Data Mining

Donors ultimately give to successful and winning organizations. The question is: Who rates nonprofits, and how do they rate them? A number of organizations exist to rate charities. These organizations need to be transparent, honest and ethical. In addition to an organization’s sample-rating criteria, I would like to see background information and results on the following areas to provide more insight when rating the fundraising organization...

Learn why forward-thinking organizations are shifting focus to outcome measures – and what solution they are using to make it happen.

For many nonprofits (especially those in their first year or two of existence), “growth” is at the top of the priority list. Sadly, with so much data at our fingertips, many organizations remain blind to how they should measure growth in the most effective way. If this sounds familiar and you’re still struggling to analyze…

Not all events are the same—and consumers don’t believe all photos at events should be shared the same. Make sure your event falls into the “high-share” category...

Finally, someone said it! We need to realize that getting “attribution” right is going to take all of us, and we need to stop being afraid of it...

The movie Moneyball shows us a situation in which Oakland A’s Major League general manager Billy Beane, due to enormous pressure to perform, casts aside his natural bias (using visual attributes about players to make decisions) and instead turned to a non-natural way to make decisions: using statistics. Who but a crazy person would rely almost totally on statistics to make decisions?...

Data silos make it hard to manage across an organization. They are barriers to a single view of a donor. But for many fundraising teams this situation is the reality of life today. Given that multiple technology systems led to these silos, how can you use technology to improve this situation? You’ve heard the phrase “what gets measured gets managed.” This is particularly true for fundraising teams...

To segment your constituents you must understand your constituents. Whether you call it profiling or creating personas, there are several key elements we all must understand. As marketers we have to balance the vision of one-to-one marketing and what is financially realistic. Finding the sweet spot of knowing your constituents can make this easier...

Our nonprofit staffs struggle with lack of time to cover necessary duties. They all know that they should call every fundraiser and every donor and squeeze the maximum amount of commitment from them. But there is simply no time. They have to focus on the most productive and highest fundraising or donating individuals, leaving the remainder to wither away from lack of attention. They have to resign themselves to the fact that the average fundraiser feels like the organization just doesn’t care that much. Staff can’t win, until now...

Many nonprofit organizations are seeking ways to accelerate and simplify the donation process. Mobile point-of-sales (mPOS) solutions not only help streamline this process, they allow organizations to gather donor and donation data, which can provide insight into a donor’s motivation and capacity to give again. Data analytics have become vital fundraising tools, helping nonprofits determine…