Data Mining

For the more than 1.5 million nonprofit organizations in the U.S., data—big and small—has never been more important in terms of its potential impact on fundraising. The opportunity to further understand, keep and grow donor relationships is huge. But for many of these organizations, there’s a catch—as hopes have risen, so have confusion and concern about using technology to make it happen without draining budgets and sacrificing other efforts...

Data can be a daunting thing. IBM said 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are produced every day. There’s no denying that your organization could use some of that information, and you don’t need to be a statistics major to take advantage of it. Here are some things that can help you understand how your organization…

As your organization works to secure support and strengthen your impact, your efforts often come down to one key element: transparency. A twofold ingredient, transparency is expected externally by donors who seek proof of your results, and internally by your staff to best understand how to drive total impact forward. Forward-thinking organizations take steps to…

Whether your 2015 fundraising strategy was a success or a total bust, there are likely a few hidden gems to uncover in the data. Before you finalize your 2016 fundraising calendar, go through the information that you gathered from last year’s campaigns and look for trends or unusual activity that you can leverage for better…

Boosting donors to the next level of giving is key to sustainable fundraising. But where to begin? Who are your best prospects? We learned a few simple ways to prioritize your donor portfolio from Rachel Muir in our webinar, "Turn Year-End Donors into Year-Round Supporters". Here’s how to mine your data to target your ask…

When you convert from another donor database you will have a lot of questions: How long is the process? Who will I be working with? How can I clean up my data? Will I be trained? Can I apply filters? The most common question asked during a conversion is “what do other organizations do?” in…

For several years now, Jan. 1 not only has meant the beginning of the new year, but also an opportunity to look at trends in year-end fundraising emails from nonprofit organizations. Back in 2011, I started collecting all the emails that nonprofits sent me during the month of December and reviewed what was in my inbox.…

Beyond the Christmas decorations, gift-giving and parties, this is the time of year to sift through the mountain of requests for charitable donations, from groups that fight hunger and cancer to our alma mater and places of worship. So how can we gauge which groups are most deserving of our money? Princeton University philosophy professor…

Peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising has become an important element of nonprofit development, with more and more organizations recognizing the potential to increase their donations. The beginning of the year is a great time to strengthen and grow your organization’s strategy. Here are 10 ways to build on your P2P efforts as you head into the new…

As a marketer, you have amazing opportunities to digitally track people and provide behavior-based marketing. As a consumer, it might just shock you how much you are being tracked...