Data should be at the center of all of your nonprofit organization’s strategies and decision-making. Not only does having enhanced, flexible data visualization at your fingertips save time and money, but it also creates positive donor experiences by helping your nonprofit tailor its outreach methods.
To make the most of your nonprofit’s data, choose a platform like GivingDNA that makes data analysis simple and accessible. In addition to its rich datasets, GivingDNA has crystal-clear reporting features that help nonprofits see patterns and stories in their data. With these user-friendly tools, you can visualize your data to quickly make fundraising decisions.
To understand the importance of data analytics and how to use your new analytics platform, this guide will explore the basics of nonprofit data analytics:
Let’s get started by defining data analytics and breaking down which types of data you should be referencing.
In the simplest terms, nonprofit data analytics is the process of collecting data and analyzing it to uncover trends, patterns, and insights that will guide fundraising strategies.
Within the scope of nonprofit data analytics, there are different types of analytics your organization can use to learn different things. These different types of data analytics include:
These different types of data analysis build on one another, and you can use them to learn different things about your supporter base’s preferences and actionable next steps to expand your nonprofit.
While analytics are key to an effective fundraising strategy, traditional data and wealth screening have some drawbacks. For example, it can be difficult to visualize trends and patterns in large files of data. Traditional wealth screening processes don’t allow you to review your data often enough to catch each important shift in donor behavior. Instead of going the traditional route, go beyond just wealth screening with GivingDNA.
GivingDNA can help your team save precious time and money by:
Think of GivingDNA as more than just a data analytics platform. Instead, this platform is building out a new category, blending the expertise and capabilities of both a data analyst and a fundraiser. By combining your nonprofit’s data with external data points and using algorithms to segment data into ready-to-use lists, GivingDNA can enrich your data, organize it, and prepare it for your next campaign in just a few minutes.
Without data analysis, nonprofits are operating in the dark. Even if you feel like you know your donors and their giving motivations like the back of your hand, an influx of new donors with different preferences and behaviors could derail your existing strategies.
Data analytics helps nonprofits identify broad patterns among donors, track changes, and spot opportunities for growth. Whether your nonprofit is focused on growing its annual fund or expanding its pool of major donors, data analytics can help you:
A robust fundraising analytics and wealth screening tool can help you do more than accomplish just basic goals. Look for a tool that makes finding actionable insights and solutions easier, transforming your team into fundraising experts.
Your donors come from varied backgrounds, have different life experiences, and have unique reasons for giving to your organization. Learning more about your constituents and their lives is crucial to understanding their giving DNA. For instance, you might reference metrics like:
While this data might seem basic at first glance, it can give you a wealth of information about your donors. Let’s say you start a relationship with a prospective major donor, and you’re in the process of developing the perfect fundraising ask. Using constituent data, you can piece together how much to ask for, when to make that ask, and which channel to communicate through. Psychographic data gained through the personal conversations you have with prospects can help you uncover what motivates them to give and what they value the most about your organization.
You can also target specific groups of donors by creating segments. Group donors based on factors like giving level, key behaviors, and demographic data to direct personalized communications to each group. This way, you can avoid sending out boilerplate mass messages that don’t resonate with your audience.
Another way to segment your data is by their channel preferences. Knowing the best way to reach donors is key when soliciting gifts. Because outreach can be costly and time-consuming, you want to make sure donors are actually seeing and responding to your messages.
You might discover that donors in the baby boomer generation respond positively to phone calls from your organization, making for high response rates. However, when you try to contact Generation Z donors over the phone, they tend to dodge your calls. In this case, you’ll need to adjust your strategy for younger donors and switch to their preferred communication channel, like texting or social media outreach.
Reaching out to donors through the channels they prefer also makes outreach feel more personalized. It shows that you’ve taken note of what donors respond to and that you care about folding their individual preferences into your strategy.
Often, nonprofits with low retention rates focus on recruiting new donors to replace the old ones and stay afloat. This practice isn’t sustainable, and these low retention rates create what fundraising professionals call a “leaky bucket,” where nonprofits continually lose the donors they have while trying to earn more support.
Fortunately, with data analytics, nonprofits can identify the “holes” in their bucket and diagnose the reasons why some donors slip away. Then, your nonprofit can begin to develop solutions that meet your donors’ specific needs and preferences to plug the holes in your leaky bucket.
Start by identifying the donors who are at risk of lapsing and implementing strategies that call them back to your cause. The process of reactivating donors at risk of lapsing might look like this:
If your organization is currently improving its retention strategies, consider using your fundraising analytics tools to find upgrade opportunities as well. Pinpoint loyal donors who regularly give to your organization and have the means to increase their contributions. Reach out to these donors to begin conversations about upgrading them to a higher donation level.
This increased support might come in the form of higher recurring gifts or through participation in other types of fundraisers. For instance, you might promote your merchandise store or an eCard fundraiser to donors who have already shown a commitment to your cause.
Of course, remember that with an upgrade request comes additional stewardship responsibilities. When devoted donors expand their support, show your appreciation by thanking them for their efforts via letter, phone call, or an online eCard.
Nonprofit wealth screening helps you learn more about your donors’ capacity to give, giving you an idea of what they are likely to contribute or what amount they might be comfortable upgrading to.
To get a basic measure of your donors’ wealth, reference wealth markers. These markers are the characteristics your current and prospective donors have that communicate their financial giving capacity. Some common wealth markers include:
Keep in mind that there are many other factors to consider when conducting wealth screenings, and these simple wealth indicators won’t tell you everything you need to know about major donors. For example, two donors with the same household incomes might have vastly different discretionary spending budgets due to lifestyle or the cost of living in their area. However, these wealth markers can give you a good idea of whether a prospect will be able to help you meet your fundraising goals based on your estimate of their giving capacity.
Employment information can be part of your research prospecting process as certain job titles indicate a high annual income. For example, if you identify a donor who has a C-suite position, they may be a potential major giving candidate or have the ability to help your nonprofit form a corporate partnership with their business.
Additionally, if you know where your donors work, your nonprofit can leverage corporate giving programs, like matching gifts. Matching gifts are donations businesses make to the same nonprofits their employees give to, usually matching their contributions at a 1:1 ratio. However, matching gift programs are not widely publicized, and chances are that many of your donors are unaware of whether qualify for matching gifts
By tracking your donors’ employment information, you can help them discover their matching gift eligibility. In some cases, this can have a major impact on your donors’ giving potential. A few examples of top matching gift companies include:
To help your donors discover if they are matching gift eligible, consider investing in a matching gift database. These tools streamline the matching gift process by allowing donors to search for their employers and get paired with their matching gift information in seconds.
Some matching gift tools even offer communication tools for your nonprofit. These allow you to take note of which donors are match-eligible and continually encourage them to claim their matching gifts. This saves your team time and effort, enabling you to pursue your mission all while earning valuable funding.
When your nonprofit leverages data analytics, you can quickly find the insights you need to drive powerful results at your organization. Tracking down the actionable insights hidden in your raw data files can take a trained eye and years of experience, so find a data analytics tool that does the heavy lifting for you.
Consider investing in GivingDNA to reap the benefits of its robust, all-in-one fundraising analytics platform. To discover how GivingDNA can bring you the insights you need to gain a deeper understanding of your donors, schedule a demo today!
Check out these additional resources to learn more about data analytics for nonprofits: