Stealing Smart: For-Profit Best Practices for Nonprofits

That means having the right people in the right seats to gather information from donors. Nonprofits must solicit feedback and utilize the data they collect in the same way for-profit companies survey consumers and note their interactions and behaviors with their brands.

While nonprofits are really good at evaluating the impact of their activities on the recipients of their services — i.e., built this many houses, fed this many people, saved this many animals — most aren't as good at understanding and relaying how those hits to the website were driven and what actions led to a donation. Tracking data and the donor journey is critical in retaining and acquiring donors — which is why for-profits spend so much time and effort understanding their customers and mapping their paths to purchase.