5 Ways Your Nonprofit Can Use Donor Data (and Where to Find it!)

When you tap into the power of your nonprofit’s data, you can build stronger relationships with donors, attract new supporters, and streamline your donor management strategy. But many nonprofit teams have data stored across multiple spreadsheets and software programs, so they struggle to put donor information to good use. In this post, we suggest some places your donor data may be hiding, how you can use it to develop a stronger donor management strategy, and ultimately grow your nonprofit. 

Where Your Data May Be Hiding

Over time, you’ve probably utilized several tools and platforms to make fundraising and donor management easier. It can be challenging to remember all the tools your team uses, much less identify which ones might contain valuable donor data! To be sure you’re not overlooking any sources, consider the following:

• Personal email accounts such as Gmail or Outlook
• Marketing email software like Mailchimp or Constant Contact
• Spreadsheets on platforms likeExcel or Google Sheets
• Mailing lists or pledge lists kept in documents or elsewhere
• Accounting software such as Quickbooks
• Transaction processing systems such as PayPal, Stripe, Square, or Venmo
• Virtual event platforms like GoToWebinar, Zoom, or On24
• Event ticketing systems such as Eventbrite
• An old donor management system (DMS)

5 Ways to Use Your Donor Data

There are many ways you can put your data to use to more rapidly raise funds, grow, and advance your mission. Here are five of the most powerful ways to use your donor data. 

1. Better Understand Your Donors

Successful fundraising depends on your ability to motivate people to give. Collecting information about your donors’ interests, and tracking their giving and volunteer histories, will give you valuable insight into which projects and programs they’re most likely to get excited about. 

2. Communicate More Effectively

When you know your donors’ communication preferences and what they’re interested in, you can target your messages more effectively. Segment your donors by giving history, interests, communication preferences (such as snail mail, email, text, or phone call), and other factors to promote relevant projects and programs and share updates they’ll be interested in. Personalized communication to your donors builds confidence and shows supporters how important they are to your organization.

3. Boost Engagement

When your communications align with your donors’ interests and make supporters feel valued, you will automatically boost engagement. Most people are eager to give to an organization they care about when they feel appreciated and receive regular updates on  projects or programs they support. Additionally, when you monitor trends in giving, such as which donors have lapsed, you can proactively re-engage them with a relevant message. 

4. Send Personalized Thank Yous 

With donation data, you can see which project or program a donor supported, and other details such as if they made the donation in the name of a loved one. With this information, you can craft relevant thank you messages that communicate the depth of your gratitude and keep donors motivated to continue their support.

5. Expand Your Donor Base

Donor data is also valuable for gaining new donors. You can identify key characteristics of your supporters and reach out to similar audiences to expand your donor base. You can then use this information to create social media campaigns, send direct mailings, inform board member outreach, and more. Making use of donor data allows you to grow faster as an organization.

Dive into Donor Data to Grow Your Nonprofit

Donor data offers a wealth of opportunities for nonprofit teams to engage supporters in innovative ways and attract new donors. Take advantage of the data you have to grow your organization!

Download Donor Management Strategies: How to Organize Your Donor Data to learn more about how you can use donor data to grow your nonprofit!

Published: September 7, 2022