This guide explores three ways your nonprofit can use its CRM data to drive the decisions that will boost its impact.

3 Ways Your CRM Data Can Drive Nonprofit Decisions

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For a nonprofit to truly impact the communities it serves, thoughtful decision-making must guide its fundraising efforts, programs, and other activities. 

But to make these decisions, you must be equipped with more than just the authority of your leadership position.

A collection of data about your nonprofit’s work can give you the context you need to make crucial decisions, and your constituent relationship management (CRM) software is a treasure trove of this helpful information. Let’s take a closer look at three ways your CRM data can drive decision-making for your organization.

Encourage Further Involvement

Your nonprofit’s donors will make it to different points of the donor journey. The ones that stick around for the long haul are loyal supporters with whom you should develop strong relationships. Newly acquired or less involved donors simply have an ever-increasing potential to achieve a level of loyalty, and your CRM data can point both out.

Use your CRM data to understand donors’ giving frequencies and track important metrics, such as:

  • Donor retention rate: What percentage of your supporters continue to give to your organization? Learning your donor retention rate can help you identify how many donors continue their involvement, which ones keep giving, and help you start thinking about how to increase that number. According to Double the Donation, you can also use the data from your CRM to develop a donor retention program that will help you encourage donors to continue giving in specific ways.
  • Gift amount history: Is there a pattern or trend in giving? Can you see different data when you segment your audiences? If you discover that your fundraising trends increase seasonally, or with a certain demographic, you have insights on where to focus your efforts. When there’s a significant change from the historical data, you can address it—either by doubling down on what’s working or exploring what could be going wrong.
  • Donor lifetime value: Donor lifetime value (LTV) is a critical metric for nonprofits. It not only shows you donor behavior in the past, but it can help you predict fundraising revenues in the future. LTV is also an important tool when your nonprofit is looking for major gift donors.

Equipped with this donor data, you’ll be able to better understand patterns of involvement. That way, your nonprofit can plan involvement opportunities that appeal to its supporters and encourage them to stay involved.

Communicate Based on Donor Segments

The data about your donors collected in your CRM can help you learn more about them and how to better communicate with them. Not only will you observe communication preferences, such as the channels your donors most actively engage with, but you’ll also learn what content appeals to them and how to craft your donation ask to most resonate with them. 

Also, when your CRM manages donor communications for you, you can even more easily put this data to work. CharityEngine’s guide to nonprofit CRMs recommends searching for a CRM that streamlines donor communications through features such as:

  • Email campaigns: The right CRM helps you create customized emails that represent your organization’s brand and populate supporters’ names in the salutation by using information from their donor profiles. For example, you can create a thank-you email using the donor’s name, email address, and information about the size of their gift and the program they supported.
  • Direct mail marketing: Direct mail isn’t dead! Many nonprofits get most of their fundraising dollars from direct mail. When you have a CRM that offers all the tools fundraisers need, you can easily plug direct mail into a highly effective omnichannel campaign.
  • Automated messages: Set up automated thank-yous to send recipients a quick confirmation immediately after a fundraiser. You might prepare different messages for each audience segment, such as a summary of the donation amount for donors and a recap of volunteer hours served for volunteers.

Be sure to keep additional communication data hygienic to avoid sending messages to the wrong contact information or targeting the wrong supporters. Conduct a data append to ensure all your information is correct, then maintain it by standardizing your data input processes and cleaning the database regularly.

Plan Future Fundraising Events

When you analyze your fundraising data, you’ll be able to better understand which efforts were successful, which ones weren’t, and how you can improve them to boost donations in the future. Track the following data through your CRM: 

  • Event attendance: This information can help you determine the most effective and appealing event types and activities to engage your supporters.
  • Donor satisfaction: After your event, ask attendees what they thought. Was there an opportunity for them to engage, and at what rate did they engage? Figure out what worked so you can repeat it!
  • Event revenue: It’s important to measure event revenue, but then dig deeper. What raised more money, the ticket sales or the auction? Drill down into where your nonprofit makes the most fundraising money.

Your data isn’t the only tool that will help you plan future fundraising events. The CRM itself can support your fundraising initiatives through features such as secure payment processing for nonprofits. After using data to plan your event, execute it well by leveraging your CRM’s other tools to make donating and getting involved easy for supporters.

Your nonprofit’s data is an important resource for decision-making. To add on to the data your CRM automatically collects, conduct your own research to learn even more about your donors and how you can improve your fundraising efforts. For example, you might send out a donor survey to ask for their opinions on a specific project and your approach to serving the community. The more data you have, the more accurate the conclusions you derive from it will be.

 

Improving your website with web analytics starts with tracking these five metrics.

Improve Your Website with Web Analytics: 5 Important Metrics

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Your nonprofit collects data all the time, from supporters’ communication preferences to their giving habits, demographics, and more. You probably use this information to enhance your fundraising and marketing campaigns to better appeal to supporters’ interests. Did you know you can also use data to help improve your website?

Website data gathered from sources like Google Analytics, along with donor data from your nonprofit’s CRM, can be used to develop a website that speaks to your audience and drives engagement. We’ll review these five specific metrics that can help you design a better website: 

  1. Donation page metrics
  2. Demographic data 
  3. Split testing results
  4. User behavior metrics
  5. Traffic sources

You can gather and assess this information on your own, or turn to a nonprofit web design professional to help translate your data into actionable insights. Either way, using your data to make informed web design decisions will pay off in the long run when you can generate more online support. 

1. Donation page metrics

Your nonprofit’s online donation page is the tool that turns casual website visitors into supporters. Understanding where your donation page is succeeding and where it’s missing the mark can help you make informed design decisions that boost your online fundraising results. 

Here are a few of the most essential donation page metrics to keep an eye on: 

  • Click-through rate: This is the percentage of website visitors who click on the link to your online donation page. You can boost your click-through rate by developing more enticing calls to action (CTAs) or by featuring your giving page more prominently on your website’s homepage or main menu. 
  • Conversion rate: This metric measures the percentage of people who visit your online giving form and actually donate. To improve your conversion rate, Kanopi recommends emulating the top nonprofit websites by making the giving process as straightforward as possible. Keep the design simple and uncluttered, use a clear and consistent tone, and make the page mobile-friendly. 
  • Average online gift size: Compare this metric to your average gift size for other channels like direct mail. If your average online gift size is lower than expected, you can try to increase it by offering higher suggested donation amounts or giving donors the choice to cover additional processing fees. 

By using data to inform your donation page design strategy, you can increase online conversions and turn your website into a more effective fundraising channel. 

2. Demographic data

Knowing more about your supporters’ backgrounds can help you design a website that resonates with them. When it comes to managing and tracking donor data, your CRM is your most powerful tool. Use your CRM to track demographics that are meaningful and applicable to your organization. Those could include: 

  • Age
  • Gender
  • Ethnicity
  • Employment information
  • Education level

Consider this data when redesigning your website to better appeal to as many audience members as possible. For example, if you discover many donors work for companies that offer matching gift programs, you can better highlight matching gift opportunities across your website and online donation page. 

If your CRM is missing critical demographic information, you can conduct a demographic append to add extra details. A demographic append pulls information from third-party databases to help you fill gaps in your supporter information. 

3. Split testing results

Let’s say you’re looking to redesign your nonprofit website’s menu but you aren’t sure what type of navigation will work best for your audience. You may currently have a vertical sidebar menu but want to find out if horizontal navigation will work better. 

To determine the best path forward, you can carry out a split test (also known as an A/B test). You’ll create a new web page with a new URL that is identical to the original page but features a horizontal menu instead. Then, you’ll show both versions to similar audiences to gather feedback about which version performs better. 

Here is an example of what that A/B test might look like, with click-through rates shown for both menu options:

This image is an example of a split test, with a vertical navigation bar showing a 30% click-through rate and a horizontal navigation bar showing a 75% click-through rate.

In addition to your menu design, you can also conduct split testing for: 

  • Images
  • Videos
  • Calls to action (CTAs) 
  • Headers
  • Colors
  • Typography

You can assess practically any web design element with split testing to determine which options are more appealing to your audience. Through this evaluation, you can make informed decisions rather than acting on hunches. 

4. User behavior metrics

Different aspects of your website will naturally be more engaging than others, whether it’s your image slideshow, homepage video, or audience polls. You can determine exactly which page elements are most engaging by running a user behavior analysis. 

Using a website heatmap tool, you can understand how visitors engage with your website to determine opportunities for improvement and proactively identify user experience issues. 

Look into popular options like HotJar or explore the options available through your CMS. Drupal and WordPress both offer modules and plugins to conduct heatmap analysis in real-time.

Combine insights from a heatmap tool with Google Analytics to reveal the following metrics: 

  • Time on page. Determine how long visitors spend on each page before clicking away. 
  • Mouse tracking. See which buttons visitors click, how far they scroll down each page, and what areas of each page they ignore or engage with most. 
  • Direct user feedback via surveys. Incorporate website polls using feedback widgets to gather direct audience input. 

These user behavior metrics can help you collect data for your split tests, making it easier to determine the best path forward for your design choices. 

5. Traffic sources

Your website’s data can also reveal the success of your multichannel marketing efforts. By assessing your most popular traffic sources using Google Analytics, you can see which marketing channels drive the most cross-platform engagement.

Google Analytics groups traffic sources into the following categories:

  • Direct: typing your website’s URL into a browser
  • Referral: clicking a link to your website from another website
  • Social media: clicking a link to your website from a social media post
  • Email: clicking a link to your website from an email
  • Organic search: clicking a link to your website from a search engine
  • Paid search: clicking a link to your website from a paid search ad

Using this information, you can maximize your efforts on your most popular channels and build up outreach on other important channels that are underperforming.

For example, you might determine that your organic search traffic is thriving due to your robust SEO strategy, but your paid search ads could be more visible. In this case, you might consider applying for a Google Ad Grant. This program offers qualifying nonprofits $10,000 per month to spend on Google Ads, which are the paid search ads that appear at the top of search results pages.

Getting Attention’s guide to Google Ad Grant optimization recommends taking specific steps to make your paid search ad strategy more effective. These include using specific, long-tail keywords, targeting local audiences, and creating user-friendly, informational landing pages on your website.

Develop a process for continually reviewing these metrics with your nonprofit’s team. Practice good data hygiene by keeping your donor database and reporting processes organized and consistent. This will allow you to adapt to new audience preferences or trends to continue improving your website and appealing to supporters’ interests. 

 

Data from your association event can improve future event planning.

6 Post-Event Data Metrics Every Association Should Leverage

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Your association planned for months, coordinated with members and vendors, and the event was a hit! Even if an event goes according to plan, there are likely still areas of improvement. From enhancing attendance to increasing member satisfaction with the event to determining if you should use hybrid or virtual events, there are a plethora of data points to evaluate when it comes to planning your next event.

In this article we’ll discuss six post-event metrics your association can use to analyze event performance, make recommendations for the future, and maintain proper data hygiene.

1. Attendance Records

One of the best indications that an event started off strong is that all your registration spots were filled. A successful event begins far before the event day, when your association opens registration and begins promoting it. You’ll want to assess how quickly registration filled up and the time periods when the most registration forms were completed. This can give you some indication as to which marketing campaign strategies were most successful, as well as the time period when most people are willing to commit to an event. When thinking about general attendance records, be sure to compare your most recent data to previous events and years to evaluate if there are any overlapping patterns present.

You’ll also want to compare the number of registrants with the number of attendees, as this can help you plan for similar gaps in your future events and leave room for more attendees to register. Similarly, you’ll want to see if there was a drop off in attendance during multi-day events, or even session to session. This can help you determine if there are specific topics or speakers that attendees are more or less eager to engage with.

2. Membership attendance

Depending on the size and purpose of the event, it may have attracted industry peers outside of your association membership’s pool as well as current members. According to Fonteva’s member engagement guide, events can be key in getting members involved with your association, which is essential to improving retention rates.

While events are a great way to gain new members, current member attendance and satisfaction should be a key focus in your event analysis. Consider the following questions when assessing member event attendance:

  • What percentage of attendees were members?
  • How many members of your association registered?
  • What percentage of your total membership attended?
  • Was the event attended more by a specific group within your association?
  • Are there any common demographics or interest areas among members who did attend?
  • How many members registered but did not attend?

You can use your membership directory to send out post-event surveys specifically for members after the event. Tracking members’ feedback and implementing changes in response can boost retention rates by helping you cater to their interests, make events more engaging, and create a more positive member experience.

3. Satisfaction Rate

Within the satisfaction survey, vary the questions to give attendees an opportunity to express how they felt about the overall event. By leaving questions open-ended and avoiding leading questions, you’ll get more accurate responses and more useful data. Include short answers, multiple choice, yes/no, and scaled questions within the survey.

Here are some examples of questions to ask attendees about your event:

  • How do you rate your experience at this event on a scale of 1-10?
  • Would you recommend this event to a friend or colleague?
  • Was this event what you expected? Why or why not?
  • Which sessions or speakers stood out to you?
  • Was there anything you felt was missing from this event?

While asking questions can provide valuable feedback for your association, keep the survey relatively short to encourage more responses. This survey is also a helpful way to confirm you have attendee contact information correct in case there are any contact appends needed for your member directory. In addition to sending association members a post-event survey, you can also create separate surveys for registrants who did not attend to determine if there is a common factor in the lack of attendance.

4. Session analytics

Events are a valuable opportunity for association members to engage with fellow professionals in their field, learn from industry leaders, and get involved with your association’s programs. To continue providing these valuable experiences, it’s important to ascertain what parts of events members find most appealing and helpful.

If you’ve hosted a virtual or hybrid event, look at how many individuals tuned in to a keynote speakers’ presentation, when most people began logging off, or how many individuals tuned in each day of the event. Assessing what speakers, topics, or sessions had the most engagement can help you plan the next events’ programs to better engage members.

5. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Events provide your members valuable experience, but they should also be providing direct value and revenue for your association as well. Compare the cost of an event with the revenue produced to determine its value. If there is a gap in revenue produced and the cost, a secondary measure to evaluate would be new memberships and current member satisfaction. Because there will likely be new members as a result of events, it’s essential to have a value attributed to those who are joining to help you determine the overall ROI of the event.

6. Lead Generation

After determining the success of the overall event, it can be helpful to pinpoint what marketing tactics made the event successful. Consider what your association’s main funnel for obtaining registrants looks like and how you guided registrants to attend the event.

Here are some questions to ask while assessing the marketing of your event:

  • What marketing channels were you using (such as your association website, email, or social media)?
  • Is there and example of specific marketing language that was successful?
  • Did the timeline of marketing match what you anticipated for registration?
  • How did internal (marketing to existing members within the association) and external (marketing to potential members outside the association) marketing efforts compare?

To host a successful event, your association needs attendees. Get as many individuals as possible in the door by determining what worked best in your past event marketing campaigns.

Remember, the work doesn’t end immediately after an event! It’s crucial to review your association’s event information as quickly as possible. By sending surveys out soon after the event, attendees will have a fresh perspective and helpful feedback. Similarly, reviewing event data will give your association ample time to implement any needed changes to ensure planning for the next event is as productive as possible.

Author: Erin Lemons


Erin Lemons joins Togetherwork Association Solutions with over 15 years serving as a marketing director, event producer, and project manager creating robust marketing campaigns and initiatives that focus on the growing and ever-changing technology needs of the association industry. She leads the marketing teams and strategy at Fonteva and Protech.

Leverage data for more effective small business marketing.

4 Data-Driven Tips for Successful Small Business Outreach

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Whether you own a dog grooming business, coffee shop, or yoga studio, external communications and marketing should be a top priority for your small business. With effective outreach, you can see improved brand recognition, increased customer support, and greater sustainable growth.

From managing your database to collecting actionable metrics, these four data-driven tips will help your small business establish an outreach strategy that succeeds well into the future.

1. Update customer information with a data append.

If you’re looking to strengthen your outreach strategy, consider partnering with a data append provider. Appending data is the process of using a third-party source to update existing information and add new information to your company’s database. When done correctly, it ensures that you’re contacting and marketing to the right people.

Common information to append includes:

  • Phone numbers
  • Email addresses
  • Physical mailing addresses
  • Social media accounts

Keep in mind that the data you choose to append should be dependent on your larger goals. For instance, If you already have a strong understanding of your target audience, but don’t have the information to contact them, you should invest in a phone or email append. On the other hand, if you’re launching a social media campaign, you would benefit from adding each supporter’s social media account information to your records.

2. Leverage segmentation for greater personalization.

One of the first things you should do for effective outreach is adapt your messaging for different audiences through segmentation. Segmenting, or grouping customers based on shared characteristics, allows you to tailor your messaging to the unique interests and preferences of each customer. For instance, if you have a large segment of Millennial customers, you can make a strong case for reaching out to them through Instagram and Facebook, as social media content performs well among this demographic.

Small businesses most often segment their customers by:

  • Demographics
  • Geographic location
  • Engagement history
  • Communication preferences
  • Customer loyalty

Invest in a database or software solution to organize this important information and group customers effectively. For instance, Gingr’s pet business software has custom filters that allow you to segment customers into target groups, so the right people get the right message at the right time.

3. Take an omnichannel approach to marketing.

After segmenting customers into well-defined groups, it’s time to appeal to their preferences and solicit their support. An omnichannel marketing approach provides your audience with a unified shopping experience. It takes into account which channel each person is using and what their relationship is to your business, such as whether they’re a prospective or recurring customer.

Here’s an example of how the process could work for a dog training business:

  1. A new dog owner searches online for experienced trainers in the area and comes across an ad for your Dog Training 101 course.
  2. The prospective customer clicks on the ad and is directed to a registration page on your website.
  3. After filling out a form and registering for your course, they receive an automated thank-you message prompting them to explore additional products and services.
  4. The customer navigates to your online storefront and adds a collar and dog bowl to their cart. However, they abandon the page before checking out.
  5. Using the phone number that they provided in their initial registration form, you send a text message reminding them to revisit the items in their cart.
  6. The customer returns to the cart and submits their order.
  7. Finally, you use their mailing address to send a personalized thank-you card and informational flyer to help keep your business top of mind.

To solidify your omnichannel marketing strategy, Kwala’s guide to graphic design recommends maintaining consistent branding across your online and print messages. This helps your audience recognize, trust, and remember your small business.

4. Collect actionable metrics.

Once your marketing campaigns are up and running, collect and track data to make informed decisions about your current and future outreach efforts. Begin by analyzing the following metrics:

  • Email open and click-through rate
  • Social media engagement
  • Website traffic
  • Response rate by source

Based on this information, identify where your communications strategy is performing well and where it might be falling short. For instance, if you notice a high bounce rate on your website, you may need to update your web design to create a more seamless experience for users.

As you make these necessary improvements, remember to practice data hygiene. Ensuring that your marketing metrics are error-free by removing duplicate entries and updating inaccurate information will help you more easily interpret their meaning.

Outreach is vital to the success of your small business. By empowering your strategy with data, you can create meaningful messages that inspire long-term support.

About the Author

Casey Dorman

Hi, I’m Casey! I’m the Sales Manager at Gingr software.  Originally from Indianapolis, I now live in Colorado with my wife and dog, Dexter.  Our hobbies include hiking, skiing, and visiting local breweries.

Fundraising Innovation: Key Takeaways from NPOInfo’s Educational Panel with NXUnite

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As the donation landscape changes, bringing new approaches to nonprofits is essential to effective fundraising. On NXUnite’s “Upping Your Fundraising Game: New Tactics to Add to Your Roster” panel, speakers discussed innovative fundraising strategies.

Brian Lacy of NPOInfo was joined by DonorSearch Vice President Sarah TeDesco, Julia Beltran of Double the Donation, and DonationMatch CEO and co-founder Renee Zau. The panelists drew on their experiences in fundraising AI, data management, events, and software for this engaging conversation.

Here are three key insights from the panel:

  1. Take new approaches to fundraising
  2. Maintain good data
  3. Maximize your resources

1. Take new approaches to fundraising

The panelists began their conversation by addressing the value of taking new approaches to fundraising. NPOInfo’s Brian Lacy outlined two trends influencing the need for fundraising innovation.

First, nonprofits have been rated more poorly than corporate organizations in public opinion. This contributes to the second trend, which sees a decrease in the number of American families that report being philanthropic. Being aware of and responding to trends is essential to effective fundraising.

Responding to donor trends may mean adapting existing practices, not replacing them. For example, AI fundraising technology can modernize current efforts.  Brian observed that direct mail campaigns have decreased in scale, reflecting a reduced donor interest in receiving paper mail. However, direct mail campaigns can still be strategically targeted, reaching potential planned donors and donors who regularly give with checks.

2. Maintain good data

Throughout the panel, Brian Lacy stressed the importance of having good data. Donor data should be clean, organized, and accessible within an organization.

Brian shared a story about a nonprofit director who was unable to find information about past events in their system. In nonprofits with high turnover, information can be lost if it isn’t organized. This can be especially difficult for nonprofits when a major gift officer leaves, as all their donor conversations will be lost if there are no centralized records.

Good data is essential to a strong annual giving program. Brian noted that a simple data cleansing program is not expensive and can make other efforts more effective. Without data cleansing, emails may bounce back and phone-a-thon events may not reach donors.

3. Maximize your resources

Sarah TeDesco of DonorSearch addressed a challenge faced by many nonprofit professionals: allocating minimal resources for fundraising efforts. Stressing that there is no quick fix, Sarah noted that an organization’s first priority should be setting goals.

Key performance indicators (KPIs), are progress measures for specific objectives. To establish KPIs, Sarah suggested reaching out to other nonprofits and looking for common denominators in their fundraising efforts. This strategy allows you to identify areas where your organization can improve. Instead of trying to spread resources thinly over multiple initiatives, you can focus your efforts in your goal areas.

Major gift work is a goal area with potential for a high return on investment. Sarah noted that concentrating efforts on donor retention and securing major gifts can be an effective way to allocate limited resources.

Conclusion

Nonprofit organizations can adapt current practices, bring in new technology, and update their strategies in response to changing fundraising trends. Innovative fundraising practices allow your organization to continue to connect with donors and maximize your impact.

Why Your Nonprofit Should Be Collecting and Analyzing Data

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As a nonprofit fundraising or marketing professional, you’re always looking for ways to connect more deeply with your donors and create outreach campaigns that resonate with them. Whether it’s your online fundraising pushes or awareness campaigns, you want to develop content that speaks directly to your supporters’ preferences and motivations. 

These outreach efforts all have one thing in common — they’d all be vastly improved with the incorporation of data analytics. 

Never before have nonprofits had greater access to high-quality data, such as charitable giving statistics, as well as the necessary tools to collect and understand the data. This information can help guide your organization’s fundraising and marketing efforts to ensure you’re making the most of every supporter interaction.

In this quick guide, we’ll discuss the three reasons why your nonprofit should be collecting data: 

  1. Data collection is no longer out of reach.
  2. Data helps you connect with your donors.
  3. Data can improve your fundraising. 

We’ll also highlight a few best practices for editing and organizing your data properly to ensure you’re using it to its full potential. Let’s get started. 

1. Data collection is no longer out of reach. 

The first reason your nonprofit should be collecting and assessing data is because the process has never been easier. Software solutions specifically built for nonprofits have made data collection and analysis accessible for organizations of all sizes.

Let’s take a look at a few of these solutions and how they simplify and streamline the data collection process:

  • Nonprofit CRM: Your nonprofit’s CRM is your most important tool for collecting and assessing donor-related data. Plenty of nonprofits turn to comprehensive systems like the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) in place of other solutions to store and assess donor data using a robust database. With your donor database, you can store data regarding donors’ names, contact information, past giving history, event attendance, and more. Then, you can leverage this data in outreach campaigns and donor stewardship efforts to build genuine supporter relationships. 
  • Donation software:With powerful donation software, you can not only accept online payments but also automatically collect information about the individuals submitting those gifts, such as their names, contact information, and even how they heard about you. 
  • Event management software: Your nonprofit probably hosts a variety of events throughout the year, from fundraising 5Ks to galas, auctions, and more. Event management software allows you to easily track metrics such as ticket sales, total fundraising amount, and attendance rate. 

You might think these tools are only available to large, well-funded organizations, but the truth is that nonprofits of all sizes can access them. For instance, the Salesforce NPSP offers free subscriptions for up to 10 users from your organization. 

Also, while you may assume these tools are complicated to set up and use on an ongoing basis, that isn’t the case. The initial set-up for some of these solutions will take some work, but once they’re up and running, they can function nearly automatically and often integrate with your existing software platforms. This can save your team plenty of time and allow you to avoid any manual data entry and assessment tasks.

2. Data helps you connect with your donors.

Getting to know your supporters is probably one of the most pressing tasks you work on daily. When you prioritize building authentic relationships, it becomes much easier to ask for donations later on down the road. 

Using donor data, you can step into supporters’ shoes to understand their perspectives and figure out the best ways to reach them on a personal level. Collecting donor data allows you to: 

  • Personalize messages: You can use tools like your online donation form and CRM to store personal information that lets you get to know your donors better. Then, you can personalize outreach using donors’ names, referencing their previous involvement, and sending them new opportunities based on their past interests. 
  • Segment donors for tailored outreach: Using the donor data stored in your nonprofit CRM, you can group donors based on shared characteristics using a process called segmentation. For example, you might create groups for new donors, volunteers who haven’t yet donated, lapsed donors, and major donors. After you’ve defined these groups, you can send messages to each segment that resonate with their preferences and interests. This makes your outreach feel more relevant and relatable. 
  • Optimize marketing content: All of the marketing platforms you use, from your email marketing system to your social media pages, collect analytics about your audience’s behavior. These metrics allow you to understand which marketing messages supporters interacted with the most and why. You can capitalize on your most engaging strategies and adjust the ones that aren’t working as well to optimize your marketing content. 

Your supporters broadcast their preferences and interests constantly through the ways they interact with your organization. It’s your job to collect these data points and assess them strategically to connect with your audience more deeply. 

Supporters will feel much more inclined to continue connecting with your organization if you’ve made a serious effort to get to know them and appeal to their interests. This can help boost your donor retention rate and develop long-lasting donor relationships. 

3. Data can improve your fundraising. 

You may sometimes feel like your fundraising planning consists of a little bit of strategy and a little bit of luck. With data, you can make your campaigns more strategic by relying on hard facts rather than hunches or best guesses. 

Here are just some of the ways that data can improve your fundraising: 

  • Event analytics can help you determine why attendees decided to register, when they were most engaged throughout your events, and what influenced them to give to your mid-event fundraising pushes. Plus, you can collect data through event tools such as sign-up sheets or post-event surveys which ask supporters to provide feedback on their most and least favorite aspects of the experience. All of these factors allow you to plan a more engaging event next time around. 
  • Donation page data can help you determine your most popular donation amounts and donors’ preferred giving methods. Then, you can use this information to establish your suggested giving amounts and ensure that you have the proper payment processor system. 
  • Donor data can also allow you to craft more tailored fundraising requests. You can pull information from your CRM such as your donors’ names, titles, and past donation amounts to personalize your outreach and request an appropriate donation amount. 
  • Predictive data can help you conduct prospect research — the process of identifying potential major donors. NPOInfo’s guide to fundraising data explains that you can use your CRM to keep an eye on donor trends, such as donation size growth and increased participation in events and other opportunities. These trends might reveal that certain donors are willing and able to become major contributors. 

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how you can use data to optimize your fundraising campaigns. You can also keep track of overarching fundraising trends using data points such as your fundraising return on investment (ROI), online donation rate, and donor retention rate. All of these data points will give you a bird’s-eye view of the effectiveness of your fundraising strategies and where you should focus your energy. 

Before you can start collecting and leveraging data effectively, ensure your organization has a solid data hygiene strategy. Audit your existing data for irregularities, eliminate or correct errors, and establish standardized data entry procedures for your entire team to follow. 

Once your data is clean and organized, you’ll be able to rely on it for future fundraising and marketing campaigns. This can help boost your ROI since you’ll only be directing outreach to active supporters using their accurate contact information. 

When your organization has a clear plan for collecting and analyzing multiple types of data, you’ll be prepared to take on fundraising challenges with an informed, data-driven strategy. 

 

About the Author

Karin Tracy

Karin Tracy, VP of Marketing at Fíonta, is a seasoned designer and marketer with a passion for serving nonprofit organizations and being a small part of bettering the world. She is a certified Pardot Consultant and Marketing Cloud Email Specialist, a fan of automation and reporting, a lover of animals, and devourer of popcorn.

At Fíonta, Karin drives marketing efforts for all internal and external projects. Her direct service work is focused primarily on marketing strategy and automation for Fíonta’s MCAE (Pardot) clients.

Donor Cultivation: Top Insights from NPOInfo’s Educational Panel with NXUnite

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NPOInfo’s Brian Lacy joined Amy Boroff of Amplifi and Martha H. Schumacher of Hazen and HILT for NXUnite’s “Cultivating Relationships: Strategies for Getting to Know Your Donors” panel. Each panelist brought their industry expertise to this panel and offered valuable insights into donor cultivation. 

Over the course of the hour-long panel, the speakers shared information about building your donor base and answered questions from a live audience Q&A. The panelists provided tips for organizations new to donor cultivation, strategies for starting donor cultivation initiatives, and guidance on building sustainable cultivation practices.  

Here are three key takeaways from the discussion: 

    1. Learn More About Your Donors
    2. Highlight Donors’ Impact
    3. Reshare Key Points in Donor Communications


Learn More About Your Donors

Understanding your current donor base is foundational to donor cultivation. Amy Boroff offered suggestions for learning more about your supporters, highlighting surveys as a simple way to get to know your donors. 

Surveys can be leveraged to understand what current donors are interested in. Ask donors what kinds of programming they would like to see, and learn who has participated in past initiatives. 

This is also an opportunity to discover your supporters’ goals for your organization and what motivates them to give. Knowing what drives your supporters to give is an important aspect of conversion, from small appeals to year-end major gifts. 

Answers to your survey questions provide valuable insights into your donor demographics and interests. This information can be used to construct your ideal donor profile and focus cultivation efforts on your target supporters.

 

Highlight Donors’ Impact

Following up with your donors after an event is an essential step in facilitating donor engagement. Phone calls, handwritten notes, or thoughtful gifts are effective ways to recognize supporters. Brian Lacy of NPOInfo also described the importance of communicating an event’s success to supporters, noting that even donors who do not attend events are invested in your organization’s impact. 

Lacy suggested dividing your event budget in thirds. One-third of the budget should be spent promoting the event, and the second third should be used for the event itself. The final third of your budget should be dedicated to sharing the success of an event with your supporters. 

Talking about what happened at the event and its positive impact shows donors what your organization accomplished with their investment. This encourages them to continue their support.

 

Reshare Key Points in Donor Communications

When communicating with donors, repetition can ensure that your message reaches the most people. Brian Lacy emphasized that though nonprofit professionals see their communications every day, donors may only see them once. Repeatedly contacting donors allows them to notice and think about your messages.  

Repeated communications can be used to target specific audiences. After sending an email to a group of donors, Lacy suggests resending the same email with a different subject line to people who didn’t open the first message. 

In addition to increasing email open rate, resending emails with new subject lines provides data on which subject line is most effective. In combination with fundraising data analytics, this data can inform your approach to donor outreach.

 

Conclusion

Effective communication with current donors and ongoing outreach to potential supporters builds a strong donor base. Through donor cultivation efforts, your organization can foster an engaged donor base and expand your capacity to make an impact.