via LinkedIn
When wealth screenings first came along in the late 1990’s, early 2000’s, it was wizardry! Suddenly we could evaluate and segment thousands of records amazingly fast. Sure, we have to verify the top-rated with manual research to be sure the matches are correct and evaluate the whole file for known trouble spots, but even so, it was a giant leap for fundraising.
The next promising leap forward is the way machine learning can continuously digest growing data to identify patterns that suggest things like engagement, affinity, gratitude, or other synonyms that express nuances in how a donor prospect feels about our organization.
As Steve points out, when we can pair the ability to make a gift with how engaged a prospect is with our organization we can introduce a whole new level of efficiency to major gift portfolio management as well as inform decision-making on fundraising strategies that will meet goals.
But for the vast majority of nonprofit organizations don’t have enough resources to implement these new and expensive solution sand the return on investment isn’t high enough to justify the purchase.
If you want your organization to benefit from an engagement score, but you are nervous about analytics or you don’t know how to get started, Steve has some great tips for you.
Tune in as Steve answers the questions: Why is an engagement score important? Should every organization create one? Can you create an engagement score even if you don’t “do” statistics?
Additional Resources
Book: Statistics for Dummies
Podcast: Apra Podcast Series
Course: Foundations in Fundraising Analytics Course | Designed especially for people who are nervous about analytics, breaking each skill down step-by-step with tips to navigating large data sets in Excel.
Workbook: Foundations in Fundraising Analytics Workbook | Designed as a complement to the course, this workbook is a valuable reference.