Insights for Non-Profits

Donors play a very critical role in the livelihood of every non-profit organization. A significant challenge many non-profits face is how best to manage all of the details about their donors’ giving habits while maintaining all of the personal details that are needed to track successful relationships. A robust fundraising database is crucial for capturing and organizing the information you need to be effective in soliciting and communicating with your donors. Furthermore, it allows you to be strategic with your fundraising efforts and back-up your planning with data.

When we discuss fundraising databases with our clients, we break it down into the four key aspects of an effective database. It’s easiest to remember as the “4 S’s” for a database management system: Set-up, Storage, Segmentation, and Statistics.

Set-up

The set-up is all about data collection and making sure your organization has implemented a consistent and thoughtful process for collecting all of your donor information within its database. For consistency purposes, it’s important to get commitment from your team and to train the staff in what data you would like to be collected and how to do so. Consider what information you need to capture adequately to build up your database of donors and key constituents that have an involvement in some capacity with the organization (i.e, donors, prospects, board members, key volunteers).

Storage

You will need to determine where you will store all of the data that you collect. Software solutions exist, but many smaller non-profit organizations are still using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to track their donor giving information and historical data. The problem with using Excel is if your organization is receiving more than a handful of donations from donors a year, the spreadsheet likely can’t link the giving pieces of information together which can cause tracking problems.

Whatever database system you use must have the capability to segment your donor information by the different giving generations to personalize your solicitation messaging to the different groups.

Segmentation

With segmentation, the overall goal is to group donors together to help tailor your messaging personally to each group, with ask amounts, and communication strategies to increase their interest in and support of your organization. Even the smallest non-profit organization with the most manual database system should strive to produce personalized solicitations to its donors and prospects. Consider the three broader categories of information that need to be collected such as demographics, contact information, and giving stats.

For demographic information you will want to focus on age, gender, income, location, and employment title and company. Contact information on your donors is critical and may cover home address, phone, email, work address and the database should indicate the donors preferred method of communication.

You can capture the giving information on each of your donors by tracking things like gift amounts, the full history of dates, purpose and designation by campaign or source code, and preferred form of giving.

Examples of additional segments your organization might consider:

• Donors vs. Non Donors
• Giving Levels: Small, Mid-level, Major
• Recurring vs. Lapsed Donors
• Multi-Generational Donors
• Gift Pyramid Levels (Annual Gifts, Major Gifts, Capital Gifts, and Planned Gifts)

Statistics

The final important aspect of any donor database management system is the statistical data you can retrieve and analyze to help strengthen your fundraising program through feedback. The data will provide a benchmark to compare it to each year so you can track the success of the organization’s overall program. Try experimenting with the data and learn what works for your organization. Examples of statistics you might want to track with your data are retention rates, average gift, response rate to your annual appeals, and the cost per dollar raised.

Today’s donor database systems come in many different sizes and cost considerations. Make sure your organization has the correct donor database system that is right for your organization’s needs, it’s simple and easy to use, and provides the functionality in being able to extract the donor information and data that is important. The basic requirements to any database system should allow you to manage information on donors’ gifts while incorporating data on how much is being raised by the organization, supports your annual mailings, generates timely thank you letters and has the ability to provide reports on all the information being collected.

For additional information on fundraising best practices, watch our recent Fundraising FAQs Webinar.