Fundraising Analytics: Using Data to Guide Strategy

"As long as your focus remains on the donor, your data-driven strategies will evolve to benefit your organization. To be guided by data means to be guided by donors. Donors are the remarkable coefficients in high-results equations. If you plug them into your formula, your results will be extraordinary." *From Fundraising Analytics

Today's successful nonprofits use information as a resource implemented in their organizational culture and realize that having an authentic vision for analytics is the key to successful fundraising. Fundraising Analytics shows nonprofit executive directors, fundraising managers, directors of development, planned giving officers, and consultants how to turn their organizational data *with an appropriate focus on donors* into actionable knowledge. The result? A vibrant, donor-centered nonprofit organization that makes maximum use of data to reveal the unique diversity of its donors.

Written by Joshua Birkholz, a leading practitioner and creative thinker in the world of analytics and philanthropy, to help nonprofits recognize the opportunities provided by fundraising analytics, this innovative book explores how analytics can be optimally used to drive success in fundraising. It provides step-by-step instructions for conducting analysis in-house, with invaluable advice on how to:

• - Understand your constituents
• - Identify potential prospects for major and planned giving
• - Develop campaign planning including capacity analysis and pyramid design
• - Build a data-driven prospect management system
• - Develop metrics to gauge and guide your success
• - Select data for mining
• - Broaden your support base
• - Build a model to predict giving at your organization

Organizations are seeing remarkable results through development of sophisticated systems for understanding their customers and using data to guide strategy. Part of the Wiley/AFP Fund Development Series, Fundraising Analytics is an easy-to-use, relevant book that can be used by all development officers with a vision towards deepening connection with donors and increasing nonprofit fundraising.

Order Josh's book.

Slow Growth in Millionaire Population

Robert Frank, from the Wall Street Journal's "Wealth Report," writes about how the wealthy are in an economic slump. "According to Chicago-based Spectrum Group, the number of millionaires in the U.S. grew a meager 2% in 2007. That compares with 8% growth in 2006, 11% in 2005 and 21% in 2004."

Read more of this 3.12.08 report.

World's Millionaires Have $50 Trillion

The Wall Street Journal's "Wealth Report" reports that, according to a study by Oliver Wyman, total wealth held by the world's financial millionaires - those with $1 million or more in investible assets - has grown to $50 trillion and that wealth is expected to grow 50% over the next five years to $75 trillion.

Read the 4.1.08 Wall Street Journal article.

The Decline of Inherited Money

The 1.14.2008 Wall Street Journal "Wealth Report" provides data regarding the claim that "inheritance is not the main driver of today's wealth." Some of the datapoints include:

1. According to a study of Federal Reserve data conducted by NYU professor Edward Wolff, for the nation's richest 1%, inherited wealth accounted for only 9% of their net worth in 2001, down from 23% in 1989. (The 2001 number was the latest available.)

2. According to a study by Prince & Associates, less than 10% of today's multi-millionaires cited "inheritance" as their source of wealth.

3. A study by Spectrem Group found that among today's millionaires, inherited wealth accounted for just 2% of their total sources of wealth.

Click here to read the article.

Record Earnings for Hedge Funders

In 2007 the top 25 hedge-fund managers earned $16 billion and according to Alpha Magazine's 2007 rankings of top hedge-fund earners, the highest-paid hedge funders earned around $3 billion each.

Read more about the top-earning hedge fund managers on the website of the Wall Street Journal's 4/16 "Wealth Report."

Advancement Budget: Staff limitations make fund raising difficult

Emily Grannis of The Post writes about Ohio University's debate over where to spend state-allocated money and how to increase the university's $240 million endowment.

Read the 4/18/2008 article.

Keeping Records

This video shows you what you need to do to make sure your charitable contributions pass muster with the IRS. The Wall Street Journal's Tom Herman tells you how new tax laws make detailed record keeping absolutely essential.

Click here to view the video.

Rules for Giving

The 4/21/2008 Wall Street Journal explores how U.S. tax laws have changed in recent years in regard to charitable donations. The article touches on key points such keeping good records, advice on stock donations, and what's in store for the future of IRA gifts, as well as other key "what you need to know" items.

Click here to read the article.

When Strings Are Attached, Quirky Gifts Can Limit Universities

A 4/13/08 article by Karen W. Areson at the New York Times, discusses how new attention is being paid to how endowments are structured, and on the restrictions donors impose.

Access the article.

Putting Value on E-Mail Addresses

Convio, the online fund-raising consulting company, has calculated the fund-raising value of e-mail addresses that nonprofit groups collect from donors and other supporters.

According to the Convio study, an e-mail address is worth $7.86 to charities that use e-mail appeals for fund raising. An address is most valuable for health organizations ($8.32 per address) and animal advocacy groups ($6.99). It is significantly less valuable for environmental ($2.59) and public-affairs ($2.60) organizations.

The results are discussed on the blog Frogloop. Frogloop is a blog by Care2, a popular social-networking Web site that connects charities with supporters and other charities. The blog discusses best practices among nonprofit professionals about online fund raising, advocacy and member acquisition.

Full-text blog posting (above) by Peter Panepento via The Chronicle of Philanthropy's Prospecting Blog, 4.7.08.

2007 Windfall Report: America's 50 Richest Paydays

You won't find Oprah Winfrey on the list. Nor will you find the legion of hedge-fund managers who routinely collect hundreds of millions in any given year. That's because they're all just getting paid to do their day jobs. This is a list of people who enjoyed windfalls thanks to large transactions: stock cash-outs, I.P.O.'s, sales of companies, real-estate deals and even inheritances.

Peter Newcomb's list of the 50 players (and one lucky canine) whose bottom lines got the biggest boost last year is available via Vanity Fair, 3.2008.

WSJ: Survey of CEO Compensation

JoAnn Lublin, of the Wall Street Journal, explores CEO compensation and benefits. Ms. Lublin argues that "directors are increasingly exercising more clout in setting CEO compensation. And in some cases, the boss is actually feeling a little pain."

Read this 4/14/08 Wall Street Journal article.

Free Searchable Database of US Corporate Donations

The NonProfit Times and NOZASearch have launched a new searchable database of more than 4,000 corporate donations of $1 million or more. This new service is called NPTGrantSearch.

Check it out!

NOZA-Private Foundation 990 searchable database launched

NOZA now provides free access to a database of 990-PF tax returns. According to the NOZA website (http://www.noza990pf.com), this project was started several years ago by Grantsmart and contains publically-available data received from the IRS. You can also search NOZA's companion database containing more than 1,000,000 foundation grant records (also free), by visiting http://www.nozasearch.com.

For more information, visit the NOZA website.