There are few tools as powerful for enhancing a nonprofit’s fundraising than an analysis of donation and donor data. By taking an objective look at the numbers behind your fundraising efforts, an enlightening picture can emerge of how loyal your donors are, what approaches provide the biggest ROI and which supporters might be ready to be asked to increase their involvement. Having real answers to key questions can make a big difference in how much money you raise and how much time and money you put into raising it.

For many large nonprofits, analyzing donor data is a regular part of annual planning. For many smaller organizations or those that don’t have many donors, an analysis of donors’ giving patterns may seem overly formal or perhaps not needed at all. But just in case you suspect you don’t understand your donors as well as you should, here are a few guidelines to follow for a simple “Do-It-Yourself” donor data analysis:

The Data:

Most relevant data can be reviewed in a couple of worksheets within an Excel spreadsheet. Here are some of the types of information you’ll want collect and use to do your analysis:

• Donor names/some other identifier
• The type of entity each donor is (an individual, foundation, business, etc.)
• Gift amount for each gift given by each donor, the date on which each gift was given, and the appeal/campaign/event through which each was given. It’s great if you can look at all gifts over a three year span of time or more, but examining two year’s worth of donations and donors can tell you a lot.
• Any special restrictions or special purposes for gifts, especially if the purpose of the gift isn’t repeatable (like a one-time gift from an estate).
• Any other information you have about your donors or their behavior that would be helpful to consider when planning for next year, such as the city in which donors live or their attendance at events.

The Analysis:

Analyzing your donor data at this level is all about asking key questions and trying to find the answer by sorting the data in different ways. Here are some of questions to ask yourself:

• How well do we retain donors from year-to-year? The old adage is true: it’s a lot cheaper to keep a current customer (or donor) than it is to find a new one. If many of your donors only give once and then don’t give again, you’re probably not spending enough time staying connected to them.
• Which types of appeals or strategies are most successful? Which are least successful? There are many ways to define a successful fundraising strategy and you can decide what success means to you. For most organizations, “success” is a combination of money raised and the number of donors who give. Don’t forget to consider the staff, board and volunteer time and the money that went into each appeal! Would it have been easier to secure 10 gifts of $1,000 through in-person asks to individuals instead of burning out your volunteers with a special event that netted the same $10,000?
• Who are your top donors in terms of gift amounts? Who are the most loyal, even if they aren’t giving big gifts? Both groups deserve special attention and would likely do more if you show them how much you value their involvement. A “big” gift to your organization could be $200 or $2,000 or you could simply choose to focus on a certain percentage of donors who give the most and/or most frequently.
• What type and level of donors are giving the most/the least amount of money? Are you giving enough (or perhaps too much) attention to a certain type of level of donor?
• What natural “groups” of donors emerge from looking at the data? Could you develop targeted messages to reach a certain group more effectively?

There are many more questions that you could explore – these are just a few of the most common that we ask at Greenlights when helping our clients with an analysis. If you can’t answer these questions because you don’t have enough data to ask them, then consider using them as a guide to outline plans for starting to collect needed information over the next year.

Whether doing a quick analysis now or putting together a plan to be able to do it in the future, your organization’s fundraising is sure to be more strategic and efficient in the year ahead. If you have some donor analysis advice, please share it here.  Happy Analyzing!