Data Mining

You know that database of names, numbers and notes that you dread working with because it’s so difficult to navigate? Yeah, that one. Well, you know what, that database is ripe for analysis. It’s 2016. We live in an era of big data, visualization and artificial intelligence. For-profit companies desperately rely on mining their databases…

How often do you find yourself guessing about your donors? What do they want from you? What makes them feel engaged? What will make them give and give again? To find these answers, start by asking where your prospective donors live. By collecting this seemingly insignificant piece of data, you can create more-targeted fundraising campaigns,…

Recently I did a session on peer-to-peer fundraising at the DoGoodData conference in Chicago with Otis Fulton, Turnkey’s psychological expert. From that conference, we actually got the idea for a webinar on how to talk to your boss. As attendees talked, I kept hearing people saying things like, “Yeah, I could prove something all day long with data, but my boss will just ignore it.”

I've had front row seats to this disaster several times: The organization's core donors (those who've been giving for three or more years) suddenly are lapsing at an alarming and unprecedented rate. Or to put it another way, the group of donors who normally have the highest retention rate of all donors suddenly is lapsing at…

Once upon a time, the only customized marketing available was face-to-face (the First Age). That changed when people got mail addresses (Second). Then phone numbers (Third). Then email addresses (Fourth). Each media and age started as something both completely mass market and completely individualized, with nothing in the middle...

Recency, frequency and monetary value (RFM) are the ruling troika of segmentation-land. And like one of the old Soviet troikas, they brook no challenge to their rule (e.g., Leon Trotsky was murdered on Joseph Stalin’s orders with an ice ax). But they are simply not good enough alone anymore. I tried to be civil about…

If the idea of doing any type of cleaning makes you want to scream, just think of how much better you feel when it’s done. Your house sparkles, and it can be cathartic to get rid of old clothes and shred paperwork you’ve had since the Clinton administration...

I'm amazed at how often organizations with experienced fundraising professions veer off track. As fundraising professionals, we do no good for those we serve and for our profession by wavering on best practices. What does this mean? It means having a professionally developed fundraising plan that leverages the most effective and efficient methods in order to achieve fundraising goals...

By definition, a constituent relationship management (CRM) system helps you better understand supporters’ habits and preferences by tracking and collecting data. But when multiple team members are entering information into the same system, your data is subject to the risk of human error. Whether it’s a typo or that half of your staff enters “Street”…

Every year I organize our neighborhood Easter egg hunt. I stuff and hide more than 600 eggs, and love watching kids run through the field searching for them. The excitement they feel when finding an egg is the same rush I get when I discover something actionable in a client data file. It got me…