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Fundraising Tuesday: Nonprofit Database Management–5 Tips to Improve Donor Data

March 29, 2022 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

A guest post by Gabrielle Perham at AccuData

Most nonprofit professionals understand how important donor data can be. After all, these metrics are your roadmap to improving donor communications, fundraising strategies, and dozens of other important functions.

But just because you understand the importance of data doesn’t mean that you’re storing or using it effectively. In fact, over 76% of nonprofit organizations have yet to develop a dedicated data strategy, and many struggle to effectively manage their donor databases. To help you cut through the clutter and make the most of your data, consider these top nonprofit database management tips:

  • Perform data audits
  • Standardize data entry and management
  • Implement cybersecurity measures
  • Invest in data enhancement
  • Optimize marketing and outreach

Even if your database is well-maintained, these nonprofit data hygiene and management strategies can help you boost functionality and leverage your data to its fullest potential!

Perform data audits

How are you supposed to begin addressing problems in your nonprofit database if you don’t know what they are?

According to Re:Charity’s data hygiene best practices, data audits are one of the first and most important steps of conducting a cleanse of your data records, giving you a high-level overview of specific issues, systemic weaknesses, and the overall health of your database.

Data audits are good at exposing inaccurate and outdated information. Plus, this diagnostic check-up should also expose areas of your database where your current data management practices are the most ineffective.

Standardize data entry and management

Effective nonprofit data management is about far more than just conducting mass database cleanses every so often. Instead, create a standardized process for recording and managing data. This can go a long way to make information quicker to find, locate errors more easily, and prevent mistakes before they happen.

For example, you might:

  • Standardize entry for mailing addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers.
  • Standardize abbreviations for common titles, numbers, and phrases.
  • Standardize and record protocols for verifying information, removing incorrect or redundant information, and reporting system issues.

These measures should cut down on time spent during your data audits, prevent a build-up of widespread system errors, and ensure that your data is clean, secure, and accurate.

Implement cybersecurity measures

As mission-based organizations funded by public goodwill, nonprofits are especially vulnerable to the negative press brought on by fraud and hacking scandals. To protect your donors and your nonprofit database from these online scams, implement nonprofit cybersecurity measures, like:

  • Get an SSL certificate for your nonprofit website, which should repel data fraud, boost public confidence, and increase website traffic
  • Leverage PCI-compliant payment tools, which abide by official credit card security standards to offer the highest levels of payment data protection
  • Educate staff on how to identify and address fraud, such as dealing with phishing scams and suspicious emails

For specialized tips and guidance, you may even invest in a professional nonprofit data service, which can carefully review and provide expert strategies to protect and manage your nonprofit database.

Invest in data enhancement

Beyond dealing with “bad” or “dirty” data, another important aspect of database management is strengthening your data. This is where data enhancement, or data append, can provide a powerful boost to your data strategies.

Data enhancement is the process of pulling data, such as donor demographics or geolocation, from external resources to enrich your outreach and marketing techniques. To conduct a data append, take a look at these critical steps from AccuData’s guide to data enhancement:

  1. Outline your organization’s marketing goals, noting what data is most important to achieve them.
  2. Partner with a professional data provider to enrich your data.
  3. Compare your internal with external datasets to align these records.
  4. Pull external data to integrate with your internal records, creating a richer outlook of your donors.

Once you’ve dealt with important issues in your nonprofit database, an effective data append can help to take your data strategies to the next level. In particular, it can strengthen donor outreach, improve your nonprofit SEO practices, and refine your nonprofit marketing strategies.

Optimize marketing and outreach

Once you’ve properly cleaned, refined, and enhanced the information in your nonprofit database, it’s finally time to launch data-driven strategies for the benefit of your nonprofit. For example, consider these fundamental techniques to improve your nonprofit data marketing:

  • Use predictive modeling to anticipate future donor behavior and build more effective outreach.
  • Segment donor data, grouping donors by characteristics that would best inform your marketing strategy.
  • Set key performance indicators to measure the success of your campaigns.

 

Nonprofit database management is about more than just tidying up your records—it includes the collection, upkeep, and use of your data to more effectively market your brand and appeal to donors. With these data-driven insights, you should be able to confidently tackle the challenges in your nonprofit database, acquire new donors, and inspire greater donations than ever before.


Author: Gabrielle Perham, MBA, Director of Marketing

Gabrielle is the Director of Marketing for AccuData Integrated Marketing. She joined the organization in 2017 and possesses more than 15 years of experience in strategic marketing, branding, communications, and digital marketing. She earned a B.S. in Marketing and an M.B.A in Marketing Management from the University of Tampa.

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Fundraising Tuesday: How to Keep Donors Coming Back after the First Gift

April 13, 2021 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

Here’s the simple secret that every nonprofit organization should know about donors:

They are not your donors. You are one of their charities. Share on X

And maybe, not for long.

Seven out of ten donors who gave to an organization for the first time in 2019 did not renew in 2020–even though giving was up dramatically overall!

Donors who have given to you one time will not give to you again–unless you connect with them, appreciate them as people, reply to their communications, and encourage them to take the next step that expresses their values.

John Haydon

John Haydon

Connect, Appreciate, Reply, Encourage. In other words, CARE.

And the late, great John Haydon can show you exactly how. His book Donor Care: How to Keep Donors Coming Back after the First Gift is your essential guide to donor love.

 

Why You Should Read This Book

Are you a complete beginner at nonprofit fundraising? Then here’s what you’ll get out of this book: you’ll understand why caring for donors feels good, makes the world better, and raises more money–all at the same time!

If you’re on staff at a nonprofit, and you need to convince your Executive Director and your Board that showing the love to your existing donors is the place to spend your time and budget, you will love the stories and data that John gives you to make your case.

If you’re convinced but don’t know where to start, this book gives you a roadmap. If you’ve started but need to get organized, the CARE framework will help you make sure you’re doing all the most important things.

And if you’re an experienced fundraiser like me, you will find wonderful new ideas and even more valuable reminders of the how-tos of Donor Care in every chapter. You might even want to take the next year and systematically go through the book, using it as a springboard for improvement and a checklist to make sure you don’t miss a trick.

I am biased, because John Haydon was a friend of mine. and I love hearing his voice again on every page of this book. But I know that you will too! Donor Care is like sitting down and having a good conversation with someone who tells stories and jokes, shares his wisdom, and helps you find your own. Read this book now.

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Fundraising Tuesday: Where to Find New Donors

October 10, 2017 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

If you have to put your time and energy into finding new donors OR renewing the donors you have, choose donor retention.

donor retention

Don’t just take it from me. “The old growth model is acquiring more new donors than we lose,” says Josh Whichard, a partner at Washington, D.C.’s DonorVoice. The old model, said Whichard, is like a leaky bucket, but one with more water and fewer holes. The new model is to plug more of those holes and need less water. In other words, renew your donors.

Why is it better to renew than to acquire? Lynne Wester of Donor Relations Guru Consulting points out that it’s “7 times more expensive to obtain a new donor than it is to keep the one you have.” Renewing one donor is as good as finding seven new ones!

And Kivi Leroux Miller, one of the leaders in the nonprofit field, tells us that nonprofits have to focus on retention to thrive in the long term, and she adds, “I certainly hope we will see retention grow as a priority in coming years.”

When You DO Need New Donors

Sometimes, though, you just can’t do without new donors. Maybe you’re a new nonprofit, starting out with a small circle of friends. On the other hand, you could be an old organization whose loyal supporters are aging out.

And no matter how many leaks you fix, some donors will always be one-time donors (like the majority of the people who give in honor or in memory of a friend). You need to replace the dollars they give, either by getting your existing donors to give more, or by acquiring new donors.

How do you do find new donors when you need them?

Communication is Key

In the for-profit world, companies are facing an uncomfortable fact. “Experts everywhere proclaim that people are 60% or more of the way through their decision process before they contact you or your company,” says sales maven Jill Konrath.

Nonprofits are in the same boat. Donors today do their research. They look up their favorite causes online, and they check out what you have to say about your organization–and what others say about you–before you ever hear from them.

So, if you want to find new donors, mostly they have to find you first! And when they find you online, they have to like what they see, or they will choose some other organization before you ever send them an email or a newsletter, much less an “ask.”

So, you will need to:

  • Create marketing personas, or profiles of your hoped-for donors
  • Use your communications channels to answer a question or solve a problem that’s bothering them right now
  • Tell memorable stories that move them
  • Make them feel as if you read their mind and knew what they wanted to hear

Introducing You

donors introduce friendsBut the best way you can acquire new donors is by having your loyal year-after-year donors introduce you!

Yes, we’re back to the importance of donor retention. Even for getting new donors, it’s vital to renew  your support from the people who have given to you already.

Think of it this way: Before they will give to you, people have to know you, like what you do, and trust you with their money.  What helps a person get to know, like, and trust your organization more than the word of a mutual friend?

Ways Your Donors Can Introduce You

  1. In person. Ask a thoroughly committed donor to set up a lunch date with one of their friends, to introduce the organization.
  2. Forward an email. Your donor can pass along your message with one of their own, “Kathy, I thought you’d want to read this because…”
  3. Share a post on social media. Again, it helps if they personalize it.
  4. Direct people to your website for timely, topical information.
  5. Just talk about you! “John, did you know that I’m involved with [your organization’s name here]? And I’m excited about it!”

If you don’t think your most loyal supporters will be happy and proud to introduce you to their friends, then your organization is a leaky bucket–and you may need to spend more time renewing your donor support instead!

But you may be underestimating the loyalty of your existing donors. Ask them. You have nothing to lose, and you may have a whole world of new supporters to win. Who are you going to ask for an introduction, today?

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