The value of donor data is being talked about more and more. Especially when trying to target specific supporters that will likely respond to certain campaigns/appeals. It won’t come as a surprise to charities that donors are more likely to support an organisation or cause if they understand the work they do and that you value their investment in that work.
There are several things you can do with your donor data, but perhaps one of the most common is to use it to find new donors and grow your donor base. Efficiently using your donor data will help with your future growth and sustainability. You’ll not only better understand your existing donors but you’ll be able to more easily and efficiently identify new prospects to engage.
So how can you effectively communicate with and develop relationships with donors that will improve retention and growth? One of the biggest challenges you might face is being able to see and understand your data. The prospect of adding data gathering and analytics to your tasks might be quite daunting, but it isn’t a task that you can afford to ignore.
You may find yourself asking the following questions:-
- Why should I bother to collect donor data?
- What kind of data should I track and collect?
- How do I keep the data organised?
- What can I do with the data?
- Why should I collect donor data?
Every interaction in the community or with a donor will result in new data. Collecting and analysing that data allows you to better understand your donors for example who they are and why they are donating which in turn enables you to target the right audience at the right time. Data capturing and analysis might lead you to be able to take advantage of corporate philanthropy through companies looking to fulfil their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility).
As you learn more about your donor community and how they respond to your fundraising efforts and campaigns you’ll be able to see what is working, what needs tweaking or what needs to be abandoned altogether. The more data you have, the more you will be able to improve your strategies to target desired audiences and achieve positive outcomes.
In order to be able to utilise your donor data effectively you need to be capturing the right data. A good place to start is with the three basic characteristics of every donor journey, RFM – Recency, Frequency and Monetary Value:-
- Recency : Has the donor given recently? When was their last gift?
- Frequency: Does the donor give often? How many times do they give per year or per campaign?
- Monetary Value: How big was the donor’s last gift?
By combining these three simple values you will be able to see which donors are ‘good’ candidates for a particular appeal. RFM obviously has its limitations and shouldn’t be the only way you target your appeals but broadly it is a good way to understand your donors.
Understanding how useful donor data collection is doesn’t take away from the fact that it can be a daunting and overwhelming task. Investing in a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system can be a really useful tool to help with this task.
Charity Digital have released the below article which would be worth a read if you’re currently using a Customer Relationship Management system or if you are considering it!
Supported Giving integrates with Donofy and will be integrating with more lead CRM systems in 2023. If you are interested in reading the Value of Data Guide recently written by Supported Giving, click here: https://supportedgiving.com/downloads/engaging-a-wider-audience-with-qr-code-donations/
Find out more by reading this article on The Best Donation Management Platforms.
Supported Giving integrates with Donofy and will be integrating with more lead CRM systems in 2023.
If you are interested in reading more, please take a look at the Value of Data Guide recently written by Supported Giving.
