Focus On: Data Mining: Hope is Not A Strategy
You must listen to what donors are telling you and then capture that in your database, much as you capture a special moment with your camera. By listening to your donors, you’re better able to pinpoint specific reasons that motivated the initial or last gift. And through your database you can create improved solutions that yield higher rates of success. The key is to ensure that you have the right database tools and solutions — that is, the data infrastructure and the expertise and capabilities to use the data effectively — to predict the future migration of your donors. By monitoring specific donor behavior, you can develop immediate reactivation strategies and increase the likelihood of a response.
- Companies:
- Merkle|Domain
Greg Fox is vice president of nonprofit vertical strategy at Merkle. He joined the company in 2000 to establish a data-driven, strategic fundraising agency group. Fox is a 30-year veteran of direct response fundraising, with expertise in developing innovative fundraising marketing strategies and solutions. He has helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars for many of the largest and most respected fundraising brands in America, and while he has broad-based fundraising experience, he is highly regarded as a leader in the national health-charity sector. Prior to joining Merkle, Fox was a founding partner in TheraCom, a leading provider of full-service specialty pharmacy solutions and marketing strategies that served the healthcare and charitable industries. He also served as vice president of direct response fundraising at the National Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, where he started his career and created the organization’s first national direct response program. Fox is an industry thought-leader, frequent speaker at industry conferences and an active participant in the DMA nonprofit federation. He graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va.
