AFD Software Ltd, “The Postcode People”, held their annual Postcode Party and Charity Giveaway at Mountain View Innovation Centre on Thursday 27th November 2025.
The Postcode People are the world’s leading experts in British Postal Data – driving efficiency in data records, logistics and political information flows. All Postcode Data used in the UK, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands is first processed at Mountain View before distribution back to Royal Mail and its many customers.
Now in its 43rd year of business, AFD welcomed representatives of many of the 80 Charities supported this year – and who are receiving a share of £1.8 million – to celebrate the way that funds can make a massive difference in the Isle of Man, the UK and the Wider World. These organisations were chosen by AFD’s 40+ workforce with many of the nominations based on very personal stories of help and support.
AFD’s 2025 donations enable international development and education projects, support for mental wellbeing, health charities and end-of-life care, protection of the environment, and continuing investments in organisations fighting modern slavery and child exploitation.
Group Director, Alison Dorricott, closed the evening: “What a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving. Whilst what we do in our daily work makes such a difference to business and public sector efficiency every day – tonight we can celebrate a much wider impact – in the Isle of Man, the UK and across the world”.
Care for the Family is a national charity dedicated to strengthening family life through initiatives such as activity breaks for single parents, bereavement support events, and friendship programs for parents of children with additional needs.
AFD’s donation will help expand their prison programme, supporting prisoners to reflect on family relationships, strengthen bonds, and reduce reoffending, while also funding an additional family building break for single parents in Summer 2026.
“A strong Family is the fundamental building block of a flourishing society – we love the many ways in which Care for the Family have supported and strengthened families in so many rich and varied ways over many years.”
David & Alison Dorricott, Directors
Rebecca House is a purpose-built facility offering respite, palliative, and end-of-life care for children with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions from birth to 18 years. This year, they established a new panel with Manx Care, resulting in their highest-ever number of referrals and bringing the total number of children in their care to 52.
AFD’s donation will be used to give the children special outings to places such as the Wildlife Park and other recreational activities that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford to do.
“I chose this charity because they give local children with life-limiting conditions the care and support they need, helping families through the most difficult times.”
Ben Richards – Properties Team
Working in Pakistan, Starfish Asia’s mission is to help disadvantaged Christian children escape poverty through education. They do this by creating learning environments that inspire ambition, raise aspirations, and achieve lasting results. Across the 44 schools they support, more than 9,000 children have been educated or are currently in education, gaining opportunities for a brighter future.
AFD’s donation is helping to cover the running costs of these schools, as well as providing essential equipment and additional classroom space.
“I chose this charity because they bring education and opportunity to Christian communities in Pakistan, helping children build brighter futures and stand strong in their faith.”
Neville Hilton – Sales Team
All the organisations we have partnered with and the incredible work they do can be seen at www.afd.co.uk/charity.
After 30 years, what’s still in the founding DNA of The Postcode People? A huge part of the answer is the influence of John Dolman, who sadly passed away from a major heart attack at his home in Canada on 24th July 2025.
John was there at the beginning when AFD conceived and launched its first Postcode products and was also once an AFD Director. We are extremely sad to have lost him; however, we are also incredibly grateful to have known him, and we can recall many happy stories. These show who John was and how his faith, creativity, energy, action and skills have helped to shape what AFD is today.
John was the son of a miner, who sadly died when John was just 15. Three years later John became a Christian and worked as a Christian Evangelist, Worship Leader and Musician. He wrote songs, ran a music shop and toured. In 1991 John brought this faith, creativity, energy and action into the foundational years of AFD Software.
On the job at AFD, which mainly served the charity sector in those days, with sheer hard work and a great sense of humour John mastered IT networks, system building and training. During the AFD transition to become “The Postcode People”, John made sure that in 1994 AFD Postcode lookup was the first on CompuServe (a precursor to the Internet) – then a few years later the only place on the Internet you could get Postcode lookup!
The AFD team always dive in to understand and respond to support requests with speed, knowledge, openness to learn – and a solution focus. That approach is part of John Dolman’s “can-do, will-do, done” DNA living on.
When John’s creative energy was applied to marketing it was full-on! He put AFD on the map, organising and attending over 20 conferences and exhibitions in just 18 months! He engaged late nights on technical forums – making sure developers knew we were there for them – and driving our understanding of what they needed and wanted. Nothing was done by halves.
John had time for other passions. While working at AFD, he continued with local church leadership and a strong call to serve the hidden church in China. Although John was a risk-taker this was not with a “cavalier” attitude. It was with awareness, wisdom, insight and taking full responsibility – and it moved things forward.
John became a Director at AFD in 2003 when MD David Dorricott’s first wife Ann passed away, briefly taking the helm and giving David essential practical support during a time of crisis.
John described himself as a right-hand man, activist, energiser, doer, and completer. We agree whole-heartedly.
Beyond John’s passion for China were music and family. In 2004 he and his wife Chris moved to Canada to be close to elderly relatives. After moving he continued to serve the church and China and stayed close to AFD, regularly visiting our Isle of Man HQ to stay in touch with the business, and with his friends at AFD.
In October 2021 John was diagnosed with incurable cancer and wasn’t expected to survive for more than a few months. Many prayed for a miracle and that is the word his consultant used to describe his healing which gave John, his family – and us – an extra 3 years – and John died Cancer-free.
The impact of John’s life isn’t over – it’s still influencing countless people across the globe – including you – our customers. We are thankful for his years of service and friendship; sad he is gone from us for now, and grateful for his example of faith in Christ and assurance of eternal life.
In four decades, we’ve learned at AFD that data accuracy builds and protects trust. By contrast, poor data increases internal costs and leads to poor service and lost customers and compromises hard-won reputation.
At AFD Software, we focus energetically on helping you achieve data precision in contact, location and banking data. It’s in our DNA. Why? Because trust is hard to win and easy to lose.
A Tradition of Excellence, Powered by Innovation
Founded in 1901, Western Provident Association (WPA) is no ordinary health insurer. As a non-profit organisation serving more than 400,000 individuals through both direct channels and intermediaries, WPA combines a strong ethical foundation with a deep commitment to customer service excellence. With over £30 million in turnover and around 200 dedicated employees, WPA’s approach has always placed people before profit.
At the core of WPA’s operations is a sophisticated digital infrastructure. From their internal administration systems and call centre to customer-facing portals and mobile apps, every platform is bespoke-designed to deliver seamless, efficient, and secure service at every stage of the customer journey.
“We verify every single address during the customer journey,” explains Kate Gamblin, Senior IT Services Manager at WPA. “Whether a customer is calling in, applying online, using the mobile app, or updating their details through the secure portal, address data plays a pivotal role.”
From generating accurate quotes to issuing policy documents, collecting premiums, identifying the nearest healthcare specialist or highlighting duplicate records – a precise and valid address underpins it all. And for the many customers who prefer to receive information by post, accurate delivery isn’t just expected – it’s essential.
“Address data is fundamental to excellent customer service,” Kate continues. “The process needs to be straightforward, integrated, and 100% reliable across all our systems.”
As part of WPA’s ongoing pursuit of continuous improvement and best value, Kate led a re-tendering process for address validation services. “We’d been with our existing supplier for some time,” she explains, “but as part of our due diligence, we wanted to explore the market and ensure we were getting the best.”
“One of WPA’s key requirements was that any potential supplier must work directly with Royal Mail. This helped narrow the field and helped AFD Software stand out.”
AFD Software have worked directly with Royal Mail since 1994, and the Postcode People at AFD know the definitive Royal Mail Postcode Address File (PAF) better than anyone. In fact Royal Mail chose AFD as the sole producer and distributor of “raw” PAF products on their behalf 15 years ago, and they still trust us to do so to this day. Our expertise to examine, process, and deliver these products to all consumers of raw PAF is now relied upon by over 50,000 organisations and millions of individuals. Every day. Across the world.
“I would absolutely recommend the service. From integration to ongoing support, everything
has been well-executed. We expect a lot from our suppliers and the Postcode People at
AFD more than measured up to our expectations.”
Kate Gamblin, Senior IT Services Manager
With security and system uptime being two of WPA’s highest priorities, AFD Software had to prove that they could deliver on both fronts. Although address data isn’t stored by AFD , WPA needed confidence that there was no risk of data breach. And with live customer services running around the clock, reliability and high availability were non-negotiable.
AFD delivered, and from day one, the collaboration proved successful.
“Our developers found the documentation incredibly easy to use,” Kate recalls. “It was clear, straightforward, and intuitive. There were no follow-up questions, which really set the tone for a smooth rollout.”
The ability to run parallel systems during the transition helped ensure zero disruption. And the engagement with AFD’s account management team remained open, responsive, and aligned to WPA’s own high standards of service.
The switch to AFD Software may have happened quietly in the background – but its impact runs deep. With robust, secure, and easy-to-integrate address validation now in place across every WPA platform, both staff and customers benefit from fast, smart address data entry.
WPA’s experience highlights the value of re evaluating even the most foundational parts of your systems. Sometimes, it’s the details – like ensuring every address is correct – that make the biggest difference to the service your customers feel.
The WPA journey to better address data started with a conversation.
You can talk to Joel about any aspect of how to improve contact and bank data quality by calling 0333 433 0711 or email postcode@afd.co.uk.
Validating contact data when it is entered is best practice, but what’s the solution when people bypass validation forms or your organisation uses legacy contact databases?
That’s where AFD Refiner comes in. It’s our powerful data cleansing solution that does the heavy lifting by validating, correcting, and enhancing your *address, email, and phone data in bulk. Fast, accurate, and easy to deploy (hosted service or locally on your infrastructure), Refiner is trusted by organisations like Go.Compare, DPD, and Beaverbrooks who know that clean data underpins great customer service.
As one customer put it: “AFD helps us ensure rapid, reliable address data integrity. Saving even just a few minutes per driver boosts deliveries and reduces stress, getting drivers on the road faster with more time to serve customers.”
Gurnam Singh, Enterprise Architect at DPD.
During the cleansing process, Refiner can append a host of address-linked datasets from property age, type, and value to demographic data about the occupants.
| Cleansing | Inaccurate address data |  |
| Highlighting | Invalid emails and phone numbers | |
| Flagging | Contacts who have moved or died | |
*Address data cleansing can be achieved only when there is enough information in the input address to achieve a unique match. “18, HD3 2” would not match to a unique address. “18, HD32af” would.
AFD offers a free Contact Data Health Check to highlight the accuracy of your data. It’s secure, quick, and comes with tailored advice from a Postcode People Data Quality Expert on how to fix errors and prevent inaccuracy in the future.
Start your health check today at: www.afd.co.uk/healthcheck
Addresses from Australia. Phone numbers from France. Emails from Egypt! Wherever your customer is, however you communicate with them – the goal is a solid “golden contact record”. That was the goal and challenge for Arden University.
Arden is a modern UK university with a mission to make higher education more accessible. Originally founded in 1990 as an online learning partner for traditional universities, it became an independent university in 2015 and now delivers its own degrees to students worldwide.
In just 7 years, Arden University has enjoyed extraordinary growth – from 5,000 students in 2018 to over 27,000 today, and turnover rising from £16M to £189M. System changes were required to support this growth and Stephen Wallace, Head of Student Information Systems, has led the implementation of a new student information system that will help manage the student journey from application to graduation and beyond.
A key requirement for the new system would be accurate student contact data. Analysis of data sent to AFD by partner universities that rely on our solutions, revealed that 17% of address records were incorrect, while 5.3% of phone numbers and 4.3% of email addresses were invalid.
In discussing the importance of accurate contact data for Arden University, Stephen explains: “Poor contact data undermines our operations, hampers student success, and impedes our growth and revenue development. It is also a barrier to our ability to understand our student ‘customer’ data and our ability to prepare statutory reports. We need high-quality address, email, and phone data.”
Arden University operates in a competitive international environment. “If a student applies and doesn’t hear back, they study elsewhere. When students are investing up to £50,000 in their university education , these losses quickly add up for a university. It’s essential we collect accurate contact data as part of our student acquisition processes.”
Stephen continues: “Once the student is here, we take our responsibility seriously to offer a level of support that leads to their success. If a student misses a class unexpectedly, we want to reach out quickly. Maybe they need learning support, pastoral care, or even some counselling. It’s about being able to contact them through all available channels. We know support affects student retention, the final exam result, their future, and our reputation – so poor contact data can lead to serious failures.”
Arden has implemented AFD’s solutions to validate address, email, and phone data, ensuring accuracy at the point of entry by students or staff.
Each year, every university must submit detailed data returns to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) who mandate strict reporting criteria. This includes contact data accuracy and layout. Stephen explains the onerous task: “Currently, it takes a team of 6 people, 6-9 months a year, to manually extract and manipulate student data for HESA reporting. With AFD ensuring address, email, and phone data is accurate and formatted correctly, we can dramatically reduce this gigantic job, and our staff can do better things with the time saved.”
“Any single one of the issues I’ve outlined is important, but together they are critical to our operation, student success, and Arden’s success. To solve all of them we partnered with AFD. Nick is our key contact there, and he has been fantastic from initially scoping our requirements, through to implementation and ongoing growth. He checks in regularly, spots usage trends before they become problems, and suggests solutions that make sense for us. That kind of personal touch really matters.”
AFD’s unparalleled customer service leads to similar stories of cost savings, efficiency, retention, and excellence across multiple sectors including retail, not-for profit, and logistics.
How could AFD Software help you cut costs, boost revenue, increase customer satisfaction, and get better analysis – through better contact data?
Contact The Postcode People today to discuss your specific requirements with The Postcode People on 0333 433 0711 or email postcode@afd.co.uk.
Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) in Papua New Guinea have celebrated the arrival of P2-AFD – a brand-new aircraft donated by AFD! It has been purpose-built to reach PNG’s most remote and isolated communities.
Following initial manufacture in the USA, engineers customised P2-AFD so that it is specially adapted for rugged jungle airstrips. Pilots Dylan and Val Fast then flew the aircraft all the way across the Pacific Ocean for final preparations in Australia.
While there, the aircraft toured various airstrips along Australia’s east coast to raise awareness of MAF’s work, including a feature at the Melbourne Airshow earlier this spring. MAF also took the opportunity to use P2-AFD to deliver refresher training for several pilots before loading it with cargo and equipment for its final journey to Papua New Guinea.
“This aircraft, entrusted to MAF in Papua New Guinea, is not just a machine. It is a lifeline. It is a bridge between isolation and connection. It is a vessel of care and impact,” said Dom Sant, Interim Country Director.
P2-AFD touched down safely at Kagamuga Aerodrome in Papua New Guinea after a 5-hour and 15-minute flight from Cairns, Australia, piloted by Volkher Jacobsen. Kagamuga firefighters honoured its arrival onto PNG soil with a ceremonial water salute – marking its first landing in Mount Hagen.
Once the necessary paperwork was completed, the team gathered in prayer, dedicating the aircraft to God and asking for His protection over all who will fly in it, maintain it, and depend on it.
Every landing strip tells a story, and with this new plane, even more stories of hope, healing, and transformation can be written.
We particularly thank The Postcode People from the Isle of Man for their generosity to donate this aircraft to serve the people of this country. Thank you for journeying with us in bringing help, hope, and healing by air!
P2-AFD had its inaugural operational flight on 4th June where it delivered school supplies to one of PNG’s remote rainforest communities. The aircraft has since been very busy – visiting 22 airstrips is just 3 days! In this time, it has carried 91 passengers, patients, and 4559kg of freight!
Find out more about its first few days in operation here. You can also read about the donation and the journey the plane took to get to PNG here and here.
Many organisations rely on address data for onboarding and deliveries, but what if the customer address data you already have could do more? AFD’s new Property Attributes dataset transforms a delivery location into actionable insights about the building, the customers who live there, and specific insurance data. Now available in AFD’s Address Lookup and Database Cleansing solutions, the dataset includes:
Harnessing AFD’s detailed Property Attributes data unlocks valuable benefits to a range of sectors. Insurers can analyse the information about a property and its occupants to better understand risk and provide more tailored policies. Banks and lenders are fully equipped with more accurate property valuations and household information to precisely assess affordability and risk during mortgage applications.
Accurate property type data (Detached, Terraced, Flat) also helps logistics companies plan deliveries and services more effectively, reducing operational inefficiencies. Energy providers can assess fuel types and household size to optimise tariffs and predict energy demand, and estate agents can see and filter current estimated property values at a glance, allowing them to efficiently match properties with potential buyers.
Many of the datapoints in this dataset, including property status (e.g. “Under Offer”), insurance renewal months, or household composition are not static, and have the potential to change frequently and sometimes unpredictably.
AFD can supply regular updates and these are recommended for this dataset, to allow your organisation to access the most up to date information, equipping you to make the best possible decisions for your organisation, and provide the best possible service to your customers.
Discover how AFD’s solutions could unlock the full potential of your address data, and deliver powerful, actionable insights today by contacting The Postcode People on 0333 433 0711 or email postcode@afd.co.uk.
This year UK organisations will put hundreds of millions of pounds into wrong accounts. Much of this money will be irretrievably lost. Also, organisations will fail to collect millions in Direct Debits. How can you protect against this very real risk? AFD Software has launched a fast, powerful and affordable service as a key defence against financial loss. The aim is to cut this tragic waste of money by dealing with the root causes.
That’s where Confirmation of Payee (CoP) helps. It’s a security check that ensures the account name, sort code, and account number all match the details held by the bank before a payment is made. If something doesn’t match, the sender is warned before making a costly error.
The new AFD Confirmation of Payee (CoP) service is a secure, real-time check that the bank sort code, account number and account name match those held by the payee bank record. Using this new service is a strong, effective mitigation against payments to suppliers, staff or clients being mis-directed. It is also an affordable fast way to check the bank details of user-completed Direct Debit forms. Errors are automatically detected enabling the user to correct them prior to form submission. This enables successful Direct Debit transfers.
A key driver to the introduction of CoP is that deceptions which trick internal staff have become more sophisticated and pervasive. Staff are deceived into altering bank sort code and account number details while cleverly not being asked to alter the payee name. Often, communications to the staff member appear absolutely legitimate, such as from a board Director. AFD CoP closes this scammer’s loophole by instantly checking that all three payment credentials—sort code, account number, and payee name—match the bank record before the transaction takes place. Another key risk is human error: one transposed figure can lead to money being transferred into an unknown account. Both are known as “misdirected funds.”
With new Direct Debit setup, many organisations ask consumers, donors, or businesses to enter their own account details into online forms or provide them over the telephone. Inevitably, this is prone to human error, with mistakes only coming to light after the Direct Debit instruction fails. Any mistake means the instruction cannot be set up and money cannot be received. Correction after the event is time-consuming, and sometimes even the best efforts to contact the payer simply don’t work.
There is a legitimate anxiety among those responsible for payments about the risk of misdirected payments, whether due to error or fraud. The reality is that a substantial portion of misdirected funds are uninsured and can never be recovered—or, at best, would be recovered at a substantial cost, both human and financial. Often, the time of the most senior staff or external experts would be required. The AFD CoP service is a significant risk mitigation—a simple, cost-effective process.
There are two common misconceptions. First, that banks will refund fraud and misdirection losses. This only applies to consumers, micro-businesses, and small charities—not to any other organisation. The second misconception is that banks will carry out a check before transferring funds. This belief is reinforced because manual payments set up directly with a bank ARE checked, but that’s where it stops.
While CoP is mandated for all firms in the finance sector, beyond this, the responsibility to check details does not lie with the banks. For example, banks have no obligation to carry out CoP checks for batch payments uploaded by their commercial customers—the onus and risk remain with the organisation.
Our trained team is ready to answer your questions and help you decide if the AFD Confirmation of Payee service is for you.
Get in touch today to discuss your specific requirements with The Postcode People on 0333 433 0711 or email postcode@afd.co.uk.
AFD Software Ltd, “The Postcode People”, held their annual Postcode Party and Charity Giveaway at Mountain View Innovation Centre on Thursday 5th December 2024.
The Postcode People are the world’s leading experts in British Postal Data – driving efficiency in data records, logistics and political information flows. All Postcode Data used in the UK, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands is first processed at Mountain View before distribution back to Royal Mail and its many customers.
Now in its 42nd year of business, AFD welcomed representatives of many of the 91 Charities supported this year – and who are receiving a share of £1.2 million – to celebrate both the significant contribution of AFD’s products and services to the entire British Isles, but also the way that funds can make a massive difference in the Isle of Man, the UK and the Wider World.
These organisations have been chosen by AFD’s workforce to help in the relief of suffering, the improvement of society and furtherance of the Christian gospel, in alignment with one of AFD’s Company Objectives.
Group Director, Alison Dorricott, closed the evening: “Our Postcode Party aka Charity Night is the highlight of the year for me and for our wonderful team. What we do day in and day out powers our economy and that of the Adjacent Island every single day but at our Charity Event, we can celebrate how much wider our business impact actually is – in the Isle of Man, the UK and across the world”.
The Faraday Institute for Science & Religion aims to illuminate life’s big questions through rigorous academic research in science and religion. It seeks to share this research in meaningful, engaging, and potentially transformative ways with diverse audiences, regardless of their faith or beliefs.
The AFD donation will support the Youth and Schools Programme, which aims to make science-faith exploration accessible to all young people and their key influencers, regardless of their backgrounds, worldviews, life experiences, or budget constraints.
The vision held by Educate the Kids is to see children in Africa, who are living in poverty, to have their needs met, their rights upheld, and their dreams fulfilled; they believe this can be achieved through education.
The donation from AFD is being used to purchase equipment and furniture for the nursery school. This will provide a welcoming environment for 75 children as they begin their educational journey.
Make-A-Wish grants life-changing wishes throughout the UK, aiming to transform “tears into cheers” by giving children with critical illnesses the opportunity to dream big, even when their time may be limited. These wishes offer an invaluable escape from the constant challenges and harsh realities of life defined by illness.
Over the past year, the charity has granted wishes to more than 1,000 children across the UK. The donation from AFD, will allow them to make even more wishes come true, bringing hope, joy, and lasting memories to children and their families, that they can treasure forever.
All the organisations we have partnered with and the incredible work they do can be seen at www.afd.co.uk/charity.
In 2001, AFD launched its bank validation solution, “AFD BankFinder,” to help organisations check the validity of bank account data (sort code, card number, and account number) before making payments and during direct debit signups.
Coinciding with new legislation that comes into force this month, mandating all UK banks and payment service providers handling Faster Payments, BACS, and CHAPS to implement Confirmation of Payee (CoP), an enhanced version of AFD’s bank validation solution is now available. This version includes the ability to make CoP requests, meaning you don’t need to be a big bank or financial institution to benefit from this greatly enhanced bank data check.
A CoP request allows an organisation to make a real-time check with the bank to confirm that the account name, account number, and sort code they have for a payee match the information held by the payee’s bank or payment service provider.
As AFD’s enhanced bank validation solution provides real-time checks, the costs to deliver this service are higher. However, the greater assurance that payments are being sent to the intended recipient and the help it provides in preventing fraudsters from impersonating legitimate businesses or individuals make it well worthwhile.
Would your organisation benefit from greater payment confidence?
Contact Joel Miller today on 0333 433 0711 or email joel.miller@afd.co.uk to discuss your requirements.
We serve thousands of organisations and a network of hundreds of partners across multiple industry sectors, enabling them to have full confidence in their contact data.