As well as creating your own custom datasets, we also have a selection of pre-defined, postcode-mapped datasets for the UK, which you can use for your email to target actions. These datasets allow a supporter to enters their postcode and be matched with the right target for their local area.
If you’re interested in creating actions using datasets for other countries and postal systems, please contact support@impact-stack.org
The following UK datasets are included in your Impact Stack subscription, and updated by us.
- MPs
- Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly
- Scottish Parliament (constituency representatives)
- Scottish Parliament (constituency and regional representatives)
- Senedd Cymru - Parliament of Wales (constituency representatives)
- Senedd Cymru - Parliament of Wales (constituency and regional representatives)
- Councillors (Single and upper tier)
- Councillors (Single and lower tier)
- Council leaders (Single and upper tier)
- Council leaders (Single and lower tier)
- Greater London Assembly
- Chairs of Integrated Care Boards and equivalent bodies
For each dataset you can tailor a message to the target, exclude a target or redirect a user based on the following fields: Title, First name, Last name, Email address, Salutation, Political Affiliation, Country code, Country name.
For Councils and Councillors you can filter by Council name and Council Ward
For MPs, Members of the Scottish Parliament, Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly, Senedd Cymru - Parliament of Wales and Greater London Assembly you can filter by Constituency.
For CCGs and equivalent bodies, you can filter by Organisation name.
This spreadsheet provides more information about each of these fields and the data they contain for each dataset.
If you want to personalise, filter or exclude based on a grouping or data field not currently offered, it is possible to create a custom filter to send a tailored message to a particular group of targets, eg a group of MPs you know already support your cause. Contact support@impact-stack.org for help to set this up.
We hope to develop functionality to add custom data fields to existing datasets. You can comment on the Impact Stack public roadmap here if you’d like to share use cases for this functionality.
What targets do each of the datasets cover?
CCGs and equivalent bodies
Chairs of Clinical Commissioning Groups (England), Health Boards (Wales), Health and Care Boards (Northern Ireland) and Scottish Health Boards. NB - we recommend contacting us before launching an action using this dataset.
Councillors
We offer two councillors datasets – single or upper tier, and single or lower tier. When a supporter enters their postcode, they will be provided with a list of the councillors of their local ward to email.
Single and upper includes all councillors who are representatives of one-tier local governments (Councils in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, unitary authorities in shire areas, metropolitan boroughs and London Boroughs) and the upper tier of all two-tier local governments in England (county councils).
Single and lower includes all councillors who are representatives of one-tier local governments and the lower tier of all two-tier local governments in England (district, borough or city councils).
You may want to target specific councils, or councils in one or more of the UK regions/nations. Council name and Country fields allow you to exclude areas and redirect supporters to another action, or other information. This spreadsheet provides more information about the fields you can use for tailored messages and exclusions.
If you’re not sure of the right target for your action this government guide to councils covers the different structures and what they are responsible for.
Council leaders
We offer two council leaders datasets – single or upper tier, and single or lower tier, on the same pattern as councillors. These datasets are mapped to the council, rather than the council ward, and return a single target - the council leader.
Greater London Assembly
Members of the Greater London Assembly, including constituency members matched by postcode, plus London-wide members, the Mayor and Deputy Mayor.
MPs
650 members of the UK parliament in Westminster (MPs), each representing a geographical constituency in the UK. We use publicly available data, sourced from the UK parliament.
Northern Ireland Assembly
90 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), with 5 MLAs for each geographical constituency (these are the same as those used for elections to the UK Parliament).
Scottish Parliament
Constituency representatives: 73 members of Scottish Parliament (MSPs) who each represent a geographical constituency in Scotland (these have different boundaries to the constituencies used for elections to the UK Parliament - see this spreadsheet for a list). Use this dataset if you only want to offer a single target to each supporter.
Constituency representatives and regional representatives: the 73 MSPs mentioned above, plus 56 ‘list MSPs’ who represent eight electoral regions: Central Scotland, Glasgow, Highlands and Islands, Lothian, Mid Scotland and Fife, North East Scotland, South Scotland and West Scotland. There are seven representatives for each region.
Senedd Cymru/ Parliament of Wales
Constituency representatives: these are the 40 Members of the Senedd (MS) who each represent a geographical constituency in Wales. These constituencies are the same as those used for elections to the UK Parliament. Use this dataset if you only want to offer a single target to each supporter.
Constituency representatives and regional representatives: the 40 AMs mentioned above, plus the 20 AMs who represent the five electoral regions: Mid and West Wales, North Wales, South Wales Central, South Wales East and South Wales West. There are four members for each region.
Updating the datasets
The datasets are updated approximately monthly with the exception of the CCGs dataset. Please contact us if you want to use this dataset and we can ensure we have the most recent data loaded for you. If you do happen to find some data you know is incorrect, please email our support team support@impact-stack.org
Sharing datasets
In most cases we can’t share the full datasets with clients as our license to use the data doesn’t cover this. Lots of the data is already available in the public domain however, and a quick google should find some of it. You can find an overview of the datasets here which contains links to some of the data fields we are able to share, such as constituency lists. (These lists are updated less frequently - contact support if you would like to be confident that you have the current list.)
Election datasets
When there is an election we ask clients to let us know if they are interested in having the candidate dataset - in the past we've used crowdsourced datasets from Democracy Club. If there is enough interest then we go about sourcing the dataset, with the costs of mapping, loading and maintaining the dataset during the election period split amongst those who want to use it.
Following an election, we update the datasets as soon as we receive updates from our providers, usually within days for a general election, a few weeks for local elections.
Adding new postcode-mapped datasets
It’s possible to add new datasets for additional cost. This will depend on how easily we can source good-quality data about the target, whether it’s possible to map targets by postcode, or some other method, and how easily the data can be maintained. In some cases it may be appropriate to introduce a new dataset for a fixed period in order to run a specific action, where maintaining and updating the dataset will be difficult (because the data is incomplete) or unnecessary (such as a candidate dataset in the run up to an election).
If you’re interested in discussing an additional dataset, contact jess@more-onion.com
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