Gain insight into your nonprofit decisions with facts and figures, not guesses.
Recently, I was having a conversation with an acquaintance of mine who happens to be the Chief Operating Officer of a midsize nonprofit. We were discussing the intersection of donor acquisition and data.
I asked him about the demographics of his current donor base and in which sectors of the community they were hoping to make gains in the new year.
His response?
"I'm not sure. We don't measure that kind of stuff."
This absolutely floored me. Particularly given the challenges most nonprofits face in an era of aging Baby Boomers and Millennials with shifting priorities, how can a nonprofit executive not only be in the dark about who, precisely, is supporting his organization, but also be unable to make plans to ensure a healthy future?
When I inquired — politely, of course — why he would pass up the opportunity to capture such valuable insight, the COO told me, "I just trust my employees. They're been involved with us for a long time. They know what they're doing."
This is no doubt true to a certain extent.
However, we all have our own built-in expectations, prejudices, biases, and "blind spots."
So while staff members who have been with the org for many years might consider themselves part of the primary demographic, they might be overlooking the fact that all of us, especially Baby Boomers, have a tendency to think of ourselves as younger than we really are. (You're only as old as you feel, right? Right?)
So rather than rely on hunches or "spray and pray" as we've heard it called, save yourself and your nonprofit time, money, and many headaches by backing up your intuition with real insight.
StratusLIVE offers business intelligence and enterprise-class marketing analytics tools that are quick to learn, easy to use, and hosted in the cloud… all built on one of the most award-winning commercial CRM platforms available
To learn more, simply contact us to find out how simple and informative your CRM could be — and re-discover your demographics — with StratusLIVE for Fundraisers.
(And don't forget to have a safe and happy New Year!)
