Preparation is the secret to any successful fundraiser. The latest generation of nonprofit software makes running charitable campaigns or hosting fundraising events easier and more results-driven than ever before. Find out more about four ways that donor relationship management software and a Classy Salesforce integration or other platform-specific solutions from Blackbaud integration partners can help your organization get the most out of donor data.
Make Sure Your Donor Database Is Updated
The first approach to data analysis your organization should take prior to a fundraiser involves checking donor records for completion. If you have a list of attendees or donors, start by checking these records for missing information. It may be possible to improve the quality of data by correcting erroneous entries or supplying missing information.
The second approach toward analysis of current data in advance of another round of fundraising pertains to giving records. An organization that uses donor or customer relationship management software or other nonprofit management software should be able to track the frequency of giving for each donor, average donation amounts and donors’ preferred giving channels.
An updated database is essential for accurate analytics that have the potential to significantly increase the effectiveness of charitable appeals. High-quality data empowers an organization to communicate and solicit donations more effectively while gaining more data that can then be used to inform targeted approaches to raising funds.
How To Maximize Your Data Analytics
Once an organization is working with the most current donation dataset, a more pragmatic approach to fundraising is possible. The third way to maximize the benefit of donor data through analysis involves the use of donor management software to segment a full donor list into subgroups. Targeted asks can then be directed to each group or to sets of groups. Depending on the type of fundraiser, an organization may want to take specialized approach to targeting supporters, such as fundraising event attendees, members or major donors.
The fourth approach to fundraising data analysis pertains to the event platform. Make sure that you are fundraising on the right channel to reach and obtain data from as many participants as possible. Depending on the cause, a peer-to-peer or social media approach may be most effective for reaching a wide audience and obtaining useful data.
Segmentation and platform-based considerations can improve donor response rates and drive up contribution amounts. Robust nonprofit software and integration tools make these and many other data-driven approaches to fundraising planning possible. As you reach more supporters, it is important to scale the same level of attention to completeness of records to maintain the value of these insights.
These four measures can help your organization maintain and benefit from a more accurate database of donors. Clean data is more effective for a wide variety of uses, from donor communication to pre-fundraising analysis. The ability to continuously generate donor data and track participation over time is one of the most powerful capabilities of donor relationship and nonprofit management software. Taking a more analytical and data-driven approach to fundraising can help your organization maximize its operational budget.
