The Art of Listening

The Art of Listening

Are you really leveraging what your donors are telling

you?

Chuck Longfield

http://www.publicgardens.org/

Chuck Longfield Page #2 © 2010 Blackbaud

2010 APGA Conference

Why care about data?

One of your greatest assets The lens through which you view your donors Impacts how your donors view your organization Effects your ability to allocate scarce resources

and grow the value of your asset




One of Your Greatest Assets

Just as real as your endowment Generates millions annually Like other assets, requires maintenance Can be easily mismanaged




Recommendation #1- Monitor your data quality regularly

Identify 100 donors randomly, each year, and thoroughly review their data

- Incorrect data (typos, moved, married, dead)- Duplicate records- Missing information- Correct treatment (clubs, tracks, expire dates)




Your View of Your Supporters

You don’t know most donors personally Capture their rich interactions What are they really saying? Don’t be afraid to correct their data, e.g. “donor

since” or “list of gifts” What is valuable and what isn’t?




Recommendation #2– Use Richer Dataset in Selections Test different variables, e.g. matching gift Clean up messy data Create single passion variable Is a matching gift worth more than a web site

registration?




Your Donor’s View of Your Organization

“I just gave to them” “They spend all of my money sending me mail” “They can’t even spell my name right” Passionate donors may tolerate your missteps

but not all donors will




The Cost of a Typo!Correct

Last NameMisspelledLast Name % Difference

Average Gift $39.13 $38.55 -1.5%Renewal Rate 51.1% 46.6% -8.8%

Average Gift $52.43 $46.16 -12.0%Renewal Rate 49.4% 41.9% -15.2%

Organization A

Organization B




Recommendation #3– Call All New Donors!

Are you really a new donor? Do we have your correct name & address? Why did you give to us? What would you like from our relationship? And say thank you!




Your Ability to Allocate Scarce Resources

Costs keep increasing Not all donors are created equal Invest in the donors with the greatest potential Look across all development activities




Recommendation #4– Look at Donor ROI

Lends itself to increased stewardship What was the “thank you” call worth? Did the campaign yield positive net results for all

donors?




Your Ability to Grow the Value of Your Asset

Cheaper to keep your existing donors Encourage your donors to contact you Encourage donors to volunteer time or

information about themselves Capture all donor data in one place




Recommendation #5– Create hurdles for donors to clear to qualify for further investments

Who returned the survey? Who came to the event? Who called the call center, visited the web site,

or matched their gift?




Recommendation #6 –Follow-up with all non-renewing members above $100 personally

Update records where necessary Determine reason for non-renewal Change business practices where necessary




How to value a piece of data?

What is the value of an email address?

What does the email address enable, that generates value?




What does an email address enable? Less expensive, electronic communication Better customer service (e.g. timely thank you’s) Faster receipt of funds? (e.g. pledge reminders) Identification of more affluent and educated

donors (who own computers?) Identification of more passionate donors

(who will share information about themselves) Unique identifier resulting in fewer duplicates




Data – What is it good for? Not all data are created equal What would you do differently? When is 1 + 1 = 3 (or more)? Pay attention to the source of the information Does it need to be transformed to be useful? Who else is using it? Should be using it? What is the data really telling me? When is enough, enough?




Know the real value of your data Care for your data better Use your data more effectively

Take-aways


The Art of Listening

Technology

Transcript of The Art of Listening