Pursuant Acquires Fundraising Intelligence Platform Causemo

Last month, Pursuant, a data-driven fundraising agency, expanded its portfolio with the acquisition of Causemo, a self-serve, cloud-based fundraising intelligence software platform. A platform built for fundraisers and nonprofit marketers, the software has the capability to visualize data, layer in benchmark and demographic data, and give fundraisers information they need to create constituent segments that can be implemented into CRMs and other marketing automation systems, according to a press release.

“The reason we acquired Causemo is because it created a platform, if you will, to accelerate the ability to reach more nonprofit organizations and help them make a bigger impact,” Trent Ricker, CEO and president of Pursuant, said in an exclusive interview with NonProfit PRO. “I really look forward to the evolution of this product — helping  inform decisions and activate on that complex data. It doesn't replace a donor management system; it supplements it. It doesn't replace the CRM or marketing automation system, but it supplements all of that. So I'm very excited about what Causemo can do and furthering our own mission at Pursuant and having data-powered smart strategy to make a bigger impact.”

Data is such an invaluable tool that often gets overlooked and is often pushed to the backburner. In our digitally driven age, nonprofits are constantly sitting on a wealth of data about their supporters, but one of the biggest problems is that they are not taking advantage of what it has to offer. Research shows that 90% of nonprofits collect data — really great news! But the bad news is that 49% of staff members don’t know how their nonprofit collects and only 5% of nonprofits use data in every decision they make. So how can we mitigate this problem and do better as a sector?

Trent recommends nonprofits to focus on three things: learn about who your donors are, compare your donor files with other organizations and leverage the data to predict outcomes and take action.

“[Nonprofits] aren’t using data very well. It’s usually driven by donor management systems or CRM systems that they already have. We encourage [nonprofits]  to capture relevant data points, so even if nonprofits aren’t ready to activate upon them, nonprofits could at least have that information ready,” Trent said. “On the one hand, you don't want to collect too much because you don't want to be intrusive, but you do need to collect some in it. And I think that's part of what we could do better.”

“Before you get into the data, some of the first questions you might ask are: ‘Why do people support our cause, what drives them to support our cause, where do they typically come from and what are their interests?’ And then a lot of that you can get that from a subjective almost conversational amongst your team. And then from that, I think you can apply that to collect the relevant data points,” he continued. “You can do that through surveys, you can do that when somebody does give a donation online. I wouldn't want to overwhelm people, but do pay attention to digital interactions and interactions where you can ask some simple questions.”

To learn more about Pursuant, click here.