3 Top Analytics Techniques Every Fundraiser Should Know, Part 2

Once you have the data, you must know what you intend to do with it, i.e.:

• Simply describe characteristics of donors
• Incorporate it into my database to use for donor selects
• Use it for simple donor segmentation
• Develop complex segmentation for marketing

Simple descriptions are usually provided as frequencies and can (and should) be used to compare to the general population or specific population segments. For instance, you can use the data to find out that 9 percent of your donors earn less than $15,000 a year and 14.6 percent earn $125,000+ a year, compared to 14.6 percent of the general population earning less than $15,000 and 10.8 percent earning more than $125,000 annually. This gives you an understanding of how your donors compare to the general masses.