LEESBURG, Va., November 9, 2009 — Nonprofit data management firm HEP Development has announced that, through December 31, 2009, all clients of nonprofit online software company Convio, Inc. will receive a 10% discount on orders for its standard-setting matching gift, wealth identification, and data cleansing/enhancement services. Convio clients can learn more by visiting HEP Development's booth at Convio Summit 2009 in Austin, TX next week.
October 8, 2009, The Chronicle of Philanthropy — Colleges that win the most contributions — in terms of dollars raised per student — have done so in part by spending more money than other institutions to hire full-time staff members to conduct research on alumni and other potential donors, according to a new survey.
October 20, 2009, DM News — Though three-quarters of nonprofits gather consumers' names and locations when they sign up for e-mail communications, that's often where consumer data collection ends for those groups, according to a Return Path study, released October 20.
BETHESDA, Md., October 20, 2009 — WealthEngine, a leading provider of
sophisticated prospect research tools and screening services, announced today
that it has teamed up with fundraising consulting firm, Bentz Whaley Flessner,
to provide the market's most comprehensive and effective analysis of giving
capacity and propensity.
For nonprofits involved in fundraising, segmentation is nothing new. But in the current economic climate, every activity requires review and analysis. Reviewing your segmentation strategy provides opportunity to not only increase ROI now, but to position your organization to prosper when the economy turns around.
Direct-response fundraising is the perfect playground. It's a blending of both art (something I highly value but readily admit to having no proclivity for) and science (Data! Testing! Measurability!). Direct response feeds both sides of the brain and provides continual opportunities for thinking outside of the box while allowing us to control the amount of risk.
Remember the story of the boy in Holland who noticed a hole in the dike? Fearing a leak could flood the entire town, he shoved his finger into the hole, potentially avoiding a major disaster.
Put simply, modeling means finding like characteristics about people that, when combined, enable you to predict future behavior. There are several inexpensive ways to model your data yourself (and some more expensive ways to use external data sources to help you) that can yield more revenue at lower cost from your direct-response program.
As you’ve probably deduced by now, this column is not a money-making enterprise. For some inscrutable reason, a snarky advice column for fundraisers just doesn’t rake it in; must be the recession.
Robina died two weeks after I met her. She lived in Uganda, on an island in Lake Victoria that at the time was near ground zero of the AIDS epidemic. She was one of the last living people between the ages of 17 and 60. If I showed you a photo, you’d see a hollow-eyed, emaciated woman with a sad face and ragged clothes, sitting on a mat in a hut with a dirt floor and holes in the walls. Her husband had died a few weeks earlier. At that time, in that place, AIDS was an automatic and swift death sentence.
