This document discusses strategies for cultivating the relationship between data and strategy in fundraising. It covers data acquisition strategy, including determining the minimum necessary data and costs of acquisition, maintenance, and errors. It then discusses using a scientific method and analytics to develop data-based fundraising strategies through observation, hypothesis, and testing. Finally, it addresses data safety strategy and risks to charities from data breaches, given the amount of sensitive donor information typically collected and relatively small IT budgets. The overall message is that properly acquiring, analyzing, and protecting data is crucial for effective fundraising strategies.

1. Kirk Schmidt | Method Works Consulting
Data and Strategy:
Cultivating Their
Relationship

2. • 9 years in the charitable sector, 6 as a process and systems
consultant.
• IT background
• B.Math (Waterloo)
• Master Storyteller (when dice are involved)
Kirk Schmidt

3. • Data Acquisition Strategy
• Data-based Strategy in Fundraising
• Data Safety Strategy
• Questions/Comments/Tomato Dodgeball
Data and Strategy: Overview

4. “Trust, but verify.” -Reagan
Data Acquisition
Strategy

5. • What is the absolute minimum you are willing to put in your
database?
• Is there value in keeping a single piece of information as a
record?
• Can it be used to analyse and model?
Minimum Data

6. • Financial Cost
• Time spent entering the
data
• Time spent researching the
data
• Wasted time on data that
will never be of use
The Cost of Acquisition

7. • What data might you need
verification for?
• Determine if it is worth
investing (time or money)
in verification of data
• What could go wrong?
• What data requires
constant maintenance in
our database?
• Determine if it is worth
investing (time or money)
in maintenance of the data
• Maintaining researched
information
Maintenance and Verification

8. • Difficult cost to measure and plan for
• This cost is weighted against verification and maintenance
(or even against acquiring data in the first place)
• What risk does stale data pose? How can you deal with it?
The Cost of Getting It Wrong

9. • Minimum Data Strategy
• Cost of Acquisition
• Cost of Maintenance and Verification
• Cost of Getting It Wrong
You have to TRUST your data before you can use it to build
data-based strategies in fundraising.
Review: Data Acquisition Strategy

10. “However beautiful the strategy, you should
occasionally look at the results.” -Churchill
Data-based
Strategy in
Fundraising

11. • Definition: “commercial or professional procedures that are
accepted or prescribed as being correct or most effective.”
• Charities are at the infancy of data-based strategy
• Requisite Penelope Burk reference
• How do we do our own?
Best Practices

12. • Observations
• Questions
• Hypothesis
• Prediction
• Testing
• Analysis
The Scientific Method

13. OBSERVATION AND QUESTION TIME

14. Giving Time Vs. Third Gift

15. Most Common Giving Amounts
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
130
140
150
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Most Common Gift Amounts for Fiscal 2011 to 2015

16. Long Term Retention Rates
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
Repeat 1 Repeat 2 Repeat 3 Repeat 4 Repeat 5
Long Term Retention Rate

17. Number of Gifts Processed by Time

18. • Once you have your questions, you can start hypothesising,
predicting, and testing.
• Change one variable at a time.
• Start small – observe your data and ask questions.
Review: Data-based Strategy

19. “The charitable sector is the easiest, and
most lucrative, target that has yet to really
see a major public breach.”
Data
Safety
Strategy

20. • The two cars
• You are a bigger target than your servers
Not Just IT

21. • Relatively accurate and comprehensive data
– Names, addresses, email, phone numbers, workplace
information, birth date and spousal information
– Donation history, sometimes including bank accounts and
partial credit card numbers
– Prospect research data (yachts!)
• Relatively small IT budgets and staff to deal with controls
and compliance
• No culture of awareness of the dangers
The Risk

22. • Exporting information out of the database into an excel file
and putting on external media.
• Printing out donor briefing documents and carrying them
around.
• Emailing information.
• Answering the telephone.
Potential Failures

23. • Carry as little sensitive information as possible, or protect it
(if you have the know-how to do so)
• Process for checking out and checking in documents
• Email as little as possible, or transfer information through
more secure means
• On the phone, put onus on the caller
• Think like a hacker
Protecting Yourself

24. • Basic overview today
• Know that you are the biggest risk to your data, not the IT
infrastructure
• Understand why charities are potentially a relatively easy
and lucrative target
• Protect yourself and have process where possible
Data Safety Strategy

25. Wrapping it up

26. • Data Acquisition Strategy
– Acquiring, Maintenance, Verification, Getting it Wrong,
Minimum Data
• Data-based Strategy in Fundraising
– Using analytics to observe, question, test, and change process
• Data Safety Strategy
– Everyone’s responsibility
Data and Strategy

27. Kirk Schmidt
Method Works Consulting
kirks@methodworksconsulting.com
403-971-9905
Questions, Comments,
Tomato Dodgeball