Episode #253
Would you like a crystal ball to see who your major donors are going to be?
Well, predictive analytics may not be a crystal ball, but it can certainly help you discover major donors in your database.
In this week’s movie, Josh Birkholz from Bentz Whaley Flessner is going to give you a quick peek into predictive analytics and show you how you can spot major donors in your database. The way you’ve been looking for major donors in the past may have steered you in the wrong direction.
If you are interested in analytics and fundraising, check out Josh’s book: “Fundraising Analytics: Using Data to Guide Strategy”
Do you have any stories or advice on finding major donors? If so, please share them in a comment box under the video. Thanks.
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Do you have any stories or advice on finding major donors? If so, please share them in a comment box. Thanks. 🙂
Excellent topic! Josh is right on the money and his message is brilliant.
Demonstrates why I find Movie Mondays so helpful!
Good point for reviewing our donor list.
This may sound odd, but it is a love affair, in my 20 years of experience. My major donors are usually in love with me! And me, them! It’s partly about the organization, partly chemistry. They’re usually people I can be real and honest with, about all the ups and downs of running a nonprofit. They’re in love with the project and want to support it but they are also in love with me and how I run it. I imagine they would still support the organization if I were not heading it, but it would depend again upon how they felt in relationship with whoever is running it. It’s so much about personal relationships and especially people who fall in love immediately… then it is about maintaining the relationship by really and truly caring about the donor as a person…everything about money giving, in my experience, has to do with the vibes. And that is something that happens or it doesn’t! It can’t be taught, forced or manipulated.
Great point Linda! As a budding MGO (I work in a rural hospital foundation, and plan on being a “lifer” here), question on that: do you build organizational relationships, or do you just let the personal and organizational relationship building happen simultaneously. I’m concerned because I’m worried about my major gift donors not giving if I was to go on parental leave at some point (or get hit by a bus, or win the lottery). TIA!
I agree Linda. It’s all about relationships and the trust that develops. This is yet another reason why it’s so important to hire the right people, mentor and encourage them, and retain them.
Thanks for posting this – I have Josh’s book, but haven’t dug into it yet… His explanation was a great motivator to crack it open, and get the goods out of it. 🙂
I don’t exactly follow how looking at perceived outlying data is predictive. I can certainly see how looking at data in a different point of view might be helpful to a development officer. However, I can’t imagine that toiling over a particularly large data set of major donors, looking for a small data subset (which may or may not distinguish a major donor) would be an efficient use of time. Likewise, a small-shop devo department would not have the appropriate amount of data to look at donors with this amount of depth.
It’s really important to conduct donor surveys regularly to find out what really makes them tick. Wealth data can only take you so far. Donor surveys don’t replace wealth screenings and predictive analytical models… they accent them. It’s the first step in my 6-step process for raising major and planned gifts. http://imarketsmart.com/the-simplest-major-gift-marketing-strategy/