Putting Your Data to Work: Measurement & Evaluation
To make data-driven decisions, your organization’s data must be accessible and answer your strategic questions. Through reports, dashboards, and by combining data you can make better decisions, optimize user experience, deepen engagement, and evaluate mission impact.
When mapping out your technology strategy and implementing tools, consider what reporting and analysis will be helpful to inform your organization’s work.
Combining data from different systems is not a novel concept. However, creating and automating systems that quickly and easily deliver the information you need without manual analysis requires significant skills and bandwidth and can only be done episodically, will allow you to make data-driven decisions.
Here are just a few of the benefits that organizations garner from thoughtfully combined data:
Make Better Marketing Decisions. When marketers are able to attribute results to specific marketing activities or contributing channels, they are able to design more effective strategies and invest wisely and confidently in areas that are most impactful.
Enhance Mission Delivery & Build a Stronger Case for Support. Evaluating program metrics can be extremely valuable informing mission delivery and highlighting which areas organizations should focus on based on their efficacy.
Save Staff Time. Investing the time and resources to configure evaluation and measurement systems up front will help you save staff time and frustration of manually assembling data.
Inform Marketing Strategy to Raise More Money. Most organizations seek to grow and improve their fundraising efforts to maintain and deliver new mission services. When reporting on revenue via a fundraising platform, we only have insights into what results were actually produced. When we track the impact of various marketing channels, direct and indirect, we have a better understanding of which campaigns produced results, which in turn helps us better design future strategies.
“The data Pardot allows us to capture for analysis has led to more strategic decisions and targeted outreach than we originally anticipated.”
Matt Mastrangelo, Director of Annual Giving and Donor Engagement, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley
Security & Privacy: Are you protecting your supporters’ data?
Every
seconds
cybercriminals attempt to access government and nonprofit databases.
Yet, up to
of charity networks
lack a comprehensive risk assessment.
Are you concerned about data security and compliance for your nonprofit organization? For many nonprofits, donor data security is their number one priority this year. The concern is well founded. According to the 2021 Cybersecurity Guide for Nonprofit Organizations, cybercriminals attempt to access government and nonprofit databases every 39 seconds. Yet, up to 70% of charity networks lack a comprehensive risk assessment.
Privacy and consent are also hot topics for nonprofits. While initially nonprofit organizations have been able to comply with regulations loosely, it is not a wise option with stricter enforcement and public sentiment about privacy. Approach form and landing page design with privacy considerations in mind and including relevant language for your jurisdiction.
In selecting technology and configuring your ecosystem, security and privacy are incredibly important.
Establish a strong data governance policy to define what data is being collected, how it is stored, and what is considered to be personal. When using multiple systems that may be collecting different data points, it is critical that supporters’ preferences are observed across the platforms.