Tag: Analytics & Insights

Understanding your fundraising data

California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA): What you need to know to be compliant

Posted on by proppec

The California Consumer Privacy Act could have more repercussions on U.S. companies than the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that went into effect in 2018. The California law doesn’t have some of GDPR’s most onerous requirements, such as the narrow 72-hour window in which a company must report a breach. In other respects, however, it goes even farther.

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) takes a broader view than the GDPR of what constitutes private data. The challenge for security, then, is to locate and secure that private data.

CSO, which serves enterprise security decision-makers and users with the critical information they need to stay ahead of evolving threats and defend against criminal cyberattacks, shares an excellent guide on what CCPA means to you.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3292578/california-consumer-privacy-act-what-you-need-to-know-to-be-compliant.html

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Here Comes America’s First Privacy Law: What the CCPA Means for Business and Consumers

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On January 1 2020, a landmark new data law comes into effect, subjecting U.S. businesses to a sea change of privacy regulations. After that date, Americans will be able to demand that charities disclose what personal data they have collected about them, and also ask them to delete that data. The California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA) will severely impact tech giants like Google and Facebook, as well as retailers like Macy’s and Walmart.

This heralds the end of an era in which the U.S. defied a shift in global privacy norms, and allowed American companies to commodify consumer data.

There remains, however, considerable confusion over how the law will be enforced, and how much of a burden it will be to U.S. companies. What follows is Forbes’ plain English explanation of the law, the politics surrounding it, and how it will affect businesses and consumers.

https://fortune.com/2019/09/13/what-is-ccpa-compliance-california-data-privacy-law/

Direct Mail – Dead or Alive

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These are dark times for direct mail fundraising. Response rates are down (and have been trending lower for more than a decade). At the same time, costs of paper, printing, and postage keep going up, usually faster than inflation.

So direct mail is dead, right? The sooner you stop using it for fundraising, the better. Right?

Not so fast.

Jeff Brooks takes a sober and non-panicked look tells at direct mail to see that it isn’t dead. It’s not even sick. But it’s changing, like everything else.

https://www.moceanic.com/2019/direct-mail-dead-or-alive/

25 Facts and Stats about NGOs Worldwide

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Raising money is hard work, and sometimes, just sometimes, we need some great facts to help remind ourselves that we are doing great work to help society and the world improve.

#NGOFACTS is an ongoing online campaign that highlights important data about non-governmental organizations (NGOs), nonprofits, and charities worldwide.

You can join the campaign by sharing facts and stats about the NGO sector in your country using the #NGOFACTS hashtag on social media.

Facts include:
Nearly one in three (31.5%) people worldwide donated to charity in 2015 and one in four (24%) volunteered.

Click the link below to read 24 more and feel inspires.

http://techreport.ngo/previous/2017/facts-and-stats-about-ngos-worldwide.html

Data compliance officer: the next big role in fundraising?

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Fundraising charities rely on information about their supporters to survive; such as names and addresses, financial information and other private data. Information such as this will always be integral to the fundraising process, and the storage and safety of this information will be too.

GDPR’s rules around proving consent necessitate new processes at the back and front ends of data collection – and it’s going to be hard work. The fundraising sector has a lot of fundamental changes to make in a short amount of time.

Jenny Daw, editor of The Fundraiser, wonders that with so much to learn and do, there may well be a need for organisations to take on new talent and skills to push these changes through.

https://www.charitychoice.co.uk/the-fundraiser/data-compliance-officer-the-next-big-role-in-fundraising/724

New edition of What Small Charities Need to Know About CRM Systems

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Ivan Wainewright acknowledges that buying a new CRM system or fundraising database is a daunting challenge for most charities and not-for-profit organisations, so he has written this book to feature issues that smaller not-for-profit organisations need to consider and be aware of.

This free book has been written for people whose day job is not the procurement or implementation of new databases, so it’s extremely helpful for any fundraiser thinking about stepping outside of their comfort zone.

https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/02/16/new-edition-small-charities-need-know-crm-systems/

9 top tips on making Facebook ads work for fundraising

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Award-winning fundraiser Emily Casson shares nine brilliant tips to start your journey on social media fundraising advertising. Facebook advertising is a great tool to start, or grow, your digital fundraising. Emily started using Facebook advertising nearly three years ago and now recruits over 10,000 new regular giving donors a year at a positive ROI, plus many more event participants, legacy pledgers and other supporters. Follow the link for some top tips that apply whatever your budget or cause.

https://greatcharityspeakers.com/2019/04/21/9-top-tips-on-making-facebook-ads-work-for-fundraising/

Long Read: Good asking

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The Institute of Fundraising (IoF) recently launched Good Asking – a report on why charities research and process supporter information. They worked with leading academic Dr Beth Breeze from the University of Kent, to survey over 300 fundraisers to understand why they process and research information about their supporters, and what the benefits are for donors, charities and the wider public.

The purpose of this report is to shed light on the importance of fundraisers and their work. If they are to be successful, fundraisers need to conduct research to facilitate the efficient and accurate matching of donors and the causes they might wish to support, and to do so in a way that makes the experience as pleasurable as possible for the generous donor.

THE REPORT FINDINGS INCLUDE:

  • 90% of fundraisers believe that conducting research enables fundraisers to better communicate and tailor their work to the interests and priorities of donors
  • Most (88%) fundraisers believe that conducting research reduces the levels of unwanted or irrelevant mail sent out
  • A representative survey of the general UK population found that almost two-thirds (60%) of those who prefer charities to communicate in a tailored way with them, think that charities should be able to use information that is publicly available, for example doing Google searches or drawing on newspaper articles, in order to tailor their approach to their supporters.

The report also highlights that:

  • Two-thirds of major donors believe that a ‘more professional approach’ by fundraisers has been a key factor in the development of philanthropy in the UK

https://www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk/library/good-asking-report-2017/

At last, clarity and sense about wealth screening, prospect research and updating addresses

Posted on by proppec

Adrian Beney is back with an update on CASE’s work on providing guidance for charities for adopting GDPR best practise.

This document lays out in detail and with great clarity the circumstances under which these activities, regarded in recent years by some at the Information Commissioner’s Office as very controversial, can be carried out lawfully.

Follow the link below for full details.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/last-clarity-sense-wealth-screening-prospect-research-adrian-beney

Data Governance: 3 Key areas to focus your efforts

Posted on by proppec

Data governance is needed to ensure your organisation can consume data which has integrity and quality.

But how do you focus your efforts so that your governance programme can deliver the results needed?

Toochukwu Philip Ibegbu MBA shares with us how he was able to successfully launch data governance initiatives that made the most impact.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/data-governance-3-key-areas-focus-your-efforts-philip-ibegbu/

How to Make Better Decisions with Less Data

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Are you drowning in analysis paralysis? Having data to back up your decision making is good, but sometimes there is just too much!

Sometimes people often struggle to convert data into effective solutions to problems. The problem isn’t lack of data; the vast amount of data means managers struggle to prioritise what’s important. In the end, they end up applying arbitrary data toward new problems, reaching a subpar solution.

Here, Tanya Menon and Leigh Thompson discuss how you can make better decisions with less data.

https://hbr.org/2016/11/how-to-make-better-decisions-with-less-data

The BIG 5 in fundraising performance metrics

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Reinier Spruit discusses how we’re in the relationship building business and how we need to measure and register every response.

Ironically, we must quantify the relations with our donors, so we can improve the quality of the contact we have with them.

There are a ton of metrics we can track, and should track, like email open rates, sign-up rates per hour, one-off cash donations and appeal response rates. But there are 5 that are simply much more important. Mainly because they are the building blocks for making sensible decisions for the longer term.

I call them the Big Five. The Big Five are Volume, Expenditure, Income, Retention and Return on Investment.

Find out more by clicking the link below:

https://101fundraising.org/2014/05/big-5-fundraising-performance-metrics/

Learn Everything about Sentiment Analysis using R

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In this technical blog, Suresh Kumar Gorakala explains how to turn written comments into descriptive sentiment. This is extremely helpful when trying to categorise, segment and understand your audiences better.

This example focuses on Twitter comments, but this technique can be applied to any text field, including telephone call notes and emails.

http://www.dataperspective.info/2013/08/sentiment-analysis-using-r.html?m=1

How to Transition From Excel Reports to Business Intelligence Tools

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Manually creating reports using Excel can be overwhelming to meet the organisational expectations for quality, insights, and velocity.

Many business intelligence tools exist: Tableau, Microsoft Power BI, Looker, Amazon QuickSight, Google Data Studio. However, moving from Excel to one of these tools can be more difficult than anticipated.

This blog by Thomas Spicer provides tips to help you create a methodology and a process that will help you find success with your new tool as you transition from Excel to a new analytics model.

https://dzone.com/articles/5-steps-to-making-a-transition-from-excel-reports

A simple predictive score you can probably build in Excel

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Many smaller fundraising and non-profit teams can’t make the investment to fully utilise analytics.

In this blog, the great Peter Wylie uses data from two schools to demonstrate how to build a very simple predictive score using nothing but Excel.

https://cooldata.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/a-simple-score-you-can-probably-build-in-excel/

The 4 Types Of Data Analytics

Posted on by proppec

So, data analytics can help us to predict the future and find loads of people who will donate to our cause? Well, yes and no. But it’s a bit of a journey.

In this article, Thomas Maydon explains the four different types of data analytics:

  • Descriptive
  • Diagnostic
  • Predictive
  • Prescriptive

Follow the link below for more:

https://insights.principa.co.za/4-types-of-data-analytics-descriptive-diagnostic-predictive-prescriptive

How data analysis can help your charity to enhance its fundraising results

Posted on by proppec

This article by Becky Slack first appeared in the Guardian some time ago, but it’s still a great starting point for those interested in understanding how analytics can drive insight and aid decision making in non-profits.

Don’t be put off by data. It’s all about understanding your audiences. This guide contains some straight forward steps to get you started.

https://www.theguardian.com/voluntary-sector-network/2014/mar/04/how-to-use-data-analysis-to-enhance-fundraising

Prospect Research and GDPR-compliant wealth screening

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Prospect research and wealth screening do not sit easily with GDPR:

  • Can individuals reasonably expect to be researched for wealth?
  • Would they expect to charities to find public information about them and use it?
  • How about if the charity uses a third-party supplier?

Nicola Williams, MA in Philanthropic Studies, has written several helpful guides at Factary to help you answer those questions for your own charity.

https://www.factary.com/docs/Factary_Legitimate_Interests_and_Prospect_Research.pdf

https://www.factary.com/docs/Factary_Guide_to_GDPR_Compliant_Screenings.pdf

Key Performance Indicators: What Should I Be Measuring?

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Key performance indicators can help to give you an accurate picture of your fundraising effectiveness. By measuring carefully chosen metrics you can determine your financial success.

In this introductory guide, J.A.J. Aaronson explains the most important metrics to measure regularly.

http://www.raisingfunding.co.uk/key-performance-indicators-should-measuring.html