How does donor data enrichment differ from traditional wealth screening?

Wealth screening identifies personal assets to find major gift prospects. Data enrichment/employer appends focus on professional affiliation to uncover corporate matching gift opportunities, turning small gifts into larger ones regardless of a donor's personal net worth.

How often should we run an employer append for our nonprofit?

Because professional data 'decays' as people change jobs or relocate, it is best practice to run a fresh employer append every 12 to 18 months to ensure your database remains accurate and effective for outreach.

Data Management Archives

Q: What is an employer append and how does it work?

An employer append is a data service that identifies the current workplace of donors in your database. It uses sophisticated algorithms to match your donor records against professional databases, populating the 'Employer' field in your CRM.

Q: What is a 'Match Rate' and what should I expect?

A match rate is the percentage of your list the service successfully identifies. Most nonprofits can expect a rate of 25% to 45%, though high-quality lists using advanced tools can see hit rates exceeding 80%.

Q: What is the difference between workplace giving and matching gifts?

Workplace giving is the broad category for all employee-led philanthropy (payroll giving, volunteering). Matching gifts are a specific type of workplace giving where a company matches an employee's donation, usually at a 1:1 ratio.

Donor Data Enrichment and Employer Appends: An FAQ Guide

February 4, 2026/in Corporate Giving, Data Appends, Data Management /by Kanwei Li

Identifying your supporters’ professional backgrounds is one of the most effective ways to increase your fundraising revenue. However, many nonprofit professionals have thousands of supporter records but little to no details about where those individuals’ “9 to 5s.” That’s where donor data enrichment comes in.

Donor data enrichment is the strategic process of filling those gaps by matching your existing records against massive professional databases. By using a dedicated fundraising tool to identify these connections, you can tap into corporate giving programs that might otherwise go unnoticed.

And we’re here to help you do it! In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know, including:

Understanding the basics of donor data enrichment
Strategic data enrichment benefits and useful use cases
Successfully navigating workplace giving and matching gifts
Technical execution and batch data append services
Donor data enrichment & maintenance best practices

Using data enrichment to strengthen your nonprofit database is a foundational step in modern fundraising. It moves your team from guessing who might be eligible for a match to knowing exactly which corporations to target for growth.

Let’s get started.

Understanding the Basics of Donor Data Enrichment

Before implementing advanced strategies, it is essential that you understand the foundation of data enrichment. This section explores the fundamental concepts of how the right supplementary tool can transform your database from a list of names into a strategic map of professional connections.

What is an employer append and how does it work?

An employer append is a highly specialized data service that identifies the current professional workplace of individuals already in your database. At its core, it is a process of verification and addition. It essentially populates the “Employer” or “Company” field in your CRM by using external professional data sources to identify a person’s current place of employment.

The mechanics of this process generally involve sophisticated matching algorithms. When you submit a list of names and addresses, the system scans vast repositories of professional data, including business directories, social networks, and public filings. It then looks for a unique match based on the identifiers you provide. Once a match is confirmed, the system appends the relevant information back to your original record. This allows you to stop guessing about your donors’ professional lives and start using confirmed data to drive your strategy.

Why is donor data enrichment necessary for nonprofits?

The primary reason to pursue enrichment is the staggering revenue potential hidden in corporate giving programs. In fact, research from Double the Donation indicates that between $4 billion and $7 billion in matching gift funds go unclaimed every single year. This isn’t because corporations don’t want to pay. It’s because donors don’t know the programs exist, and nonprofits don’t know which supporters to remind.

When you use a data enrichment tool to identify these employers, you can bridge that communication gap. Instead of a generic “thank you” email, you can send a targeted message that says, “We noticed you work at Home Depot. Did you know your company will match your gift?” This level of personalization significantly increases the likelihood that an individual will complete the match process. Furthermore, it saves your staff hundreds of hours that would otherwise be spent manually researching major donors or LinkedIn profiles.

How does this differ from traditional wealth screening?

While both are indeed forms of donor data enrichment, wealth screening and employer appends serve different strategic purposes. Traditional wealth screening generally looks for signs of significant personal assets, such as luxury properties, stock holdings, or a history of political contributions. The goal being primarily to identify “major gift” prospects: individuals with the capacity to make five- or six-figure donations based on their personal net worth.

In contrast, an employer append focuses specifically on professional affiliation and employment status. While a donor might not have a ton of personal wealth, they may work for a company like Google or Disney, which can turn their $500 gift into $1,000 or more. By focusing on where someone works rather than just what they own, you democratize your fundraising strategy and tap into corporate budgets that are already set aside for social impact.

Strategic Data Enrichment Benefits and Useful Use Cases

Knowing where your donors work is more than just a data point; it is a catalyst for major growth across your organization. Here, we discuss the high-level impact of these services, with a special focus on how higher education and other large nonprofits can use this information to drive engagement and support.

What advantages do employer appends offer for higher education?

Employer appends act as a primary “early warning system” for your college or university’s fundraising team, allowing for real-time wealth and influence tracking. Instead of waiting for a donor to self-report, an append identifies “rising stars” as they move into high-impact roles.

This allows the institution to:

Identify alumni with high capacity for major gifts based on executive job titles and industry seniority.
Map the institution’s influence across specific sectors to prioritize regional fundraising campaigns and capital projects.
Uncover powerful workplace giving opportunities, including matching gifts and payroll deductions, that alumni are encouraged to engage with.

By maintaining this map of professional movement, your development staff can shift from reactive fundraising to proactively cultivating relationships with graduates as they reach their peak giving potential.

Beyond fundraising, how do data appends support university alumni engagement?

Outside the development office, a data append service empowers higher education teams to use employer data as the engine for hyper-segmented engagement. Rather than sending generic newsletters, alumni relations teams can curate content that matches a graduate’s professional reality. This transforms the university by:

Curating Networking: Organizing industry-specific events, such as a “Women in STEM” mixer for alumnae at top engineering firms.
Strengthening Career Services: Identifying “anchor companies” where high concentrations of alumni work to secure internship pipelines for current students.
Sourcing Social Capital: Quickly locating subject matter experts to serve as guest lecturers or mentors based on their specific professional expertise.

This approach ensures that alumni see the school not just as a place where they spent four years, but as a continuous professional network that adds tangible value to their current careers.

Can identifying donor employers help with corporate sponsorships?

Yes! Identifying clusters of employees in your supporter database can directly lead to larger corporate partnerships and event sponsorships. Here’s an example: let’s say you run a report and discover that 50 of your donors work for the same local bank or regional healthcare provider. In that case, the corporation in question is a perfect candidate for a sponsorship opportunity.

This data allows you to present a compelling case to a corporate social responsibility officer. By demonstrating that their employees are already passionate about your cause, you can pitch sponsorship as a logical extension of their existing corporate culture. Such a “bottom-up” approach to philanthropy is often more successful than “cold” outreach, as it is backed by the proven interests of the company’s own workforce.

Successfully Navigating Workplace Giving and Matching Gifts

Workplace giving is a core benefit of donor data enrichment, but you need a solid understanding of these opportunities to make the most of them. This section clarifies the terminology and explores standout opportunities to be aware of.

What is the difference between workplace giving and matching gifts?

Workplace giving is the broad “umbrella” term that covers any program where a company facilitates employee-led philanthropy. This can include a wide variety of initiatives, such as annual corporate giving campaigns, payroll deductions, and volunteer programs alike.

Matching gifts are a specific, particularly high-value slice of that workplace giving umbrella. This is a program in which a company matches an employee’s donation to a nonprofit, usually at a 1:1 ratio. The defining characteristic of a matching gift is that the employee must make an initial donation. Once the contribution is made, the employee submits a request to their employer to trigger the match. This is why donor data enrichment is so vital: if you don’t know the employer, you cannot prompt the donor to take that final, necessary step to double their impact.

How do volunteer grants fit into this data strategy?

Volunteer grants, often called “Dollars for Doers,” are another type of giving program in which companies provide monetary grants to nonprofits in recognition of the hours their employees volunteer.

According to corporate volunteer statistics, approximately 40% of Fortune 500 companies offer these programs, yet they are even less well-known than matching gifts.

Once you have a record of an individual’s employer, you can cross-reference that company against a database of volunteer grant programs. This allows you to identify eligible supporters who already volunteer with your organization and work for a company that compensates them for their time.

Why is payroll giving data important for my fundraising tool?

Payroll giving allows corporate employees to contribute recurring amounts directly from their paychecks. By identifying employers that offer these programs, you can encourage eligible donors to leverage this “subscription” method for their gifts.

Technical Execution and Batch Data Append Services

The process of updating thousands of records might seem daunting, but modern batch append services are designed for efficiency. In this section, we cover the technical “how-to” of the process.

What is a batch append service?

A batch append service is a streamlined process in which you submit a large file of donor records to a dedicated vendor. Within a few days, a nonprofit can transform a database full of missing information into a high-powered fundraising engine. The service returns your original file with new columns containing current employer names and job titles.

What information do I need to provide for a successful match?

While names are the primary identifier, adding additional details significantly increases accuracy. Try to include as much of this information as possible:

First and last name
Unique identification number
Mailing address
Email address
Phone number
College or university (graduation year and major/degree)

What is a “Match Rate” and what should I expect?

Your “match rate” is the percentage of your submitted list that the service can successfully identify. In the world of data science, a 100% match rate is a myth. Most organizations can expect a standard match rate of 25% to 45%. However, cohorts processed through software like Double the Donation have achieved hit rates exceeding 80% for records with high-confidence identifiers.

How do I interpret confidence scores in my report?

Enriched data files include a “confidence score” for each match—a numerical value telling you how certain the system is that the match is correct. Prioritize “high-confidence” matches for automated email campaigns and personalized outreach.

Donor Data Enrichment & Maintenance Best Practices

Donor data often requires ongoing care to remain effective. This final section provides a roadmap for maintaining your database.

How often should we run an employer append?

To keep your database from becoming obsolete, we generally recommend running a fresh employer append every 12 to 18 months. This ensures your outreach is based on where your donors work now.

Is the appending process secure for my donor data?

Yes. Reputable services use bank-grade encryption and comply with regulations like GDPR and CCPA. It is a safe and accepted practice in the nonprofit industry.

How should I use the data once an append is complete?

Start by segmenting your donor list. Create a specific segment for donors who work at “Top Matching Gift Companies” and send them tailored messages with links to their company’s matching gift form.

Can I find job titles as well as employer names?

Most comprehensive services provide both the company name and the job title. This data enables sophisticated persona-based marketing, ensuring your message resonates with supporters’ professional backgrounds.

Will my donors know I ran an append?

No, the appending process is a “back-end” administrative function. There is no direct contact with the donor, and the service does not “ping” their employer. Most donors simply notice that the communications they receive become more relevant.

Key Terms Glossary

Donor Data Enrichment: Enhancing a database by pulling in external data for complete supporter profiles.
Data Append: Adding missing data, such as employment information, to a record.
Hit Rate: The percentage of records successfully matched with new data.
Confidence Score: Likelihood that a data match is correct.
Matching Gift: Corporate programs that match employee charitable donations.

Conclusion: Transforming Your Database into a Revenue Engine

Investing in donor data enrichment is one of the smartest moves a development team can make. By taking the time to find donor employers through batch append services, you are opening a door to millions of dollars in corporate matching gift revenue.

Interested in enriching your organization’s donor data? Get started with Double the Donation’s industry-leading employer append services today.

Boost Segmentation, Giving Through Smart Prospect Research

December 23, 2025/in Corporate Giving, Data Appends, Data Management /by adam

Unlocking major fundraising growth often starts with a deeper understanding of your donors. Nonprofits today operate in a landscape where donor dollars are competitive, and supporters expect personalized engagement. Leveraging robust donor segmentation can transform generic fundraising into strategies that resonate with each individual, thus maximizing participation and giving. The ability to analyze and segment your donor base with current data is more than a tactical advantage. It is a necessary practice to identify those most likely to give, those who can contribute more, and those whose employers may support workplace giving programs.

The strategies outlined here will guide you through actionable techniques for modern donor segmentation, helping you convert data into stronger relationships, higher revenue, and lasting support. We’ll cover:

The Strategic Importance of Prospect Research in Donor Segmentation
Why Employment Data Transforms Nonprofit Donor Segmentation
Combining Wealth, Philanthropic, and Engagement Indicators for Sophisticated Segmentation
Aligning Donor Segmentation with Fundraising Program Success
Maximizing Impact by Integrating Matching Gift and Employer Data
Establishing a Sustainable, Data-Driven Donor Segmentation Workflow
Selecting Tools and Platforms to Enhance Prospect Research
Evolving Your Segmentation Strategy Through Learning and Optimization

Without a clear segmentation plan, nonprofits may overlook significant funding opportunities and miss opportunities to form deeper, more meaningful connections. By combining accurate employment data, indicators of wealth and philanthropic interests, and a culture of continual learning, your nonprofit can shift from scattershot appeals to intentional, high-impact donor relationships. Let’s begin!

The Strategic Importance of Prospect Research in Donor Segmentation

Proper prospect research forms the foundation for every successful donor segmentation strategy. Rather than using a single approach for all supporters, prospect research enables personalized communications tailored to each donor’s values. Consistently updated, accurate data is essential. Conduct regular audits of your donor database, ideally quarterly. This process includes eliminating duplicate records, confirming contact information, and recording all recent donor activities. Ensuring your records are accurate minimizes wasted resources and supports strategic decision-making.

A well-rounded segmentation process combines wealth indicators and philanthropic activity. Track details such as previous giving amounts, real estate holdings, and other nonprofit affiliations. This deeper analysis helps you organize donors into categories, including major gift prospects, new supporters, or dedicated volunteers. Each group then receives communication tailored to what motivates them, delivered at the right moments.

Align your segmentation with your overall fundraising strategy by using research to pinpoint which segments are best suited for specific campaigns, such as planned giving or challenge matches. Assign team members or trained volunteers to manage these relationships, ensuring personalized outreach for every high-potential donor.

And remember: data hygiene is vital for long-term success. Schedule biannual reviews focused solely on data correction and cleaning. Train anyone responsible for data entry to follow defined standards so your CRM remains an accurate resource. With clean, reliable records and detailed segmentation, your donor communications can become more targeted and actionable, strengthening both relationships and revenue. By investing in deliberate prospect research and segmentation, nonprofits can prioritize donor relationships over broad outreach and see stronger results.

Why Employment Data Transforms Nonprofit Donor Segmentation

Employment data provides essential insights for effective donor segmentation but is often overlooked. Understanding where your donors work does more than fill out a demographic profile; it unlocks new opportunities for individual giving, corporate involvement, and matching gifts. To gather employment information effectively, always include employer and job title fields in online giving forms and event registrations. For contacts already in your database, conduct annual outreach campaigns encouraging donors to update their employment details.

Sometimes, proactive research is needed for high-value prospects. In that case, consult public professional profiles or append employment data to your database update process.

Then segment your donor list by employment status to identify those eligible for workplace giving programs. By flagging donors who work for companies with matching gift programs or volunteer grants, you can send targeted appeals that show exactly how their contributions can be multiplied through employer support.

However, employment data goes beyond matching gifts. Identify donors with leadership roles or those working at prominent organizations. These contacts are valuable not just as financial contributors, but as connections to sponsorship opportunities and corporate partnerships. Cultivation strategies for these donors can include invitations to special events, asking them to serve as volunteer advisors, or opening discussions about sponsorships.

Here’s an example: one organization discovered that a long-term donor held an executive role at a local corporation. By engaging them in a leadership campaign, the nonprofit secured a valuable challenge match, increasing both donor participation and overall giving. Incorporating employment data makes every donor segment more actionable. When combined with other insights, such as wealth and engagement metrics, this approach yields better fundraising outcomes.

Combining Wealth, Philanthropic, and Engagement Indicators for Sophisticated Segmentation

Strong donor segmentation relies on more than just one data point. The best strategies bring together employment information with wealth indicators and engagement history. This creates a multi-dimensional view of each donor and supports more sophisticated targeting. Start by ensuring your CRM captures a wide array of supporter information. This includes all giving history with your organization, evidence of involvement with other nonprofits, if available, and records of volunteering, advocacy, or attendance at events.

Then, supplement your internal data with external information from donor surveys or public records to round out each profile. Analyze wealth and capacity by reviewing real estate ownership, business affiliations, and available financial indicators. Assign capacity scores to your donors and update them as circumstances change, such as after a promotion or a significant purchase. These scores help you prioritize outreach to those most likely to make major gifts.

Create a scoring system that combines employment data to capture capacity, engagement, and recency of involvement. Use this system to define actionable segments: major gift candidates, consistent mid-level donors, and lapsed but high-potential contacts. Each group should have a custom engagement plan, such as tailored phone calls for major donors and re-engagement campaigns for lapsed supporters.

Database enrichment can further enhance this approach. Use periodic data append services to update addresses, phone numbers, emails, and employer information. Regular database updates keep your segments accurate and ensure that important changes in donor status don’t go unnoticed. This comprehensive method makes segmentation far more effective, ensuring every communication is relevant, personalized, and designed to move donors further along their giving journey.

Aligning Donor Segmentation with Fundraising Program Success

Effective segmentation always serves larger fundraising goals. Data, technology, and processes only create impact when tailored to the organization’s unique campaigns and revenue objectives. First, identify your top donors who have the capacity for major gifts. These supporters should receive the highest level of personalized outreach, including invitations to special events, frequent stewardship touchpoints, and exclusive updates on campaign outcomes. For large-scale initiatives, such as capital or endowment campaigns, prioritize these donors early to set the pace with significant anchor gifts.

Employment-based segments provide insight into donors connected to potential corporate giving or sponsorships. By identifying those in positions to influence workplace volunteering and other philanthropy programs, send tailored partnership proposals or ask them to act as advocates for your organization within their companies.

Build retention among recurring and annual fund donors by segmenting on giving frequency and recency. Providing personalized renewal and upgrade messaging based on a donor’s previous interactions increases loyalty and encourages larger commitments over time. Identify and cultivate donors who are community influencers or have demonstrated leadership in previous campaigns. These individuals are valuable for launching peer-to-peer fundraising and acting as challenge match champions, amplifying your fundraising reach. When each segment receives targeted strategies aligned with organizational priorities, every donor feels valued. This approach transforms donor segmentation from an abstract exercise into a driver of fundraising success.

Maximizing Impact by Integrating Matching Gift and Employer Data

Integrating matching gift and employer data into donor segmentation can be a game-changer, helping nonprofits avoid leaving potential revenue untapped. Many donors are eligible for matching gifts through their employers but are unaware of them or lack follow-up, preventing these funds from being realized.

Begin by embedding a matching-gift check option into your donation process. As you collect and update employment information, flag donors whose employers provide matching gift programs. Segment these supporters accordingly and prioritize them for targeted follow-up. It is crucial to educate donors about their eligibility for matching gifts. Use thank-you messages and confirmation pages to share information about their employer’s program and provide actionable steps for submitting a match request. If a donor begins but does not finish the process, offer reminders until completion.

Then, track each segment’s match completion rates within your database. Recognize and thank donors who secure matching gifts, reinforcing the value of their increased impact. Personalized stewardship helps build long-term engagement and encourages future participation in workplace giving. Additionally, analyze your database to identify companies with a growing supporter base within your audience. This can lead to proactive outreach to pursue partnership opportunities or requests that donors act as internal champions.

Establishing a Sustainable, Data-Driven Donor Segmentation Workflow

Donor segmentation should be a recurring practice rather than a one-time project. A culture that prioritizes data-driven approaches is crucial for maintaining momentum and improving outcomes over time.

Data hygiene is the cornerstone of any successful segmentation strategy. Schedule regular efforts to deduplicate records, validate contact fields, and review the database for outdated information. Reliability in your data makes every segmentation step more effective. Strengthen your database by enriching profiles at least twice yearly. Appending missing details, such as addresses, phone numbers, and employment history, ensures your records are comprehensive and actionable.

Before launching significant campaigns, take extra care to verify key information for high-potential donors. Define clear criteria for your segmentation process, such as capacity, giving frequency, involvement, job title, or other relevant factors. Consistency in tagging or listing donors in your CRM makes it easier to generate lists for any campaign. After segmenting, launch targeted campaigns and carefully track the results. Experiment with different messages using A/B testing, and monitor which approaches generate the best outcomes. As patterns emerge, refine your segmentation models for continuous improvement.

Cross-departmental teamwork also supports a culture of segmentation excellence. Ensure all team members understand how segments work and how to integrate them into their daily activities. Hold review sessions each quarter to realign on the segmentation strategy and incorporate new learnings. When donor segmentation becomes a standardized part of your workflow, your nonprofit positions itself for ongoing, scalable fundraising success.

Selecting Tools and Platforms to Enhance Prospect Research

The right technology infrastructure is essential to maximize the value of donor segmentation and prospect research. Choosing suitable systems can streamline processes, uncover new opportunities, and free up staff to focus on relationship building.

Wealth screening and data enrichment solutions are key for quickly identifying major gift prospects and updating supporter profiles. Regularly performing screenings enables you to keep information current and prioritize those most able to advance your organization’s mission. Incorporate platforms that can help identify eligibility for workplace giving programs and manage the process of obtaining employer-matched donations.

Automating these workflows helps secure more matching gifts with less manual effort. Set up alerts and dashboards in your database to monitor donor behavior, including significant life events, career changes, and milestones. Customizable dashboards allow you to track engagement by segment and measure the success of different campaigns in real time. Ongoing training and user adoption are crucial for technology success. Schedule regular reviews to ensure staff are comfortable with new tools and updated features.

A workplace culture that encourages continuous improvement will help your organization adapt to new challenges and opportunities as they arise. With the proper platforms in place, your team can execute more accurate and impactful donor segmentation, maximizing fundraising productivity and donor satisfaction.

Evolving Your Segmentation Strategy Through Learning and Optimization

Donor segmentation should evolve to respond to new information, feedback, and changing best practices. Continuous learning ensures your nonprofit’s approach stays relevant and effective. Professional development is a foundation for success. Encourage all team members to stay current with trends in prospect research and donor engagement. Participation in training sessions and professional associations will expose your staff to emerging best practices and help them stay ahead of sector changes.

Benchmarking your segmentation outcomes against sector standards can reveal areas for innovation. Regularly measure your results, experiment with new segmentation criteria, and introduce updated data sources to see how they affect engagement and giving. Listening to your supporters is equally important. Gather feedback from different segments to understand their interests, motivations, and preferences. Use surveys and open communication to determine what types of engagement your donors value most, then refine your segments in response to this input.

Finally, data ethics and compliance must be a priority. Train staff on privacy best practices and ensure clear opt-in procedures for donor communications. Protecting your supporters’ data creates trust and safeguards your organization’s reputation. By maintaining a commitment to learning and optimization, your donor segmentation strategies will continue to grow stronger and deliver results tailored to your organization and its supporters.

Conclusion

Smart donor segmentation is essential for nonprofits seeking to build stronger relationships, unlock new funding, and achieve lasting results. With accurate and continually updated data, thoughtful use of employment and wealth indicators, personalized communication, and a commitment to ongoing improvement, your organization can turn segmentation into a powerful driver of fundraising success.

Take actionable steps to maintain data hygiene, deepen donor profiles, align segments with fundraising goals, and foster learning throughout your team. As your segmentation strategies grow more sophisticated, you’ll find new opportunities to connect with supporters, encourage larger gifts, and increase overall impact. For ongoing success, make donor segmentation an integral, continually evolving part of your organization’s development strategy, and let it guide your most important fundraising efforts.

Learn how Double the Donation’s workplace giving insights tools can help power your organization’s prospect research strategy! Get a demo today to see the platform in action.

Turning Event Data Into Actionable Fundraising Insights: 7 Tips

October 21, 2025/in Data Management, Donor Management /by NPOInfo

Every fundraising event generates valuable data, such as attendee registration rates, average donation amounts, sponsor engagement metrics, and post-event donor conversion statistics.

However, successful fundraising teams don’t just collect data; they analyze this data to personalize future outreach and donation asks. This means using event-specific metrics—like who clicked through a post-event survey or who bid on a silent auction item—to segment your lists with greater precision. By understanding these individual motivations, you can move away from mass communication and instead ensure that every follow-up email, annual appeal, or volunteer opportunity is tailored to a donor’s demonstrated interest, significantly increasing both engagement and long-term retention.

In this post, you’ll learn how to turn your event data into actionable insights that help your organization raise more funds, deepen donor relationships, and improve future event performance.

Benefits of Collecting Nonprofit Event Data

Collecting event data is important, but knowing how to interpret and apply it is where the real transformation happens. When you approach your fundraising strategy with a data-driven mindset, you can make decisions rooted in facts rather than assumptions.

When you use event data strategically, you can:

Personalize donor outreach by recognizing interests and giving behaviors
Improve event ROI by focusing on what drives engagement and donations
Strengthen relationships with supporters through more relevant follow-ups
Forecast future revenue by identifying trends in donor participation

In short, the more you understand your event data, the more effectively you can turn engagement into long-term fundraising success.

Essential Event Data to Track

Before you can turn event data into fundraising insights, you need to make sure you’re capturing the right information. Every detail, from who attends your events to how they engage, can reveal valuable clues about your supporters’ motivations and preferences. By being intentional about what you track and how you collect it, you’ll build a foundation for more strategic fundraising decisions.

Key Metrics to Track

Not all data points carry the same weight. Focus on metrics that connect directly to your fundraising goals and supporter engagement:

Attendee demographics: Understand who your participants are, including member status, donor history, and geographic location.
Registration and ticket data: Track how attendees found your event, when they registered, and what ticket types they purchased.
Engagement data: Capture session attendance, booth visits, or activity participation to see where interest is strongest.
Donation data: Record when and how attendees give—before, during, or after the event—to identify giving patterns.
Survey responses: Post-event feedback offers context that pure numbers can’t, helping you understand sentiment and satisfaction.

7 Tips to Turn Data Into Fundraising Action

Collecting and analyzing event data is only valuable if you act on it. The real power lies in transforming those insights into concrete steps that strengthen donor relationships, increase contributions, and improve future events. Here are seven practical ways to put your data to work.

Tip 1: Personalize Donor Follow-Ups

Use event engagement data to make your post-event communication more meaningful. For example, if a supporter attended a specific session or activity, reference it in your thank-you message or follow-up appeal. This small touch shows you’re paying attention and makes donors feel seen and valued.

Tip 2: Identify and Nurture High-Value Prospects

Look for patterns in your event data that reveal your strongest fundraising leads. Attendees who participate in multiple events, engage with sponsors, or consistently respond to surveys are often prime candidates for higher giving levels. Use this insight to create a targeted cultivation plan that nurtures these prospects over time.

Tip 3: Optimize Future Event Strategies

Your event metrics tell you what works and what doesn’t. If data shows that one type of activity consistently drives donations or engagement, make it a centerpiece of your next event. Conversely, phase out underperforming sessions or formats. Over time, this approach increases event ROI and ensures every decision is supported by evidence.

Tip 4: Align Fundraising Goals With Attendee Interests

Review participation trends to understand what motivates your audience. If younger attendees engage more with digital donation tools or interactive campaigns, adjust your fundraising approach to match. Aligning your appeals with proven behaviors increases response rates and helps you reach donors where they’re most active.

Tip 5: Strengthen Sponsor and Partner Relationships

Your event data can also provide value to sponsors and partners. Share engagement metrics such as booth visits, session attendance, or impressions to demonstrate ROI and build trust. When sponsors see the measurable impact of their investment, they’re more likely to renew or increase support for future events.

Tip 6: Create Real-Time Engagement Opportunities

Leverage live event analytics to make quick, informed decisions. For instance, if you notice a surge in attendance for a particular session, consider promoting related fundraising appeals in real time. Data dashboards or mobile event apps can help your team respond dynamically.

Tip 7: Measure and Communicate Impact

Once the event is over, UpMetrics recommends compiling your findings into a visual report or dashboard that highlights key outcomes, such as donations raised, engagement rates, and supporter growth. Share these insights with your board, staff, and donors to show transparency and reinforce your organization’s impact. Demonstrating measurable success builds trust and encourages continued giving.

When you transform your event data into actionable insights, you move from reactive to proactive fundraising. Each data point becomes an opportunity—to connect, improve, and grow your mission-driven impact.

Your events generate more than just attendance numbers; they reveal what inspires people to give and engage. When you turn that data into action, every event becomes an opportunity to strengthen relationships, increase donations, and grow your mission.

Start using your event data strategically, and you’ll not only improve your next fundraiser, you’ll build a smarter, more sustainable path toward lasting impact.

How to Make Data-Driven Decisions at Your Pet Store

August 18, 2025/in Data Management /by NPOInfo

Imagine this: Your pet store takes the leap to stock up on a new premium dog food you think will fly off the shelves. Weeks later, it’s barely moved, resulting in a poor investment that cuts into your bottom line.

Situations like these are all too common for pet store owners who rely on instinct and intuition to make decisions. As you grow your business, it becomes more and more important to make decisions based on data.

Organizations from all types of industries follow this best practice—for instance, nonprofits use donor data to improve fundraising, restaurants track order trends and peak hours to optimize staffing, and healthcare clinics track treatment outcomes to identify the most effective care practices.

By tapping into the numbers behind your pet store, you can make smarter decisions that help you grow your business’s profitability. Let’s break down how you can use data to your pet store’s advantage.

Identify Your Key Metrics

Before you start making decisions, you need to know what data points to track. There are thousands of potential metrics you can track, but not all of them will be useful in informing your decisions.

Start by determining your current business priorities. Are you trying to boost profitability, improve customer retention, or streamline inventory? Are you trying to do all three, or maybe something else entirely? From there, you can select core metrics to track to help you make smarter decisions in these areas.

Generally, pet businesses track metrics in the following categories, which we’ll cover later on in this guide:

Inventory
Marketing
Customer data
Staffing

Many small businesses get excited about using data and start tracking many different data points. However, this can quickly overwhelm smaller organizations. Instead, select a focused set of key metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs) and build your strategy around them to keep the data-tracking process manageable and impactful.

Additionally, consider investing in a software solution built for pet stores to track data properly. In addition to fulfilling other needs, such as inventory management or point of sale (POS), these tools can automate data collection, track data trends over time, and even generate reports that quickly summarize key findings, making it easier than ever for you to make smarter decisions and grow your business.

Use Data to Optimize Inventory

Managing inventory effectively is a balancing act, and tracking the corresponding metrics only makes it easier. If you’ve ever been in a situation where a customer wants to purchase an item you don’t have in stock or had too many items that weren’t selling, these data points can greatly improve your inventory management practices.

Here are a few metrics to track:

Product sell-through rates: This metric shows how quickly a product sells after arriving in your store. Products with high sell-through rates can inform future restocks, whereas products with low sell-through rates may need to be discounted or phased out.
Stock-out frequency: This metric indicates how often items are unavailable for customers. If this metric is high, that means your pet store isn’t meeting its customers’ demand. Generally, this metric applies most to seasonal items, such as flea and tick treatments or heated beds.
Dead stock: This metric identifies unsold inventory over a set time period, such as 90 days. Holding onto inventory for a long time has a high opportunity cost, as storing those products takes up space that could have gone to a product with a higher sell-through rate.
Inventory turnover ratio: This metric refers to how often you sell and replace inventory within a specific time period. A healthy turnover rate means your capital isn’t tied up in excess stock.
Carrying cost of inventory: This metric measures the cost of storing and managing your unsold inventory. The expenses are usually related to storage, labor, insurance, obsolescence, and cost of capital. Your pet store may want to reconsider stocking items with a particularly high carrying cost.
Lead time: This metric tracks how long it takes to restock items, which is essential for when you’re planning to order inventory. Ideally, you want to minimize stockouts, so knowing how long products take to arrive at your store informs how far in advance you need to order new stock.
Shrinkage rate: This metric measures inventory loss due to damage, theft, or errors. With this information, you can make loss prevention decisions, such as requiring additional staff training, reviewing vendor and delivery processes, or updating store policy.

With these metrics, you can stock your store with the most profitable items, decide on shelf space allocation per product, and predict and prepare for seasonal spikes. For optimal pet store inventory management, pair data tracking with automated alerts from your POS or inventory system.

Make Smarter Marketing Choices

You know that having tons of exciting products is only one element of running a profitable small business. You must pair enticing offerings with a successful outreach strategy that promotes these products, connects your store to customers, and encourages them to visit your brick-and-mortar or e-commerce store. Bolster your marketing strategy by tracking the following metrics:

Customer acquisition cost: This metric measures the average cost of acquiring a customer for your pet store. It informs how expensive your marketing efforts are and can help you assess if certain channels are worthwhile for your business.
Conversion rate: This metric tracks the percentage of marketing message recipients who take a desired action. For your customers, this will likely be making a purchase. This data point gives you a sweeping overview of how effective your marketing messaging is.
Referral source: This metric indicates where customers are navigating from to find your pet store website, such as through Google, Yelp, email, or social media. You can use this information to determine your most and least effective marketing channels.
Coupon/discount redemption rates: This metric shows the effectiveness of your promotions and incentives. If your traffic is high, yet your sales and coupon or discount redemption rate are low, you may need to brainstorm other ways to entice customers to make a purchase.

These metrics help you pinpoint key changes to your marketing strategy that will improve your success. For instance, you might take an omnichannel marketing approach, determine the best days or times to send promotions, or focus on reducing the cost of your marketing efforts.

You may also segment your audience to ensure your marketing messages resonate with each individual. Store customer demographic data and create audience groups based on shared characteristics. Then, send messages that are tailored and personalized to each group. For example, dog owners won’t be interested in your 15% discount on cat food, but they might leap at the opportunity to buy the new leashes you just stocked.

Improve Customer Retention Through Loyalty Insights

Acquiring a new customer can cost five to seven times more than retaining an existing one, which is why your pet store needs to prioritize turning one-time buyers into repeat customers. Increase retention by tracking the following metrics:

Customer retention rate: This metric indicates the percentage of customers who continue to shop at your store over a certain time period. Most business owners measure it annually, but you can also measure it monthly.
Customer lifetime value: This metric shows the total projected revenue a customer will generate over their relationship with your store. If this value is low, then you may need to explore customer retention strategies and ways to encourage them to upgrade their purchases.
Purchase frequency: This metric measures how often customers shop at your store. If this metric is low, you may need to investigate what’s preventing customers from making more purchases. However, you can also expect some natural variance here. For instance, an owner of a small dog will purchase pet food much less frequently than the owner of a large dog.
Average order value: This metric tracks the average amount of money customers spend per visit or order at your pet store. This information allows you to identify groups of high-value customers you can target with your marketing efforts. You can also use this metric to track your upselling success.

Depending on how well your pet store is already retaining customers, you may consider implementing retention-specific strategies. One of the best ways to do that is by establishing a loyalty program, which incentivizes customers to continue spending money at your pet store through perks like discounts and point redemptions.

According to eTailPet, the top pet store POS systems come with features that make managing your loyalty program easier. For instance, you can implement a simple points-based system, where customers earn points for each purchase that they can redeem for discounts or free products. Your POS system can track these points on your behalf and even enable point redemptions for customers shopping online, taking the pain of management entirely out of the equation.

Enhance Staffing and Hiring

Data can help smaller pet businesses make informed staffing decisions, such as ensuring they are never overstaffed and hiring the right talent for their open positions. Tracking the right metrics can help you keep staff members organized and your operations running smoothly. For example, you can use data to:

Analyze peak hours and days to adjust staffing schedules for better efficiency.
Track sales or upsell data per employee to inform training and recognition.
Use past performance data to define the roles or experience needed for new hires.
Monitor employee satisfaction to anticipate turnover or disengagement before it affects performance.

If you determine that you need to hire new employees based on your key metrics, JazzHR recommends investing in a small business hiring platform. Your team is your store’s frontline, which is why staffing and hiring decisions should be just as data-driven as other operational choices. A dedicated hiring platform allows you to manage complex recruiting datasets, reduce human error, and create comprehensive reports that enable you to choose the best candidate for the job.

Transitioning to a data-driven approach doesn’t mean you have to overhaul your business or invest in expensive software (though a dedicated solution can greatly help the process). It simply means using the information you already possess to make smarter, more informed decisions. Start small, stay consistent, and let the numbers lead the way to a stronger, more successful pet store.

The title of the blog post, Using Donor Data to Improve Fundraising Campaigns

Using Donor Data to Improve Fundraising Campaigns: 3 Tips

May 9, 2025/in Data Management, Donor Management /by NPOInfo

Your donor data isn’t just a collection of numbers—it’s a treasure trove of insights that can strengthen your organization’s operations in various ways, especially when it comes to your fundraising strategy.

By identifying patterns and trends in your donors’ demographics, capacity to give, donation patterns, and communication preferences, you can more effectively tailor your campaigns to engage your donors and reach your goals.

In this guide, we’ll explore three expert tips for using donor data to improve your fundraising campaigns. Let’s begin.

1. Prepare your data to be useful.

To make the best decisions possible about leveling up your fundraising strategy, your donor data needs to be organized and accurate. Here are some ways you can improve your nonprofit’s data hygiene:

Identify where all of your data lives. Your donor information may be sitting in several different solutions, such as your constituent relationship management platform (CRM), fundraising platform, or email marketing tool. Note where all of your information is, and then implement integrations between your tools to ensure you can access everything in one place. You can also set up a data warehouse to collect, process, and organize data from these different sources. Note that even if you have a well-integrated technology stack, you should still identify the ultimate source of truth for your data. In most cases, that will likely be your CRM.

Clean up your existing data. Remove duplicate entries, correct errors (such as misspelled names or incorrect email or home addresses), and update outdated information.

Supplement existing data if needed. As you review your donor information, you may discover gaps that would be useful to fill ahead of your next fundraising push. In these cases, it may be appropriate to conduct a data append. Data appends can help you access donors’ phone numbers, email addresses, geographic data, and more so that you have a fuller picture of who they are and how to connect with them.

Standardize data formats. Consistency in formatting allows you to process and analyze your donor data more easily. Ensure your formatting is the same across the board for all phone numbers, addresses, and donor names.

Prioritizing data hygiene will allow you to hone in on patterns and trends in your data and focus on key metrics useful in a fundraising context. This means you may need to conduct a big one-time cleanup if you haven’t for a while. However, you should also implement robust processes to ensure that once your data is organized and accurate, it stays that way as you collect more.

2. Embrace donor segmentation.

Donor segmentation is the process of dividing your donors into groups based on shared characteristics. Using donor data, you can segment your donor community in various ways, such as by location, engagement level, giving capacity, or communication preferences.

Segmentation allows you to tailor your campaign outreach to donors at scale. For example, you can divide your donors by donor type, such as first-time donors, major donors, and recurring donors. You can then design different messaging for those groups.

Here’s what this might look like in practice:

First-Time Donors: As these donors haven’t committed to giving your organization further support, focus your messaging on building relationships that will lead to future donations and engagement. Send personalized thank yous for their first donations and invite them to stay involved through events and volunteering. When the timing is right, suggest smaller, additional gifts to your next campaign.

Recurring Donors: These donors are familiar with your organization and provide regular support. Provide frequent updates on your nonprofit’s goals and achievements, and invite them to level up their giving for your campaign through sustainer upgrades.

Major Donors: Since these donors give your nonprofit its largest gifts, they deserve the most personalized experiences with your organization and its campaigns. Ensure that all communications have a high level of personalization, and when donors give to your campaign, report back on the long-term impact of those contributions. Also, offer these donors special recognition opportunities, like naming rights for programs or spaces, personalized invitations to events, and possible speaking opportunities.

In an ideal world, you would design perfectly personalized fundraising outreach for every donor who supports your organization. But with a donor community of thousands, that’s just not possible.

Segmentation allows you to achieve a realistic and effective level of personalization for your donors, saving you time and resources while also still helping each donor feel seen and valued by your organization.

3. Analyze trends and patterns in donations.

A major part of planning a successful fundraising campaign is setting realistic and ambitious fundraising goals and designing careful fundraising asks that will help you achieve those goals. The best way to do this is to turn to your data, analyze the trends and patterns you see in donations, and make data-driven decisions.

Here are some effective strategies for doing so:

Look at past donation frequency and amounts. How often do donors give to your cause, and at what levels? Go further by connecting these numbers to your supporters’ behavior. For instance, you may find that donations increase after certain types of outreach This insight may prompt you to replicate successful strategies for future campaigns.

Identify your current donor retention rate. Your donor retention rate is the percentage of donors who continue to support your mission over time. To increase your retention rate from campaign to campaign, focus on first-time donors. Nurture relationships with them by engaging in thoughtful follow-up to increase the likelihood of them becoming long-term supporters.

Analyze donor lifetime value (LTV). LTV allows you to calculate the revenue potential a donor holds for your organization. To find it, multiply the average length of time as a donor by their average donation amount. Multiply the resulting number by the average donation frequency. You can calculate LTV for different donor groups to better understand who to prioritize during your next campaign. For instance, you might notice that donors who made their first donation at an event have a higher LTV than donors who gave their first donation online. Consider using custom reporting or custom dashboards to help your organization visualize this information.

Monitor overall campaign effectiveness. Keep an eye on donation data before, during, and after your campaigns to identify which strategies generate the most donations. You might notice that certain fundraising approaches or communication channels yield the best return on investment (ROI), which can help you as you design future campaigns.

Pinpoint if/how donors have taken advantage of corporate giving opportunities. Many of your donors likely work for employers with corporate giving programs, which can provide additional value to your organization’s campaigns with little effort from individual donors themselves. Check out your donor data to see if your supporters are taking advantage of matching gift or volunteer grant programs. Then, boost the likelihood they participate by actively promoting corporate giving opportunities in your marketing materials.

Watch for seasonal patterns. Many organizations notice that there are peak times during the year when they pull in more donations than usual. For example, an educational institution may see that donations pick up in the fall after dipping in the summer. Understanding seasonal patterns allows you to plan your campaigns around peak times so that you appeal to donors when they’re most likely to give.

Your organization doesn’t always have to reinvent the wheel to see better fundraising results. In fact, experimenting with new strategies for each campaign may send a message that your organization is inconsistent.

Instead, by studying your donor data, you can do more of what is already working. Review your donation data and campaign results regularly to stay up to date on what is driving great results.

Your donor data holds the key to understanding your community of supporters and improving your operations, especially your fundraising work. As you manage your data effectively, embrace the process of donor segmentation, and analyze giving trends and patterns, you’ll be prepared to make thoughtful improvements to your strategy that boost your fundraising revenue.

The title of the article next to a photo of a man using a laptop.

Top Nonprofit Cloud Tools That Drive Data-Backed Decisions

July 17, 2024/in Data Management, Donor Management /by NPOInfo

Nonprofit Cloud offers an enormous breadth and depth of specialized tools for nonprofits and grantmaking organizations. Built on Salesforce core, It leverages the power of Salesforce CRM to help nonprofits effectively manage and analyze data.

As Fíonta explains, Nonprofit Cloud is ideal for measuring your impact, tracking program progress, and generating reports and visuals communicating your success to key stakeholders. Its tools allow nonprofits to forecast trends and campaign performance, providing the insights needed to make data-driven decisions.

We’ll explore some of the top ways Nonprofit Cloud helps nonprofits track and analyze data effectively. Let’s begin.

Benefits of Using Nonprofit Cloud Tools

Double the Donation’s guide to data collection highlights some of the key benefits of leveraging donor and campaign data, such as:

Providing an accurate impact measurement
Helping organizations effectively allocate resources
Promoting informed decision-making rather than guessing

Nonprofit Cloud empowers your organization to reap these benefits by managing each core part of your operations, including fundraising, program management, and case management.

Top Nonprofit Cloud Tools

The following tools and features are designed to help nonprofits easily and accurately track data, keep data clean and organized, and quickly gain useful insights that inspire wise decisions.

Fundraising Tools

The Nonprofit Cloud for Fundraising module unites fundraising teams on a single platform, offering purpose-built tools your team can use to strengthen donor relationships, improve efficiency, analyze data, and more. The module includes apps tailored to different roles, including fundraising strategy, donor engagement, philanthropy and partnerships, and general fundraising operations.

When it comes to fundraising data, these tools simplify and enhance tracking and analysis:

Flexible gift entry: Nonprofit Cloud offers your organization the flexibility to accurately track various types of donations. Enter standard one-time gifts made by individuals or set up recurring gift tracking. Your team can also create a batch to enter a large number of gifts at once, saving time and reducing the chance of human error.
Source codes: Source codes are unique codes included in specific links. The source code is activated when a supporter or participant clicks one of these links. Your team can then track campaign performance, understand donors’ communication preferences, calculate ROI, and personalize future communications. As a part of the Salesforce Summer ‘24 release, you can manage outreach source codes using the campaign flow in Marketing Cloud Growth Edition.
Custom donor scores: Build custom scores for your donors based on recency, frequency, and monetary (RFM) values. These scores provide a cumulative, at-a-glance RFM score for each donor. Donor scores can be viewed on the donor’s profile along with demographic data and other key insights to quickly gauge the supporter’s affinity and responsiveness to a certain cause or campaign.

These flexible tools ensure that your data reflects your nonprofit’s unique needs and practices, enhancing your data’s accuracy and clarity.

Program Management Tools

Nonprofit Cloud for Programs helps nonprofits plan, deliver, and track their programs. This module improves participant experiences, streamlines staff workflows, and yields the insights needed to improve offerings.

Some of the tools that offer these insights are:

Participant profiles: If your nonprofit works with individuals, you likely set goals for participants, assign them to programs, disburse benefits, and manage tasks related to that individual. These details and notes from your sessions are stored within a single participant profile. This gives anyone working with the participant a detailed overview of their history with your nonprofit, goals, and progress so your staff can make the best choices for that individual.
Program Management Home Page: This out-of-the-box home page is another product of the recent Summer ‘24 release. It is designed to give your team a comprehensive overview of your nonprofit’s program delivery and allow staff to monitor the status of your programs closely. From this single page, you can quickly assess whether programs are on track to meet organizational goals, get a simple overview of your programs and benefits, and track new referrals.
Cohort objects and fields: Group your program participants together using the new Program Cohort object. Then, move those participants through the program together and easily compare cohorts or measure an individual’s progress against their cohort. Nonprofit programs can vary widely and have unique needs, and this method of data collection helps your staff account for those needs and idiosyncrasies.

Managing programs is demanding and has many moving parts. Nonprofit Cloud’s unified platform provides comprehensive overviews of your programs’ health, promoting informed decision-making that drives long-term success.

Case Management Tools

Nonprofit Cloud for Case Management is housed within the Program Management module and emphasizes providing better participant outcomes. This solution remedies heavy case manager workloads, disjointed systems, and barriers to transparent communication and collaboration across your teams.

Additionally, Nonprofit Cloud’s case management tools offer the following features for enhanced data collection and management:

Easy, streamlined note-taking: Allow staff to quickly capture detailed notes from sessions with participants. Populate notes with additional information like attendance records, timestamps, and supporting documents for the most comprehensive records possible. These notes can be shared with other case managers, making participant transition simple and keeping data consolidated.
Dynamic assessments: Use these assessments during intake to ensure staff ask new participants the most relevant questions. Additionally, staff can easily add necessary documents to the assessment and allow participants to navigate the process at their own pace. This ensures the participant’s intake is efficient and pleasant and organizes all necessary information in a single location.
Adaptable data tracking: Your staff will use the Case object to plan care for the participant. Cases can span across multiple programs, and staff can loop in multiple individuals, such as caretakers or other team members at your organization. This flexible tool can conform to any program structure, making it easy to record and report your progress.

Accurate data collection is critical for case management. It influences quality of care, resource allocation, and long-term planning for your programs. In the context of fields like healthcare, your data collection methods must be secure and ethical to comply with regulations.

Other Salesforce Tools and Features

Remember to stay cognizant of and try out other options within Salesforce. With Nonprofit Cloud, your organization can access common features for Industries, apps from the AppExchange, and tools belonging to other Industry Clouds. These solutions can extend Nonprofit Cloud’s capabilities to assist with data hygiene, security, and efficiency.

Consider looking beyond Salesforce for additional assistance for larger organizations or those with very complex needs. Working with a Salesforce tech consultant can help you implement the solution, clean up and migrate data, and maximize your investment in this powerful CRM. If needed, research other services that can enhance your data quality to drive more accurate insights, like appending missing information or enriching your first-party data with third-party, market-level insights.

Collecting, managing, and cleaning your nonprofit’s data is key. After all, if your database is flawed or biased, the insights you glean from it will be, too. Nonprofit Cloud offers powerful, flexible tools that revolutionize how your nonprofit records and analyzes data about your donors, campaigns, and programs.

How to Use Previous Auction Data to Inform Your Strategy

July 7, 2024/in Data Management /by NPOInfo

Data is the secret weapon for unlocking success in fundraising events, from large nonprofit auction galas to online school auctions. And, with auction software that supports in-depth data reporting and visualization, your school can easily inform your auction strategy with past data.

In this guide, we’ll discuss three important areas of auction data and how you can use this information to boost your school’s fundraising results.

Audience Data

The success of your fundraising auction depends on how well you can appeal to your supporter base. Therefore, it is critical to plan according to your audience’s specific needs, interests, and preferences. Start by analyzing your attendees from previous years, paying close attention to the following categories:

Demographics: Understanding your target audience’s average age, gender, geographic location, and family status will give you insight into how to best structure your event and market it. For example, you might note that families in your community with preschool age children come to your auctions less frequently. To help these families, you might explore options for making your auction more family-oriented, such as hosting it earlier in the day or partnering with the local high school to offer babysitting services.
Previous engagement: Look into your audience’s previous event attendance and volunteer experience to get an idea of their familiarity with your school. As most of your guests will likely be the parents and family members of your students, consider how you can show off a different side of your school, such as by asking the school jazz band to perform or using student art projects as decorations.
Donation history: To set optimal fundraising goals, research your audience’s frequency and recency of donations. Additionally, pinpoint their average donation amount to set reasonable fundraising expectations. Your school can also take your community’s average tax bracket into account to ensure you set reasonable prices for auction items.
Interests and hobbies: What sort of activities or events does your audience enjoy? Use social media appending services to understand what types of auction items would appeal to your supporters. You can also get your students to help as kids often have more insight into their parents’ hobbies and interests.

With a clear picture of your audience, your school can improve its decision-making and put together an auction that maximizes attendance and engagement.

Auction Item Data

From gift baskets to sports memorabilia to concert tickets, how do you know which auction items will generate the most interest, bidding activity, and profitability? One very effective approach is to look at data from previous auctions.

Take special note of these pricing metrics from previous years’ bidding process:

Starting bids: In addition to researching market value, your school should pay attention to the starting bid amounts that generated interest and adjust your beginning price points accordingly.
Minimum bid increments: Typically, bid increments are set at 10% or 15% of an item’s fair market value (FMV), but if a similar item from last year performed better than expected, you might consider lowering the increment to closer to 10% FMV for this year’s auction to incite competitive bidding.
Buy-it-now data: For particularly high-value items like a weekend getaway you might offer a buy-it-now option. Buy-it-now options can ensure you will receive at least a certain high amount for these prizes. However, keep in mind that a bidding war may drive up the price even beyond your buy-it-now option. Refer to your past data to see how these types of items performed and whether a buy-it-now option has the potential to earn your school more.

Prior to your event, arrange a time to meet in person as a group with your high-impact school donors. List out auction items that your school is considering procuring and ask them which ones are most appealing or if they have any other suggestions. Thank supporters for their time and recommendations, and then update your item data with their choices.

Event Data

Your school can learn more about how engaging your past auctions were by collecting and assessing the following event data points:

Total funds raised: Don’t just focus on the number, focus on where in your auction the funds came from. Evaluate and track your silent auction, your live auction, special appeal, and raffles or games separately. When looking at your special appeal, note whether your school was raising funds for a specific initiative, since that can have a significant impact on participation at your auction.
Attendance: How has attendance been trending? Again, the absolute numbers are interesting, but you also want to break them down. Divide the participants of each of your past three or four events into tiers based on how much they contributed to the event’s success. Then, examine the attendance record of each tier.
Return on investment (ROI): Were your most successful auctions the most elaborate ones? Look at what your school spent money on in the past. Maybe you had live music for a few years, then stopped; was there a significant impact on the amount you raised?

Based on your school’s previous auction performance, you might identify new ways to save on event costs and generate more revenue going forward. For example, you might decide to focus on finding corporate partners to procure more one-of-a-kind, enticing auction items to engage attendees at your next event without straining your budget.

Bonus: Improving Your Auction Strategy

With past auction data at your disposal, your school can start brainstorming ways to improve your auction strategy. SchoolAuction.net’s silent auction guide shares these tried-and-true tips for boosting your auction success:

Promote your auction on a variety of communication channels to attract as many guests as possible.
Incorporate countdown clocks and text notifications to increase engagement.
Provide a self-check-out option to make your auction experience more convenient.

Finally, an effective and important way to invest in the success of future auctions is to make sure you thank guests after every auction. NXUnite by Nexus Marketing recommends retaining your donors by following up promptly about the impact of their contributions, so they know exactly how they made a difference in your school’s success.

Data is the key to informing your auction planning process. Reference previous audience, auction items, and campaign data points to discover your baseline metrics. From there, you can supplement your data with new insights to refine your strategy.

Remember to follow data hygiene best practices, such as standardizing data inputs and scheduling regular data back-ups to keep your auction information accurate, reliable, and useful in the long term.

Association Event Tools and How to Leverage Their Data

July 6, 2024/in Data Management /by Contributor

Association events are essential for providing value to members but are also often costly investments. This can put pressure on your team as they try to balance your budget while still creating an engaging experience for your members.

That’s why your trade or professional association should leverage the right event management tools to boost attendance, maximize engagement, streamline operations, and make the most of each event.

We’ve identified essential association event software solutions and what features to look for in each tool. Make sure that you come prepared with these tools for your next event:

Event Management Software
Community Engagement Platform
An Event Platform
Membership Data Software

Ready to supercharge your in-person, hybrid, or virtual association events? We’ll explore top solutions and practices for making the most of them, from practicing good data hygiene to ensuring you choose the right vendor for your needs.

Event Management Software

Event management software refers to a broad set of tools that help associations plan, promote, and manage events. This software facilitates every step of the event lifecycle, from multichannel marketing to post-event reports. Plus, these systems improve the event experience for organizers and attendees alike.

That being said, some event management systems are more comprehensive than others. If you’re looking for an all-in-one platform to manage the creation and execution of your events, a few top features to keep an eye out for include:

The ability to plan and manage all event formats—virtual, hybrid, and in-person
Easy-to-use, mobile-optimized forms to streamline registration
Ticketing and QR code or barcode scanning capabilities
Seamless data integration with your association management software
Reports on event and attendee data
Management capabilities for vendors, sponsors, speakers, and exhibitors

When assessing event management software, be aware that many top providers cater to a range of audiences and may not have association-specific features. Narrow your search to vendors used to working with associations and have the resources you need to host your unique networking events, new member welcome meetings, conferences, online courses, and other events.

Community Engagement Platform

Associations don’t just need tools to host their events but to announce events, promote them, and continue conversations long after each event wraps up.

This is where a community engagement platform comes in. These tools enable associations to create private online platforms where their members can post content, interact with one another, and engage with your association’s offerings. Think of it as creating your own private Facebook or LinkedIn just for your association’s members.

When assessing community engagement platforms, look for the following features:

Community feed. A community feed not only allows your members to connect with one another but also provides a place for your association to announce and promote events. Then, after the event wraps up, your team and your members can keep conversations going.
Event hosting. Your community engagement platform should have basic video conferencing software for hosting virtual events. Plus, even if you have other event hosting tools, your community engagement platform should still have event scheduling tools so members can RSVP and stay updated with all event details.
Marketing automation. Prior to your event, your community engagement platform can send alerts to RSVPed members to remind them about your event. Schedule when these reminders go out, such as one week, a day, and an hour before the event.
Sponsorship promotions. Look for community engagement platforms that open the door to non-dues revenue opportunities, like sponsorships. For example, our favorite community engagement platform, Tradewing, allows associations to promote sponsors through a visible but non-obtrusive tab during events.

For trade and professional associations on a budget, Tradewing can double as your community engagement platform and your virtual event software. Compared to subscriptions for services like Zoom, you might find an all-in-one platform like Tradewing to be the most cost-effective option.

An Event Platform

Virtual and hybrid events are essential for engaging members throughout the year for many associations. As such, it’s essential to invest in an online event space where all attendees can gather to enjoy everything your association offers.

While there are plenty of free conferencing apps with basic streaming and discussion features, a dedicated event platform gives your association the power to connect with virtual attendees, encourage greater member engagement, and facilitate networking and community-building.

Many professional and trade associations have a significant number of members join solely to network. As such, hosting only a handful of in-person events a year isn’t optimal, nor are virtual events where attendees are passive.

Ensure your members get the most out of your event experience by seeking out an event platform that offers:

Live chat and reaction features
Polls, highlighted questions, and other interaction features
Virtual community and committee creation features
Viewable attendee profiles
Chat and video invitation capabilities

These tools aren’t only important for virtual attendees, but they also help in-person attendees use their mobile devices to connect with others and enjoy a fuller, multi-faceted event experience.

Membership Data Software and Resources

Events provide an opportunity for associations to connect with their members. If done correctly, your association can encourage members to move to higher membership tiers, purchase add-ons, or increase their value by engaging in other activities. However, this is only possible with high-quality membership data management.

Having software to manage your memberships makes it easy to continually learn about your members and enhance your event follow-up. When members first join your association, ask them to create detailed profiles. While they should be able to pick and choose which of this information is private, your association will have access to essential details you can leverage to improve your communications.

Using membership management software is the best way for your association to keep detailed records at your event so that you always know how to contact your members afterward.

Unsure what data you should be targeting? Here are some suggestions for what data you should collect:

Preferred name
Age
Email address
Phone number
Physical address
Employment status and employer
Educational background

You can ask for other information relevant to your association’s specific industry or about members’ interests and hobbies. While this may seem intensive, members are more likely to give out this information when completing their profiles since these details will help them network with other members.

Data Appends

If your association lacks member data or you fear your members’ information is outdated, you can ask members to take a second to update their profiles. If this proves ineffective, your emails are bouncing, or your physical invitations are being returned to sender, that might be a sign to kick your data collection practices up a notch with a data append.

Having updated records is critical in preserving your relationships with your members. Appending your data also encourages strong event turnout. Appending services such as those NPOInfo offers empower you to maintain contact with your members.

To conduct an append, reach out to secure appending services. During the appending process, you’ll share your members’ contact data with their team, who will then deliver appended records of phone numbers, email addresses, or any other information you request.

Regardless of whether you’re hosting a virtual networking fair or an in-person awards ceremony, all events can be improved when the right software is powering the planning, management, and hosting processes.

By taking advantage of the software platforms we’ve highlighted, you can increase member engagement, leverage your data, raise the value of your membership program, and reduce stress for your event organizing team.

The title of this piece on the left with a picture of students in a classroom on the right.

How Your School Can Leverage Donation Tracking: 4 Data Tips

July 2, 2024/in Data Management, Donor Management /by NPOInfo

As a school, charitable gifts from parents, students’ families, and other members of the community are what help you offer the best, most enriching educational experiences possible. This funding helps make things like fun field trips and school-wide events and celebrations possible.

But, are you doing all you can to secure as much funding as possible? In addition to choosing fundraising ideas that align with your audience’s preferences and promoting your campaigns, accurately tracking data can help make your fundraisers successful.

In this guide, we’ll explore a few tips your school can use to accurately track donations and gain insights to boost revenue.

Use the right fundraising software.

A key part of fundraising is accepting as many payment methods as possible, giving your supporters the flexibility and convenience to choose what works best for them. However, this can quickly become complicated from a financial and data-tracking standpoint.

For example, how can you consolidate data from multiple sources like the donation form embedded on your school website, third-party payment apps, and more? The answer is to select specialized school fundraising software that will track and aggregate your donation data.

Solutions like 99Pledges offer reports that reveal highlights like total donations and number of participants as well as more granular, line-by-line details about individual donors. In addition to these reports, 99Pledges’ guide to kids’ fundraising ideas recommends using this fundraising tool because it:

Leverages digital fundraising, helping organizations offer more flexibility to how donors give.
Can expand your school’s fundraising potential by reaching geographically remote donors.
Allows for a lot of flexibility and creativity when choosing a fundraising idea.

Combined, these benefits mean that your school can launch creative, successful campaigns all while keeping a handle on its fundraising data.

Consider data appends.

Once you have the right solution in place and start seeing your donor data roll in, you might notice some gaps in the information. While you’ll be able to see basic details about donors, like their name and preferred giving method, you may not be privy to other information without performing a data append.

Data appending simply adds new information to your database, either by correcting and updating your existing file or supplementing it with information from external sources. Some of the most common types of data appends include:

Contact information appends: Collect donors’ contact information, including phone numbers, email addresses, and home addresses.
Employer appends: Learn who your donors’ employers are. This can be particularly helpful for securing matching gifts and other corporate gifts from their employers.
Demographic information appends: Append information like donors’ age, gender, income, marital status, and more to build more targeted communication strategies.
Social media appends: Update and add information about donors’ social media usage. Then, you can use this information to learn more about them through their profiles, engage them via their preferred platform, and invite them to follow you.

So, what would using data appends look like for your school? Let’s say your school’s baseball team needs to fundraise to travel to an out-of-state baseball camp, and you decide to perform demographic and employer data appends. The former helps you choose the perfect baseball fundraising idea to excite and engage your target audience. The latter identifies donors who work for companies with matching gift programs so you can remind them to apply for a matched gift.

The best way to safely enrich your data—and keep it clean and organized—is to work with a professional service. Research and meet with candidates before selecting one to ensure you choose the right option for your school.

Keep data clean and organized.

“Garbage in, garbage out,” is a commonly used phrase in the computer science world that sums up the impact of using low-quality data. In other words, if your data is flawed, outdated, or poor quality, any insights or output from that data will be too.

Proper data management and data hygiene practices can keep the garbage out of your database. Frequently audit your donation data to resolve issues like:

Duplicated entries for the same donor or donation
Incomplete information about donations
Outdated information (e.g., a donor moves and their address has changed)
Data formats not being standardized

Once you’ve corrected these issues, you can use your clean, accurate donation data in many ways. For example, use your average daily donation amount to make accurate predictions about whether you’ll reach your fundraising goal—and, if you’re not on track, make an effort to course correct. Or, follow Double the Donation’s advice and gamify the process by using a fundraising thermometer to publicly track your progress toward the goal.

Set up automated processes.

Finally, use your fundraising software and donation data to take some of the repetitive fundraising tasks off your plate. Automation can streamline repetitive, rote tasks like sending:

Donation receipts: These receipts are legally required for any cash gifts over $250, making them a pain point for many schools. However, automation ensures that donors receive accurate receipts immediately following their donation. Make sure the receipts include key information such as the donor’s name, the amount they donated, and whether the donor received anything in return for their gift.
Reminders to pay pledged donations: With pledged donations, donors pledge to give a certain amount at a later date. For example, you might hold a walk-a-thon and collect pledges based on how far participants walk. Automated reminders can prompt donors to donate the pledged amount or simply remind them that you’ll be billing the donation to them.
Thank-you messages: Cultivate long-term relationships with donors by sending them heartfelt thank-you messages. Choose an action, in this case donating, that will trigger a thank-you message within 24 to 72 hours. Don’t forget to make these messages genuine, personalized, and authentic. Greet the donor by name, mention their specific gift, and tell them how their individual donation will make a difference at your school.

When using automation, always remember to balance efficiency and convenience for your fundraising team with personalization. The last thing you want is for your school’s communications to feel cold or robotic.

While tracking your donations may seem like a minor step you could skip over, it’s critical to successful fundraising. To truly understand and efficiently engage with your supporters, make sure to choose a tool that will do the heavy lifting for you. Then, you’ll have easy access to data that reveals who your school’s supporters are, their giving habits and motivations, and ways to inspire them to give again and again.

The title of the text over an image of someone typing on a computer with graphs next to them, representing data-driven fundraising.

4 Data-Driven Fundraising Trends: Staying Ahead in the Field

June 26, 2024/in Data Management, Donor Management /by NPOInfo

Staying on top of the latest and greatest in fundraising is essential for improving your nonprofit’s strategy and continuing to raise enough money to support your cause. In today’s fundraising climate, many of the hottest trends have one thing in common: data.

When you put data at the forefront of your strategy, you can dive deeper into your donor base’s specific preferences to create fundraising campaigns they’re likely to engage with. Check out some of the current data-driven fundraising trends and tips for how your nonprofit can stay ahead.

1. Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics refers to the use of algorithms and machine learning to analyze data and make predictions based on that information. In the context of fundraising, predictive analytics can help you transform donor data into important insights that guide your fundraising decisions.

According to BWF’s guide to AI fundraising, there are three main types of predictive models nonprofits can use:

Giving behavior models. These models can predict factors like individual donors’ preferred giving channels, likelihood of renewal, and likely next gift amounts.
Predictive scoring. You may use predictive analytics to assign your donors engagement scores and categorize them based on recency, frequency, and monetary (RFM) value.
Giving program success models. Predictive analytics can also help you determine how successful different giving programs could be, such as annual giving, major giving, and planned giving.

Perhaps one of the most common use cases of predictive analytics for fundraising is donor prospecting. You can use predictive analytics tools to streamline the wealth screening process, identify potential major donors, find which donors are most likely to upgrade their giving, and more.

To successfully incorporate predictive analytics into your fundraising strategy, follow these tips:

Determine your goals. Before you dive into predictive analytics, choose fundraising goals to guide how you’ll use this technology. For example, the model you create will look very different based on whether you’re focusing on donor retention, prospecting, or planned giving.
Clean your data. The more accurate your data is, the better your predictions will be. Follow data hygiene best practices, such as auditing your database, appending missing data, and standardizing data entry, to prepare it for predictive analytics.
Choose the right tools. To implement predictive analytics, you’ll need to rely on the appropriate tools and technology to get the job done. Research your options, or outsource the process to an AI fundraising consultant for help.

2. Segmentation and Personalization

Donors crave personalized experiences. They want to feel special and know that your organization values their individual contributions to your cause and community.

The best way to personalize your communications is through segmentation. Segmentation is the process of grouping donors based on similar characteristics to better personalize your messaging to them. Nonprofits may segment their donors based on:

Average donation amount
Donation frequency
Donation recency
Donor lifecycle stage
Demographics
Communication preferences
Engagement level
Interests related to your cause

When segmenting your donors, it’s important that your nonprofit:

Defines its segmentation criteria. As you can see above, there are so many different ways you can segment your donors. Determine which segmentation criteria make the most sense based on your current goals, campaigns, and data.
Tailors its campaigns. Once you’ve successfully grouped your supporters, put your segments to use. Let’s say you’re running a discount card fundraiser. ABC Fundraising recommends this type of campaign because it allows you to gather support for local businesses and raise money for your cause. To maximize the success of your discount card fundraiser, you can use your donor demographic segments to help you choose businesses to partner with that reflect your target audience’s preferences. For instance, you could add a toy store to your discount cards if many of your supporters have children.
Updates its segments over time. As your donor base grows and changes, so should your segments. Reassess your segmentation strategy regularly to ensure it still reflects your supporters and their needs, and make adjustments where necessary.

3. Automation and Artificial Intelligence

AI can be a controversial topic, but when used correctly, it can help automate nonprofit fundraising processes and allow you to focus on more mission-critical tasks.

In addition to predictive analytics, your nonprofit can use AI for:

Donor segmentation. To more efficiently segment your donors, you can use AI to identify patterns in your donor base and group your donors accordingly.
Donor stewardship. Let’s say you’ve just wrapped up your school fundraiser and have a ton of tasks still on your plate but want to ensure you thank donors as soon as possible. You can use AI to automate thank-you messages to your donors before sending them more heartfelt notes once you have the time.
Donor support. If your inbox is full of donor questions, you may benefit from embedding an AI-powered chatbot on your website. This tool can help provide donor support by answering simple questions, guiding donors through the donation process, or giving them information about upcoming programs or events.

Using AI carefully and ethically is key. Follow these tips for responsible AI use:

Protect data privacy. You should store any donor data you’re collecting and using to power your AI fundraising efforts in a secure database or constituent relationship management (CRM) system. Make sure your platform has features like two-factor authentication, access controls, and SOC 2 Type II compliance.
Be transparent. Donors may be wary when they hear you’re using AI to process their data. Make it clear how exactly you’re leveraging their data to maintain donor trust, and let donors opt out of having their data used in your AI tools if they wish.
Hold your organization accountable. To keep your nonprofit accountable for responsible AI use, develop internal AI policies and guidelines for your team to follow. You should also have procedures for addressing any donor concerns about your AI use.

4. Impact Reporting

Donors want to know that you’re using their gifts responsibly. Many donors are happy to continue supporting your cause—under the unspoken caveat that you’re using their hard-earned funds to help those in need and drive your mission forward.

Keep donors updated on the facts and figures that demonstrate the outcomes of your fundraising efforts by:

Creating and sharing an annual report. An annual report is a document that summarizes your nonprofit’s activities for the past year. Include all important data points that illustrate the impact of donors’ contributions, and share the report with all stakeholders.
Using visualizations. Make the data in your annual report easy to digest by developing accompanying visualizations. Use a variety of charts and graphs to accurately depict your fundraising results and impact.
Incorporating storytelling. In addition to data, feature stories in your report that demonstrate exactly how your donors have allowed you to assist your beneficiaries. For example, an environmental conservation organization may explain that their flower fundraiser allowed them to move forward with their efforts to rescue endangered species like the Sumatran orangutan. They may highlight that one of the orangutans they rescued named Rue is now being rehabilitated at a local zoo thanks to donors’ generosity.

At the end of the day, your nonprofit aims to make a difference and help its beneficiaries as best it can. When you implement the most current data-driven fundraising trends, you can optimize your fundraising operations and maximize the support you gather for your mission.