Your donor data is your most valuable asset

It may not be as sexy as a stylish campaign, but it is absolutely essential when it comes to fundraising with impact: the right data. Any professional fundraiser knows that the right offer in the right format is key to an effective campaign. But without the correct donor data you will still miss the target.

“It is better to send a bad campaign to the right target group+,

than a perfect campaign to the wrong target group.”

A good fundraising database meets the requirements of our wonderful, but precise profession.

Imagine: your data-geek wins the lottery tomorrow and decides to stop work immediately. Now no one in the organisation knows how to access your donor history to find out who has given recently, and how to select the best donors for your next campaign.

Of course your data expert has unprecedented talents that your foundation needs, but your fundraiser, donor care team and major donor relationship manager must at least be able to access the data that is relevant to them.

A good fundraising database registers exactly per donor:

• which campaigns she (they are more often women) has donated to;
• through which channel;
• what their donation behaviour is.

This helps you organise your database in groups, for example:

• the topics donors like to give to,
• the average amount they have given;
• what their previous donation was.

This lets you ask donors to give a little more than their previous donation and prevents you from asking a major donor to give too little. A good database can also help you keep donors who haven’t donated for a while (retention).

You know: retaining a donor is much cheaper than recruiting a new one. To have a good relationship with your donors, it is essential that you thank them in the right way:

“The right message

at the right time

to the right target group

through the right channel.”

But your time is scarce, so you don’t want to spend it digging for crucial data. With a good database you can segment and automate recurring processes, so that you can:

• thank givers automatically, quickly and in the right way;
• give new major donors a personal phone call the next day.

What would it be like if you could track results all year round? With a good database you can at the touch of a button, gain insight into:

• your current campaigns;
• how donors move through the donor pyramid;
• what the giving potential is of an individual donor.

Then you can say: “This is what we predict and we’re on track or doing better/worse than predicted. This lets you make informed decisions to adjust your campaigns whenever necessary.”

 Want to know more?

Data is indispensable for effective fundraising campaigns. You need to be able to not only access and select data, but also interpret it correctly and analyse it thoroughly. Mindwize has a team of data specialists and data analysts on hand to help by making 25 years of fundraising knowledge and experience available to you through in-depth analyses, well-thought-out reports and predictions of what your data-driven campaign can deliver.

Download the brochure here for more information about the Mindwize CRM database for effective fundraisers.

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