Today’s fundraising professionals are faced with an interesting paradox. On one hand, we have access to more data about our donors than ever before. Unfortunately, transforming that information into insights you can use to drive your fundraising strategy often seems to be an insurmountable obstacle.
Many organizations have trouble figuring out how to get a clear and accurate picture of the current state of their fundraising. This may be due to multiple database systems, siloed programs, the immense amount of data, resource constraints, or the preconceived notion that it’s expensive to conduct the must-have analytics.
We firmly believe overcoming your biggest fundraising obstacles can be found in your data. Today we want to play “mythbusters” and share the truth about the common misconceptions around developing a data-driven fundraising strategy.
3 Misconceptions Nonprofits Have About Data
Misconception #1: “Our data is too messy.”
You may believe that your data is too messy to be useful. It can feel impossible to cull through and you may believe that you need to clean it up before a partner can work with it.
Truth: Everyone’s data is messy. At Pursuant, we start with a raw data dump. No prep work necessary.
Misconception #2: “We can’t use it to make strategic decisions.”
You may think that the data will not help you make strategic decisions. Some organizations believe data cannot be actionable because you can’t pull the reports in time. You might have even invested in data, but you’re not sure what to do with the information you received.
Truth: We start with an analysis that helps you discover things about your donors you never knew. Only data is able to tell you how to customize your messaging to each donor in the way that resonates. And this drives effective strategy.
Misconception #3: “It’s too expensive.”
The most common misconception around implementing a data-driven strategy it that it costs to much to leverage “big data” to drive strategy. The truth is, it costs more if you are blindly creating a strategy and spending time, money, and resources to execute on something without any data and insights to inform it.
Truth: Over the past few years, data solutions that were once reserved for the for-profit industry have now become accessible to nonprofits. The real truth is that you can’t afford NOT to take a look at the data you have.
While tackling your data can be intimidating, learning the truth about the current state of your data and gleaning actionable insights is more than reason enough to take the plunge.
To learn more about how Pursuant can help you implement a data-driven fundraising strategy, check out the 3D Assessment powered by Pursuant Analytics & Insights.