Data Skills: What you and your staff need to know in 2017

PRESENTED BY
Data Essentials
June 8, 2017
Claudia van Poperingen
Director of Data Services, TRG Arts
What you and your staff need to know in 2017
Rachel Brown
Education Associate, DataArts

2
Agenda
Background on Data Essentials Courses1
4 Key Audience Metrics to use in 20172
Discussion: Developing Data Skills at Your Organization3
Q & A4

4
“There’s not a lot of inherent resources….We don’t have a statistics educated
economist, we don’t have anyone whose sole background is data.”
“There’s a variety of skill levels in different areas of the our staff,
it would be nice to see more skills [in data use] across the board.”
“We need to build skills to reflect on multiple sources of information, to identify
credible sources, prioritize what is important, and then to synthesize and deliberate.”
“Because of the barriers present in accessing data (e.g., lack of time and data-use
training), many nonprofits simply do not attempt to make better use of data at their
disposal that could help improve organizational performance.”

9
Agenda
Q & A4
- Data Capture Rate
- Cost of Sale
- Per Capita Revenue
- New Audience Churn Rate

do we mean when we
talk about audience data?
What

surveytransactional
what they say they
want or did
what they did
Types of patron data

Revenue from
Patron Relationships

There’s a lot.
Donor Donor,
subscriber
First time
ticket
buyer
New
subscriber New donor,
Multibuyer
Subscriber,
Used to
donate
First time
ticket
buyer, now
subscriber
Long-time
subscriber
Donor,
board
member
Donor,
Long-time
subscriber

can we use data
to affect change?
How

The goal of all audience data clean-up efforts:

Biographical/contact info
ACCOU
NT_ID
FIRST_N
AME LAST_NAME ADDRESS_1 CITY
ZIP_
CODE EMAIL
PHONE
_TYPE PHONE
500 Lora Caulfield PO Box 715 Kansas City 74152 caulfield@msn.com HOME (918) 645-4294
504 Nancy Finch 3927 S Atlanta Place Overland Park 74137 nfinch@kc.rr.com HOME (918) 943-6099
511 Jerome Tweedie 2304 W 118th Ave Prairie Village 74074 tweedie@gmail.com HOME (405) 744-9174
515 Phillip O’Hara 1218 E 69th St Olathe 74137 CELL (918) 299-7801
577 Doris Havisham 11283 S 75th E Ave Parkville 74105 HOME (918) 637-3936
586 Beverly Gatsby 7554 S. Winston Kansas City 74132 CELL (918) 631-3072
595 Arleen Bennett 122 E 32nd St Kansas City 74135 abennett@gmail.com CELL (918) 749-3709
607 Penny Holmes 814 S Allegheny Ave Overland Park 74136 pholmes@gmail.com CELL (918) 492-6931
629 Jackie Baggins 2648 E 68th St Kansas City 74008 jbaggins@coxmail.com HOME (918) 488-0404
635 Leona Portnoy 331 W. 37th Street Overland Park 74135
lportnoy@worldnet.att.
com CELL (918) 744-8092
639 Amanda Eyre 8219 S Sandy Ave Kansas City 74105 HOME (918) 742-6931
641 Dave Yosarrian 6834 S. Florence Kansas City 74105
yoyosarrian@gmail.co
m HOME (918) 743-7303

Do you know your data capture rate?

A record
ACCOUNT
_ID
FIRST_
NAME LAST_NAME ADDRESS_1 CITY
ZIP_
CODE EMAIL
PHONE
_TYPE PHONE
504 Nancy Finch
3927 S Atlanta
Place Overland Park 74137 nfinch@kc.rr.com HOME (918) 555-6099
511 Jerome Tweedie
2304 W 118th
Ave Prairie Village 74074 tweedie@gmail.com HOME (405) 555-9174
577 Doris Havisham
11283 S 75th E
Ave Parkville 74105 HOME (918) 555-3936
607 Penny Holmes
814 S Allegheny
Ave Overland Park 74136 pholmes@gmail.com CELL (918) 555-6931
635 Leona Portnoy
331 W. 37th
Street Overland Park 74135
com CELL (918) 555-8092
639 Amanda Eyre
8219 S Sandy
Ave Kansas City 74105 HOME (918) 555-6931
m HOME (918) 555-7303

An attribute
ACCOUNT
_ID
FIRST_
NAME LAST_NAME ADDRESS_1 CITY
ZIP_
CODE EMAIL
PHONE
_TYPE PHONE
504 Nancy Finch
3927 S Atlanta
Place Overland Park 74137 nfinch@kc.rr.com HOME (918) 555-6099
511 Jerome Tweedie 2304 W 118th Ave Prairie Village 74074 tweedie@gmail.com HOME (405) 555-9174
577 Doris Havisham
11283 S 75th E
Ave Parkville 74105 HOME (918) 555-3936
607 Penny Holmes
814 S Allegheny
Ave Overland Park 74136 pholmes@gmail.com CELL (918) 555-6931
635 Leona Portnoy 331 W. 37th Street Overland Park 74135
com CELL (918) 555-8092
639 Amanda Eyre 8219 S Sandy Ave Kansas City 74105 HOME (918) 555-6931
m HOME (918) 555-7303

Transactional
PatronID Season PackageID PackageName VenueName PaidPrice PriceTypeDesc
ModeOfS
aleDesc
16803742012-2013 358Choreograph Your Own Brown Theater $ 82.50 CYO Subscription
11940072012-2013 357Dance Pass Brown Theater $ 151.50
Full Series Dance
Pass Grand Tier Subscription
Full Series Dance
Full Series Dance
Full Series Dance
Full Series Dance
Pass Grand Tier
Subscription

Transactional
ModeOfSal
eDesc
Full Series Dance
Full Series Dance
Full Series Dance
Full Series Dance
Full Series Dance
Pass Grand Tier
Subscription

A segment
ModeOfS
aleDesc
Full Series Dance
Full Series Dance
Full Series Dance
Full Series Dance
Full Series Dance
Pass Grand Tier
Subscription

Photo by FlossieBlossoms (CC BY 2.0)
A segment is a group of patrons
that share common
characteristics.

Segmentation
The same patron may appear in multiple segments
2013 STB A Christmas Carol
2014 DON Capital Campaign2014 STB Noises Off

Questions to consider
Identifying what drives behavior
1. How do we currently engage with patrons?
What types of purchases do they make?
2. How will we engage with patrons in the future?
3. What strategic goals does our organization have?
And how do we plan to measure success?

Photo: Gavin Brogan (CC BY 2.0)
What gets
measured
gets managed

revenueaudience
Why it matters

Data Capture Rate
For how many patrons
do you have contact info?
32
Women's Project Theater, New York, NY. Photo Credit: Carol Rosegg

Data Capture Rate
How to calculate
Data
capture
rate (%)
# of new
patrons for
whom you
have full
contact info
Total # of
new
patrons
Source: your database or ticketing system
Timespan: current year or season
1,700 10,000 17%

Data Capture Rate
Full contact info
Street Address
Phone number
Email Address

Data collection matters
Why? Revenue.
# of 1st-time visitor households in 2014: 100,000
Membership mailing to first-time visitors:
Average response rate: 2.1%
Average revenue per response: $70
Data capture rate # mailed # responded Total revenue
95% 95,000 2,000 $140,000
15% 15,000 315 $22,050
Difference: 1,685 members and $118,000
We mail every first timer who we HAVE DATA ON We mail
every first timer who we HAVE DATA ON

Cost of Sale
How productive are your campaigns?
36
JCC CenterStage Theatre, Rochester, NY. Photo credit: Steven Levinson

Expense
Gross
revenue
Cost of
sale
100% = break even
Less than 100% = you made money
More than 100% = you lost money
Cost of sale
How to calculate

Cost of Sale
“Equal” spending

LOW
DEMANDHIGH
DEMAND
Manage marketing budget
based on demand

Relationships take time
ticket
subscription/
membership
donation
high COS medium COS Low COS

New Audience Churn Rate
How many new ticket buyers or
visitors do we lose each year?
41
Children's Theater Company, Minneapolis, MN. Photo credit: Pixel Dust Photography

New audience churn
How to calculate
Find these numbers:
• How many new patrons you had two seasons/years ago
• Within that group, how many had no transactions last
season/year.
New
audience
churn rate
# of patrons
who didn’t
come back
# of new
patrons in
previous
year

4 out of 5 new patrons leave…
and don’t come back.
Photo by Stefan Powell via flickr (CC BY 2.0)

More retention + less attrition =
GROWTH
New audience
churn rateSame-season
multi single
ticket buyers

Seattle Rep
4-year loyalty plan
Year 1: same-
season ticket
Year 2:
3 plays
for $99
Year 3:
Subscribe!
Year 4
Offer:
Renew!

Per capita revenue
Is our pricing right?
46
Bharatam, Chicago, IL. Photo credit: courtesy of Bharatam

Photo: Alper Çuğun (CC BY 2.0)
% of capacity sold

Total sales
revenue
Total unit
sales
Per capita
revenue
Per capita revenue
How to calculate it
Source: ticket revenue reports
Timespan: this year or current season

Per capita revenue
should RISE as
ticket sales increase
What does it mean?
$-
$5
$10
$15
$20
$25
$30
$35
$40
$45
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
Event 1 Event 2 Event 3 Event 4 Event 5 Event 6
Percapitarevenueperevent
Singleticketsalesperevent(inthousands)
Sales Per capita revenue

Demand and prices
are out of sync
$-
$5
$10
$15
$20
$25
$30
$35
$40
$45
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
Event 1 Event 2 Event 3 Event 4 Event 5 Event 6
Percapitarevenueperevent
Singleticketsalesperevent(inthousands)
Sales Per capita revenue
What does it mean?

Photo: Todd Hryck (CC BY 2.0)
Comps & Discounts
Papering is not a business strategy.

How Much Time is Right?
To be spending on data
A level = 10-15% of
total organizational
time
B level = 15-20% of
time
C level = 25%+ of
time
LEVELA
My data is in
order, solid
practices
are in place,
I’m in
maintenance
mode.
LEVELB
I still have
some gaps
in my data
practices
and need to
catch up.
LEVELC
I’m new or
newly
building my
database or I
haven’t been
minding my
data and it’s
collapsed!

55
Agenda
Q & A4

56
Connecting the Dots Audience
• Early career administrators in small or large organizations
– Marketing assistant at a large theatre company
– Patron Services associate at a performing arts presenter
• Founders and staff members at new or emerging organizations
– Founding director of a new theatre or dance company
• Director level staff at established small to mid-size organizations
– New director at a mid-sized theatre company with limited background in data analysis

57
Looking as We Leap: Data for Decisions
Learn a five-step decision-making process helps clarify options and measure what
matters. Created by Andrew Taylor from American University.
Making the Case: Advocacy Basics for Arts Leaders
Campaign planning techniques, tips for strong messaging, and data to understand your
position on issues that matter. Created with Julie Hawkins Goodman from Drexel
University.
Strength in Numbers: Financial Data Essentials
Key financial metrics to gain insight, financial planning aligned with organizational
strategy, and tools to determine the full cost of programs. Created with Fiscal
Management Associates (FMA).
Connecting the Dots: Audience Data Essentials
Data Capture techniques, key metrics to set goals for success, and basics of
audience segmentation. Created with TRG Arts.
http://courses.culturaldata.org

58
Data Skills
• Frame
• Collect & Find
• Describe
• Select & Refine
• Apply
• Decide

60
Discussion (5 minutes)
Turn to a partner and discuss:
• What is the current culture around professional development at your
organization?
• What would it look like to prioritize professional development?
• If you would like to make a change, brainstorm 1 – 2 ways to shift your
organization’s culture.
After brainstorming with your partner, create a group of 4 with another
pair and share your ideas.

61
Questions?
Kulu Mele African Dance and Drum Ensemble, Philadelphia, PA. Image credit
Jaci Downs

62
Thank you!
http://courses.culturaldata.org
www.trgarts.com

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