5 Ways Data Can Enhance Your Donor-Focused Fundraising

5. Benchmark peers and evaluate best practices
Industry-level data helps organizations understand their fundraising efforts in the context of their peers and the greater fundraising landscape. Benchmarking, in particular, adds a crucial level of perspective to internal understanding of fundraising effectiveness by providing information about the fundraising histories of peer organizations. Key benchmarking data points may include: solicitation techniques, cultivation strategies, online and marketing strategies, and campaign goals and results. It is important to allocate time for benchmarking and best-practices research because these projects allow for comparisons that isolate and identify particularly effective or ineffective strategies, saving valuable internal resources in the long term.