NTEN Community survey

If you or one of your colleagues is a member of NTEN (the Nonprofit Technology Network), they’re conducting their annual survey to better serve their community.  I subscribe to the NTEN quarterly reports and love browsing the website to find the latest information about the technologies that are leading change in the nonprofit sector.

To participate in this year’s survey click here.

Survey results – 6th annual fundraising analytics community

The BWF consulting team just compiled results from the 6th annual nonprofit survey on the way our industry is leveraging data analytics.  The survey covers the kinds of projects we perform, the statistical methods used, tools/software used, personnel mix, how we measure value, and staff competency.

While most of us apply analytics for better prospecting, since last year’s survey, there’s been increased interest in pursuing other business challenges like financial forecasting and program performance analysis.

 

 

The report is very insightful, particularly on the discussion pertaining to analysis methods.  The BWF team appears to believe we, as an industry, could be taking better advantage of addressing some questions that are central to our core business models, vis-a-vis time series analysis.

 

Take a minute to read – just click on the image above.

Your input needed – 2015 donor relations pulse

Lynne Wester, author of the engaging and insightful Donor Relations Guru blog is conducting her second ever Pulse of donor relations survey.

Your input is needed to create a dense and meaningful distribution of response data.  Please click here or on the image above to take the survey.

Consider a survey

It’s a given that I’m a fan of data.  Precise indicators that give the ability to establish baseline counts and segments.  However, in our world we’re often left to make assumptions about whether the numerals have consistent meaning from constituent to constituent.  Nothing can replace the rich information we’re able to gather when speaking directly with a constituent.  And surveys are a perfect method to engage and inquire, in a very specific way.

 

The quote above is from a New York Times article by Tim Lahan.  He describes how too often we look at big data (such as email clicks, social media likes, etc.) as insightful when true insight can only be gleaned by placing the clicking behavior in context of the user experience.

So instead of assuming that our constituents feel more connected to us as a result of mailing out a big report or sending a video, why not ask?  The information could be used to start forming content preference models and we could spend our communications budget delivering content that resonates with the recipients.

Click on the quote above to read Mr. Lahan’s article.

Your input needed – Annual Fundraising Analytics Survey

Bentz Whaley Flessner would like to invite you to participate in the DonorCast 2015 Fundraising Analytics Survey. This survey provides a comprehensive snapshot of the fundraising analytics profession and covers compensation, professional development, methodology, software, and institutional culture. We shared last year’s findings from BWF here on the APRA-GH blog as soon as they published it and we’ll do the same this year.

 

To enter the survey click here.  But please act fast – the survey closes May 6th.