Transform your data into insight.
Approach
Who are your best future donors? Most of the time, the answer to that question is “your past donors.” The answer is also “people who look like your past donors but haven’t yet given.” But how do you find them?
Analytics is an incredibly powerful tool that uses the information that is already in your database to answer that question. You don’t need to buy any external data and the answers you get working with the HBG Analytics team will always be tailored to your unique organization. We don’t use aggregated data, or averages across multiple organizations like yours. We use your data, to give you answers about your specific situation. We will help show you what your fundraising program needs to do more of, and where you have opportunities to grow.
Questions that our analytics work help you answer include:
- Is our current program performing as well as I can? Will it be successful in the future with the prospects we have now?
- Do we have our fundraising staff deployed as well as we can?
- Who are our best new major gifts, annual fund and planned giving prospects?
- What are the characteristics of our most loyal donors? What are the things we do that help foster their loyalty? What should we avoid doing?
- Which events or solicitation methods are the most effective?
- What lessons can be learned from the campaign we just completed to ready us for the next one?
- How long does it take from a donor’s first gift to their first major gift? What factors influence that?
- How do we increase the effectiveness of our annual/regular giving program?
We help:
- Build customized propensity ratings based on your unique situation
- Identify new prospects
- Build effective and balanced prospect portfolios for your fundraisers
We provide training on:
- beginner, intermediate and advanced data mining and donor modeling
- dashboard development
- data visualization
- database hygiene and management
- relationship mapping
Case Studies
Our client has historically been an events-driven organization, and events have brought in the majority of their fund-raising income over the years. This method has been very successful, and they have grown over time, but in recent years they have had to work harder for the same amount of income. In addition, our client was limited to the network of friends from among its volunteer base to identify and cultivate new event attendees. It had become clear to them that they needed to diversify their revenue streams to include a major gifts component. Working closely with the executive director, key fundraisers and their database team, we created a study that identified the characteristics of event attendees who became major donors, mapped out the organization’s most likely future donors, and highlighted their most effective volunteers to jump-start new major gifts cultivation strategies. We then worked with them to identify new major gifts prospects in 7 regions where their largest chapters are located to begin a new non-event based giving circle.
After completing a successful capital campaign, our client wanted to analyze the entire campaign, including member acquisition, annual giving, volunteer engagement, and major gifts performance to build on their successes and learn from the mistakes and gaps. In addition to providing visuals to describe each success and gap, we also built a model and lists of newer donors currently entering the pipeline who (if properly cultivated) would be the likely foundation for their next campaign.
Our client, a small college had several questions about the effectiveness of their annual fund and wanted to find ways to improve its performance. The school had a staff member with a keen interest in data analytics but very little training. In collaboration with the staff member and their supervisor, our team created an agenda of the questions that needed to be answered, and developed a work plan over several months to coach the employee. We devised work books and lesson plans, met on a regular basis over a six month period and provided a collaborative final report with answers to their questions and ideas for their annual fund and major gift programs.
