Getting the Most Out of Your Data “We have data, now what?”

Why Data? Everything we have is “data” Data tells a story Can improve your operation: Donor/volunteer relations Efficiency Decision making Program services Names, addresses, donations, expenditures, staff info, program information, services Paper, word doc, spreadsheet, database Data is an asset, but do you know what story its telling? Turn into information

Data Questions Do you need what you are collecting? Will it be used? How and by whom? Where is it stored? Is it accurate? Is it accessible? By whom? Is it secure? What do you want to know and show? Only need it if you are going to use it. Don’t collect for the sake of collecting Examples of data collection, historical, people using it How many have a third party CRM database or something for your org? Tom mentioned there was an AFP meeting on databases Garbage In, Garbage Out! Can you get the data out of your system? Access to data, reporting, spreadsheet? Anyone storing SSN? Anything encrypted? Regular Operating System patching, anti-virus, firewall? Also have a backup system and plan in place. Develop a plan to address these questions.

UNI Advancement Examples Converted database in 2000 Data Management Team Data Inventory Survey - Potholes Data Appends Monthly data cleansing Resources and Staffing Started in 1997, converted from a mainframe system to modern web-based CRM product called Millennium, completed in 2000. Offered easier access and a lot of data options including historical data, this was good and bad Have millions of “rows” of data Now needed to develop better standards for data, started a Data Management Team in 2003, comprised of representatives from the different units in the division Changes to data affect everyone, meet every month Inventory - Found where gaps in data existed. We are in the relationship business so our priority was contact data; addresses, phone, e-mail, now employment. Had over 10% “lost” alumni, now down to just over 1%. Started with big data append from 3rd party vendor Database vendor provides a service runs addresses thru NCOA monthly, phone numbers quarterly and updates zipcodes and area codes. We now do occasional appends for e-mail Very proactive. Not cheap, budget of $30K, 2 full-time biographical data entry, part-time gift processor and part-time prospect management. 2 full-time data IT staff and a network admin

UNI Advancement Examples Data Entry Specialized Biographical, Gifts, Prospect Tracking Use drop down menus and check boxes Try to keep data entry simple Use “Validation Reports” to check for errors No Shadow Databases Data is everyone’s job Helps maintain consistency of data, whether good or bad Free text allows for mistakes creating garbage, much easier to pull exactly what you want At one time had 15 versions of Principal Financial Group If protocol too complex, won’t be remembered. We have jumped the shark on that one. Examples – spouses with different addresses; multiple spouses, addresses, names, e-mails; no preferred address or name; no constituent type; Shadow – Duplication, end up with wrong data If someone knows data is wrong, tell someone who can fix it. And if there is one example, there are probably others.

UNI Advancement Examples Gift Processing Always record to name on check Volunteers Prospect Management 4 A’s of data Data Analysis Measuring Performance Gift Processing – 2 spouses signed check, business owner soft credit, DAF soft credit no pledge payments Volunteers – make a constituent if no volunteer module, use some other field like events, or gift row to record activity Prospect Management – we track when contacted, for what reason, type of contact, comments from contact, date of next contact and reason, and ask and/or close amounts Measuring Performance – different units have own goals; annual giving, major giving, overall campaign, # scholarships, endowment 4 A’s of data – Accumulate, Analyze – reports, Apply – compare real results with goals, Act – develop insights Data Analysis – can work in a Excel using charts, pivot tables or simply filters and sorting

Resources Websites for Nonprofit Technology http://www.techsoup.org/ http://www.nten.org// Assoc. of Advancement Services Professionals http://www.advserv.org/ Advancement Services Listserv http://fundsvcs.org/

Resources Websites for Nonprofit Technology http://www.techsoup.org/ http://www.nten.org// Assoc. of Advancement Services Professionals http://www.advserv.org/ Advancement Services Listserv http://fundsvcs.org/

Internal monthly dashboard Also do one for each major gift officer

Internal Analysis of gift closes using reporting tool called Crystal Reports

External Report on website - Annual Endowment Statement

External Report – End of campaign report We should have mailed to the 35,000 donors but we didn’t as budget was tight. Other areas with

Ron Giddings ron.giddings@uni.edu 319.273.6078 Questions? Ron Giddings ron.giddings@uni.edu 319.273.6078