversion and digital transformation.
At Wenta I had direct responsibility for digital within a not-for-profit environment — including the same realities mission-led organisations recognise: finite budgets, multiple stakeholders, legacy technology, external suppliers, internal capacity constraints and the need to demonstrate impact.
That combination matters. I bring commercial digital discipline, but I don't assume commercial revenue is the objective. The first question is always what outcome the organisation actually needs digital to improve.
Straight answers to the questions that usually come up first.
A digital consultant helps a charity get more from digital in relation to its mission. In practice that usually means clarifying what digital should achieve, then working across the areas that drive it: acquisition and audience development, CRM and email, website and user journeys, analytics and reporting, technology and suppliers, and prioritisation. The value is often less about any single channel and more about connecting them — making sure activity, data and investment all point at the same organisational outcomes, and that the team knows what to do first.
Typically when an organisation already has capable specialists, agencies or technology, but nobody senior is connecting it all together. Common signs include agencies optimising for different metrics, a roadmap with more priorities than the team can deliver, reporting that doesn't help leadership make decisions, or a senior digital role that is vacant or was never created. Fractional leadership provides that senior ownership for an agreed amount of time each month — setting priorities, directing suppliers and building measurement — without necessarily recruiting a permanent Digital Director.
Often by improving the quality of what already happens before adding budget. That can mean sharpening audience targeting, shifting effort towards channels that produce meaningful actions rather than clicks, improving landing pages and journeys so more visitors complete an enquiry or registration, and using CRM and email to nurture and retain the people you've already reached. Better measurement makes all of this possible, because you can see which activity is genuinely working. It won't always remove the need for more investment, but it should make every pound work harder before you increase it.
Traffic on its own isn't enough. Measurement should connect digital activity to the outcomes the organisation exists to deliver — enquiries, registrations, applications, supporters, members, service uptake or donations. A useful framework defines a small set of outcome KPIs, the leading indicators that tend to predict them, and the channel metrics that sit underneath. Tools such as GA4 and Google Search Console then need configuring to track those actions properly, and reporting should be designed around decisions, so leadership can see what's working and where to invest next.
It should start with the organisation's objectives and a clear understanding of its audiences — who they are, what they need and how they engage over time. From there: segmentation that reflects those differences, lifecycle journeys from first contact through to ongoing engagement, data-quality standards, automation for the journeys that matter most, clear management of contact permissions, and reporting that shows whether CRM activity is moving people towards meaningful outcomes. Permissions and data protection should follow your organisation's own data-protection guidance; my focus is the strategy and how the CRM is used.
The most reliable wins tend to be practical rather than transformational: speeding up analysis and reporting, supporting research, helping draft and adapt content, automating repetitive administrative workflows and improving how information is found internally. The starting point should be a specific problem or bottleneck, not the technology. Any use of AI needs appropriate governance and human oversight — particularly around data, accuracy and anything that affects the people the organisation serves — so adoption should be deliberate, tested and proportionate.
Yes. I work with social enterprises, charities, not-for-profits and other purpose-led organisations wherever they need the kind of support described on this page — digital growth, transformation, measurement or senior digital leadership. Many social enterprises sit between commercial and mission-led models, which suits an approach built on commercial digital disciplines applied to mission-led outcomes.
An initial conversation is not a sales pitch. The objective is to understand:
Not ready to book yet? Tell me a bit about your situation and I'll come back to you.
If digital feels fragmented, underused or harder to measure than it should, we can start with a conversation about where the biggest constraint is likely to sit.
