Understanding the channel usage and preferences of your donors is key to successful fundraising efforts, particularly at the lower giving levels. If you are not asking your constituents to give in the ways that they like to give, you’re headed for disappointing returns on your direct appeals. This post will explore how to analyze channel performance and ways to use those insights to help develop strategies for future campaigns.
When it comes to data visualization, keeping it simple is usually the right approach. Line and bar charts are great for most use-cases. But sometimes you need more flexibility to show more data without making things too complex. Enter, the heatmap. Although less common than line and bar charts, heatmaps can strike the right balance between simple interpretation and depth of insights. This post explores a practical way to incorporate heatmaps into your next analysis.
An RFM score is an incredibly valuable tool to prioritize and rank prospects. Fortunately, developing your own RFM scores is simple, especially if you use Python. While you could create RFM scores using only Excel, Python offers speed and flexibility that’s unmatched by Excel. Using only pandas and the standard library, this post will walk you step-by-step through the process of taking a simple gift report, and turning it into a strategic way to find your best prospects.
Running a successful fundraising operation requires answering some important questions. Is your organization getting stronger? How many of this year’s donors can you expect to give again next year? How healthy is your donor population? This analysis will help leadership at the fictional Wossamotta University evaluate the health of their donor population using retention, reactivation, acquisition, and loss rates.
The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the country into a recession. How can nonprofit organizations plan and prepare? What lessons can we learn from the Great Recession, and in what ways will a COVID-19 recession be unique? This analysis seeks to answer those questions for the fictional Wossamotta University.