Here's a nightmare: All of the clothing you have ever owned in your entire lifetime is in piles on the floor of your walk-in closet, unfolded and disorganized. Socks, shoes, tights, jogging pants, underwear, pajamas, shirts, tank-tops, t-shirts, shorts, ties, earrings, rings, hats and coats - everywhere and chest-deep. You have to get dressed and think, "This is not an efficient way of dressing! It's too overwhelming. I just need everything to be in its place so I can get what I want when I need it!" You realize you have to organize it. You wake up in a cold sweat.


DOES YOUR GROUP NEED A DATABASE? YES!
Is this nightmare how you sometimes feel when it comes to managing donor information? Is it frustrating, confusing, overwhelming, and disorganized? Data management is often the last priority for small groups. You're busy changing the world! Data what?

If your shoes are on a tree rack and the shirts and pants are on hangers in the closet, you can know if you have an outfit for a black-tie party, or assess which pants look good with what shirt. Right? How does this relate to fundraising?

It is generally understood that the goal of fundraising is to build a base of donors who will give you money every year. In order to make informed decisions and realistic plans about all of your fundraising efforts, you need to know who your donors are and how your group is doing with them. Then can assess and target your fundraising strategies so you can increase your base of donors. You can do all these tasks better and smarter if donor information is organized and easy to capture in a readable report.

One important aspect of creating those reports is to have a database that is used properly and runs efficiently. Just as you can't get dressed if all the clothes you have ever owned are in a big messy pile, you can't do your fundraising efficiently if all your donors are in a big messy pile either.

This series of articles looks at what databases can do for you.


WHAT DATABASES CAN DO FOR YOU: REPORTS AND GROWTH
When a database is running efficiently, it's like having a rosy dream instead of a nightmare. How? Databases do two things that are essential to fundraising:

  • Produce reports to help you make informed decisions and develop realistic fundraising plans
  • Help you grow in your fundraising efforts

Reports: Proof of Effectiveness

Reports are the core of your database program. Their job is to provide answers to questions about your donors and your fundraising efforts so you can move forward with some certainty. Imagine spending 45 minutes in the nightmare closet looking for a pair of white socks when the only ones there are from when you were five, but you don't know that. In fundraising, if you don't know what donors you have or how long they've been with you or what happened in your past efforts with them, you'll spend time trying things that either aren't a good idea or aren't even a possibility. For example, you wouldn't launch a special event starting at $50 if your average gift is $40.

Different kinds of reports answer different questions:

  • Assessment reports answer, "What happened?" These reports show "the numbers," measuring success so that you can compare fundraising efforts. Some examples: How many donors were mailed to in that last mail or online appeal? How many responded? What was the average gift size? How much giving has a particular board member influenced this year? What had they agreed to do? Are this year's special events doing as well as last year's? Did they bring in a higher ratio of money to expense? Did more people come? How effective is our Major Donor Program? How does our Direct Response Program perform versus our Major Donor Program? Is personal solicitation effective?

    Here's another example of how reports help. One group decided to cancel their June appeal mailing when a report showed that for three years running this mailing to active donors not only brought in an incredibly low response (below 3%) and did not raise any money, it lost money.

  • Donor category reports answer, "Who responded?" giving you specific donor information. For a major donor campaign, for example, when you ask, "Who gave $50 or more in the last 24 months for any reason?" a donor category report can print out all their names, addresses, phone numbers, and gift history so that board members can follow up with personal solicitations seeking larger gifts.

  • Thank you letter reports answer, "Who gave in the last week" or "Who gave just to the direct mail appeal?" The report then compiles information to be merged into thank you letters - an important tool as your donor base gets larger and you have more donors to thank within that 48-hour window!

  • Pledge reports answer, "Who made what pledges, who has paid their pledged amount, and who hasn't?" These reports help you maintain a monthly or quarterly giving program and help you keep track of pledges to special campaigns.

  • Giving history reports answer, "Who gave, how much, and in response to what solicitation?" For example, you can show the name, address, phone number, or whatever other information you specify for donors who gave a minimum major donor gift or more in the last three years; you can also find out how much they have given in total over the last three years. You can also track individual donors to see if there are patterns to their giving. This information can help you determine when to ask them for more.

Tracking segments of the donor base and how they give is a sophisticated analysis strategy and gives a major boost to helping a fundraising program grow.

You can select any group of donors based on any criteria and see how they give. The information that results helps with targeting strategies more carefully, from selection of mailing lists to special event invitations to ceasing to ask seriously lapsed donors.

Many groups that are still in the nightmare phase can't imagine having such a concise image of their donor base or such organized information. But you can have all this information at your fingertips. Reports help you plan realistically and make informed decisions.

Source: This article was originally published in the Grassroots Fundraising Journal.

 

About the author: Maria Petulla specializes in database management, direct mail, Special events, and major donor campaigns for New York City nonprofits. Reach her at maria@petulla-associates.com or (917) 698-9209.