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British Red Cross: from quotes in decks to patterns in supporters' own words
Emma Smith's job is to speak up for British Red Cross supporters when they're not in the room. A shared segmentation across the charity, and Wordnerds reading what supporters write, turned their words from a few quotes in decks into patterns the charity's teams can use.
Last updated 9 November 2026
Watch the webinar
Watch Emma tell the story
Emma Smith on the Wordnerds webinar Attitudes Not Age Groups, with the full transcript.
At a glance
- British Red Cross, the humanitarian charity that has helped people in crisis for 150 years
- Told by Emma Smith, Senior Voice of the Supporter Manager
- Teams across the charity now share one language for supporters, and supporters' own words feed a motivational framework in Wordnerds
The challenge
A few quotes in decks, and every team describing supporters its own way
Emma Smith started out in direct marketing at Cats Protection, writing to supporters, before moving into insight. Joining the Voice of the Supporter team at the British Red Cross changed how she saw data. It wasn't only there to prove how the charity was performing. It was there to speak up for supporters when they're not in the room.
That was hard to do while supporters were being described in several ways at once. Five or six teams might ask slightly different questions about the same group of people, each with its own definitions and its own cut of the data, so each came away with a slightly different story. Everyone was trying to do right by supporters, but they were pulling in different directions, and teams like Emma's had to redo the same work for each of them.
Supporters' own words mostly turned up as a few quotes in presentation decks, to bring them to life. And age alone didn't explain them. When a team brought Emma a project about baby boomers, her team could match the age data to the feedback, but something still felt missing.
One segmentation for the whole charity, with supporters' own words layered on top
Quick quiz. A British man in his seventies, wealthy, who has lived in a castle and been called a prince. Who is it? King Charles fits. So does Ozzy Osbourne, the Prince of Darkness. Same profile, two very different people, which is why the charity needed to know what people care about, not only who they are.
The research and strategy teams built a segmentation from thorough research with the UK public and supporters, grouping people by their attitudes as well as their demographics. A short survey of a handful of questions now shows which group a supporter most likely belongs to, if any, and the answers sit in the systems the charity already had.
Emma's team brought the supporters' voice. Motivations have always been her special interest, meaning why someone chooses the Red Cross today rather than another charity, which can change from one month to the next. So the team built a motivational framework in Wordnerds, made directly from what supporters write, and it shifts as their views shift.
Bringing every team along took time, and the right words
Teams weren't against segmentation (most of them are marketers, after all), but they were attached to the way they'd always described their audiences, and plenty worried a new segmentation wouldn't work for them. So the research and strategy teams showed each team where things stood today and where they could get to, then worked through it with them one by one.
Emma also cared about what the segments were called. Labels such as issue specialists, global thinkers and local anchors shape how a team talks about people and whether they're prioritised. She believes a label that makes the team less empathetic is probably the wrong one.
None of it waited for perfect data. Some of the basic data had gaps, sometimes for reasons outside the charity's control, and Emma is open that the work is still in progress.
Read at scale, a single quote becomes part of a pattern
Where they can, Emma's team put supporters' open-text comments into Wordnerds along with the segment each supporter belongs to. Wordnerds measures the sentiment and themes in those comments, and the team can filter them by segment and compare one group with another. New feedback keeps arriving, so they can watch the trends and adjust.
Looked at that way, a comment stops being one supporter's anecdote and becomes part of a pattern. For Emma, that's where supporters' words earn their seat at the table, because a pattern can drive decisions.
Every team now speaks the same language about supporters
Three things have changed in how the charity works.
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One language for supporters
Fundraising and the volunteering directorate focus on different segments, but they now use the same language to describe the people who support the charity.
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A framework that keeps learning
Because the motivational framework in Wordnerds is built from supporters' own words, it keeps pace with what they're saying as their views change.
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Teams sharing what worked
Teams already using the segmentation share how they used it, and what didn't work, so teams that haven't started yet can see what it does for them.
What changed
Supporters' words now sit alongside the segments every team uses
The British Red Cross now describes its supporters in one shared language across fundraising, volunteering and other teams. Emma Smith's Voice of the Supporter team puts supporters' comments into Wordnerds alongside each person's segment, so a single quote becomes part of a pattern, and a motivational framework built from supporters' own words keeps pace as their views change.
Applying the attitudinal segments to supporters' comments is still in its early days. Next, the team is bringing in more of what supporters say, such as social media and customer care comments, and adding more motivational layers to the framework.
For Emma, smart segmentation isn't about clever clusters or perfect models. It's about making sure people don't disappear into averages, and that holds for customers in any sector as much as for supporters.
About the British Red Cross
For 150 years, the British Red Cross has been there for people in crisis, whoever and wherever they are. Last year it responded to an average of four crises a day, and in 2025 it supported 1.4 million people worldwide.
The British Red Cross Society is a charity registered in England and Wales, Scotland, the Isle of Man and Jersey.
About Wordnerds
Wordnerds turns what customers say into what organisations do. We ingest feedback from surveys, complaints, reviews, calls and social; apply transparent, explainable AI to surface themes and drivers; and serve the insight two ways from one semantic model: full-detail Power BI for analysts, plain-language AI-chat answers for everyone else. Every result traces back to what customers actually wrote, so it's evidence you can act on, not a black box.
Questions insight teams ask
How do you turn supporter quotes into something teams can act on?
Read them at scale, against a segmentation every team shares. The British Red Cross puts supporters' open-text comments into Wordnerds alongside each supporter's segment, so its Voice of the Supporter team can see the themes and sentiment for each group. A single quote stops being an anecdote and becomes part of a pattern teams can use.
How do you get different teams to agree on one way of describing supporters?
Show each team where things stand and where they could get to, then work through it with them. At the British Red Cross, the research and strategy teams did that team by team. Fundraising and volunteering now focus on different segments but use the same language, and teams share what worked to bring others along.
Do you need perfect data to segment supporters by attitudes?
No. The British Red Cross found gaps even in some basic data, sometimes for reasons outside its control, and carried on. A short survey of a handful of questions shows which attitudinal group a supporter most likely belongs to, using systems the charity already had, and Wordnerds adds what supporters write in their own words.
Why look at motivations as well as attitudes?
Attitudes say what someone cares about, and motivations say why they're giving to you right now, which can change from month to month. The British Red Cross built a motivational framework in Wordnerds directly from what supporters write, so it shifts as their reasons shift.
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