Nonprofit leaders who are tired of messy data, disconnected systems, and lack of donor and programmatic insights this newsletter is for you. Welcome to your one stop shop for all things nonprofit CRMs.
Cornerstones of Every Nonprofit: Development Data and Program Data
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Hey Reader, I want to share some thoughts from a recent presentation we led for nonprofits supported by The Greater Sum Foundation. Here's the general idea: The foundation of a healthy nonprofit data infrastructure is two things: development data and program data. Not donor management and participant tracking as separate systems. Development and programs as a unified view of the organization's work — the resources coming in and the impact going out. When those two data sets are integrated, something changes in how an organization talks about itself, makes decisions, and tells its story. When they're siloed, everything is harder than it should be. WHAT DEVELOPMENT DATA IS REALLY FOR Development data — donor records, gift history, engagement tracking, campaign performance — all oriented around your teams' understanding of the relationship between your organization and the people who resource it. The questions that development data should be able to answer:
Most nonprofits can answer some of these questions partially. Unfortunately, partially doesn't move the needle as much as we'd like it to. WHAT PROGRAM DATA IS REALLY FOR Program data — participant intake, services delivered, outcomes tracked, referral sources — it's the evidence that your mission is working. The questions that program data should be able to answer:
Most nonprofits have the data to answer the first question. The others require a level of outcome tracking and longitudinal analysis that most program data systems aren't built to support. Unfortunately, spreadsheets become the norm and trap us in manual work that is hard to scale. WHY CONNECTING DEVELOPMENT & PROGRAM DATA IS EVERYTHING When development data and program data are integrated — or at minimum, when they're designed to complement each other — the organization gains something it can't get from either system alone: the ability to connect resources to impact. Here is an example of what this looks like in action: An organizations' funder has given $50K a year for four years. The Development Director knows they renewed every year and that the funder cares deeply about recidivism reduction — something the program team tracks but never shares outside of grant reports.
Before the annual check-in, she reached out to the program team to gather any information she could regarding the donor's interest. It took 2 weeks to gather this information, and led to stress and uneasiness as the date of the meeting with the funder drew closer.
The programs team ultimately shared that 68% of participants had prior justice involvement and their 18-month employment retention rate beat the county average. The stand out finding in this, was that the donor gave directly to the program that led to these outcomes, and so the Development Director was able to share that her giving led to these outcomes directly.
This led to an increase in her giving and a multi-year pledge to continue supporting this work.
The example above shows the impact of data readiness by the programs team and interrelation between donor history and the programs they support. In an ideal world, the Development Director would be able to gather program insights in a much more streamlined way and tell the story of the donor's impact much faster. What holds teams back is manual tracking, reporting complexity, and lack of centralized information. That was the hold up that took 2 weeks vs. a day to pull the report from a structured and dynamic CRM database to track both pillars of data. A QUESTION TO SIT WITH If your organization had to produce a single report that showed both who gave to your mission this year and what changed in people's lives as a result — could you do it? From one system? In under an hour? If not, it's worth fixing - reach out to book a call if you need support. Blessings, |
Impact Insights by Mata Consulting
Nonprofit leaders who are tired of messy data, disconnected systems, and lack of donor and programmatic insights this newsletter is for you. Welcome to your one stop shop for all things nonprofit CRMs.
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