GOBEL Subject Matter Expert Blog: Making Data Driven Strategy A Reality

BY Ann Fisher

Director of Annual Giving, Leadership Annual Giving and Data Services, Michigan Medicine

Our society is all about big data these days. With the advent of ever-faster computers and more powerful systems, we have so much more data at our fingertips than we ever have before. And the wise amongst us need data to determine our best next steps. Otherwise we are just throwing the proverbial spaghetti up against the wall and seeing what sticks.

In philanthropy in general, and annual giving specifically, we have access to a lot of glorious data these days. From internal reports that show us information like lapsed/renewed or new donor counts, to benchmarking reports with peers, to vendor-purchased data like wealth and affinity scores, there’s no shortage of data coming our way. The information we have access to is constantly expanding, sometimes to the point where it can become overwhelming, and data becomes a shiny object that we admire rather than the powerful engine that can drive your organization to new levels of fundraising.

How can you make sure that you are making data actionable? Here are a few keys to maximizing your data successfully:

• Determine essential data. Annual giving has some standard data points that are essential to understanding how your program is running. New, renewed, retained, or lapsed donors; upgrades/downgrades; giving by level; source code; and marketing effort reports are all useful to understanding your annual giving programs. Determine which reports are essential and make sure they are available to you.
• Use the data correctly. I have seen people try to use revenue reports to get donor counts, production reports to determine how much money they have to spend, and gift reports as prospect reports. When people used reports incorrectly, they would come to me in a tizzy exclaiming, “The report is wrong!” Reports absolutely can be constructed to pull data incorrectly, but more often the reality has been the end user was simply trying to use the wrong report for the wrong purpose. If you try to use a report for something other than its intended purpose, it will not give you the information you seek.
• The magic of three. When approaching a lot of data, it is easy to get overwhelmed and then do nothing with it. I see this a lot when people request what I like to call “kitchen sink” reports, where they want every possible scrap of data squeezed into one report that becomes impossible for our brains to digest. If you are asking for a new report, make sure you are only asking for information that is essential to utilizing the report. But say you get a big report with a lot of great data, then what do you do? This is where the magic of three comes into play. Approach the data with the goal of coming away with three key takeaways that are actionable. Three is a reasonable number to act upon without becoming overwhelmed.
• Strategy and Results. Once you identify your three key takeaways, determine the strategies you hope to influence the data, identify any factors that might impact results, and make sure you have a mechanism in place to track results. After all, if you can’t track the results, how will you know if your strategy has succeeded? For example, let’s say that we want to acquire more new donors. The strategy could then be doing an acquisition test. In creating the mailing, you would add a different appeal code that is applied to the test so as gifts come in, you can track them, with the knowledge that those new donors were the result of that specific initiative. Finally, you review the new data from this year versus the control panel to see if your test strategy has succeeded. And there you have it, data in action!

As I wind up my data rhapsody, I would like to offer these final thoughts. Make sure the data has context. As data in a vacuum can cause you to make incorrect assumptions about the results (ex. looking at current year data does not tell you much, you must compare to previous years for trends). I would also encourage you to review your data regularly. If you are not reviewing your data consistently throughout the year, you are missing important insights that could allow you to adjust your annual giving programs throughout the year to maximize success.

I hope this blog has motivated you to go dive into your data to see what it can do for you. If you’ve had specific success mining your institutional data for annual giving successes, please leave a comment about it on this article/post, or email research@gobelgroup.com.

ABOUT GOBEL SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS: GOBEL Subject Matter Experts are healthcare philanthropy professionals working in some of the top shops in the country, sharing best practices and insights. For more information about GOBEL’s Subject Matter Expert program, or to suggest a topic for coverage, email jmoody@gobelgroup.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Ann Fisher is a fundraising professional with more than 25 years of experience in annual giving. Ann began her career at Hospice of Michigan where she developed numerous skills from data base management to grant and appeals writing. From there she moved on to University of Detroit Mercy where she spend nearly 20 years in annual giving, eventually becoming their Executive Director of Annual Giving and Data Services. During her time at Detroit Mercy, Ann was instrumental in introducing new initiatives like online giving and crowdfunding while also improving the ROI in phone and mail and coordinating the University’s President’s Cabinet leadership giving program. Ann then spent two years at UC San Diego as Senior Director of Integrated Marketing, where she launched their first Day of Giving and restarted their grateful patient giving program. Ann currently works at Michigan Medicine where she serves as Director of Annual Giving, Leadership Annual Giving and Data Services. In 2021 Ann and her colleagues were selected as CASE Platinum Award Finalists in the Best Practices in Fundraising Award for their Nurses Week Campaign, which raised over $80,000 from 1,300 donors during the height of the pandemic. She has also served as a judge for the CASE Circle of Excellence Awards. In her spare time, Ann is an avid runner and has run several half and full marathons as a charity runner to raise money for various causes.