Now that you have your donor list in some sort of manageable database, rather than sticky notes and spreadsheets, it is time to engage in donor data enrichment. That is, you can now take your existing list and leverage it to not only enhance what you already know about your donors but also use it to connect to other likely donors.
This enrichment process can also serve to update your existing database with address changes, expanded contact options, and help you to save money in the long run as you don’t have to chase missing donors. Plus, it identifies your donor’s other philanthropic interests and giving patterns. That can serve to alert you to new possibilities.
Here are our five favorite ways of enriching by finding more information about donors and connecting to other likely donors.
Whitepages Premium
We feel that Whitepages Premium is one of the best tools available for donor data enrichment. For starters, it can be used to update all the contact information for your donor list. This includes email address, physical address (both current and previous addresses), mobile and home phones, as well as family members and business associates. With the latter you can extend your search for new donors. Plus, you can also gain insight from public property records and more. It’s relatively low cost and for all the data it provides it is very cost effective.
WealthEngine
We also use WealthEngine for donor data enrichment. It does a great job of providing the exact information you need in reviewing each of your current donors and finding what they call “lookalikes” that can become fantastic prospects for either new or increased donations. Their WE Analyze option can provide some incredible information using models developed from your existing donors and then use that information to provide prospects that match.
LinkedIn and Facebook
One use of social media is to determine how to reach the individual donor you’re seeking. For starters, you can review their friends and family for those who already have a connection to your organization. That’s just the opening you need for an introduction. You can also use company pages on both LinkedIn and Facebook to provide yet another layer of connection and to provide insight into your donor’s or prospect’s work and interests.
Full Contact Premium Data API
Full Contact can develop insights by using your data to build a more detailed and enriched profile for each of your donors. It can also combine your existing data into segments that align, thus allowing you to fully develop your donor personas. This, in turn, can help you focus your email and mailing campaigns. This type of enriched data along with the resulting focused campaigns can further increase the return on investment (ROI) on all your fundraising activities.
Analyze Your Own Donor Data
Now that you’ve built your database and enhanced it with an incredible amount of information, it is time to conduct a thorough analysis. Here’s a quick list of the first things to review:
- Top Donors: Who are your biggest donors?
- Donor Turnover: Who has donated for the first time and needs thanks as well as encouragement to make the next donation? Who has donated only once and that was a long, long time ago?
- Donor Retention: Are you losing donors? Is it time to reach out and bring them back with a new campaign?
- Growth Timeline: Are your donations, and the number of donors, growing or declining? How are they matching up with your fundraising campaigns?
- Campaign Goals: Are you on track to reach donation goals for each of your campaigns?
What you learn from this analysis can then become the basis for your next several action items in growing donations for your organization.
We Can Help
We can help you with your donor data enrichment, whether that be finding and updating existing donor information or finding new donors. We've done this for quite a few nonprofits over the years and it has made a tremendous difference in their fundraising.
Contact us at (855) 329-4327 or info@campaignnowonline.com.
