Data Analysis: Things to Consider Before You Get Started

I spend a lot of time looking at Excel spreadsheets full of data from our CRM database in order to see the story that the data is telling me of where we have been and where we are at now.  This allows me the information I need in order to advise our gift officers on what they need to focus on so that they may achieve (and hopefully exceed) their annual goals.

If It Is Not In the Database, It Didn't Happen
An analysis is only as good as the data being used.  If there are pieces of data that are missing, or not recorded accurately, the analysis will be flawed before you even begin.  Make sure that you have a process in place that not only insures that the data is entered into the database, but also insures that the data is entered correctly into the database.  A little quality control goes a long way.

A Single Piece of Data is Not Enough
Simply looking at numerous rows and columns of data in a spreadsheet is not enough to tell you what you need to know.  You must drill down within the rows and columns of data in your spreadsheet in order to find the individual data points that are most relevant to what you want to analyze.  For example, when looking for who has been a large donor to your organization - are you looking for a one-time donation, or cumulative giving?  The donor who makes a one-time gift of $1,000,000 is a very different type of donor than one who has made 50 gifts over their lifetime that total $1,000,000. Knowing the number of gifts someone has made can be just as important as knowing the total dollar amount of gifts that someone has made.


Master the Tools You Have At Your Fingertips
Some of us have access to more sophisticated software that allows us to do higher level statistical analysis, which is great if you have that available.  However, most of us will only have access to Excel. Regardless of what software you have available to you, the key to being able to perform a good analysis it knowing how to use the tools that you have available to you.  If you are not an expert on the software you have, you need to work towards becoming one.  Luckily, you can always teach an inquisitive prospect management/research professional new skills as long as you point them to the right resource, and as long as they are a self-starter.  There are a number of  online resources available that will help you to become an expert with your software, or at least to be enough of an expert to do a thorough analysis.  A great place to start is with the actual software vendor.  They often have online tutorials and videos on their own websites that will help you to learn learn how to use the software.  There are numerous videos available on YouTube.com that walk you through particular skills and show you how to use various features of your software.  You can also look into a free online class through websites such as Coursera.org or EdX.org.  These free online courses can help you to master some of the more advanced skills. Some organizations have access to Lynda.com which has online training videos that you can watch at your own pace. 

Death by Analysis
You could easily spend all day diving down each rabbit hole in order to look at your data in various ways - breaking it down into tables, pie charts, pivot tables, bar graphs, etc. that would show your team a multitude of aspects of the data.  However, that level of analysis may only be interesting to a select few people on your team (in fact, it actually may only be interesting to you).  Before you dive into the data analysis, you need to have a firm grasp on what is going to be relevant, truly important, and will resonate with your gift officers.

Now, go forth and analyze your data!  However, be sure that you have done the necessary groundwork first.  Make sure you have good data, you know what you want to look at, you have the skills necessary to use your software to your advantage, and you don't over do it with more analysis than the team needs.
 

Wealth Screening Results - Where Do You Begin

There are several reliable vendors who can do a wealth screening of your database.  How you choose a vendor will depend as much on your budget as it will on the format in which the data is returned to you.  I have worked with several wealth screening vendors over the years (some that no longer exists) and while they all have similarities, there are differences that you need to explore as you choose the right vendor for your organizations needs.  All of the wealth screening vendors will return a lot of data back to you, and at first glance it is both quite promising and incredibly overwhelming.  The question is what do you do with the screening data once you have it back.  Where do you begin?

WHO WILL HANDLE THE PROJECT
If you have a team on staff that does your prospect research and prospect management - there can be a strategy of "divide and conquer" within that team as they attack the screenign results for multiple angles.  If you have a solo PR/PM professional on staff - that person will need a well laid out strategy on how to prioritize tasks based on the needs of the larger team, and will nee the larger tam to give them time/space to do the validation and data analysis work necessary.  If you do not have a PR/PM professional on staff - you may need to determine who on your staff is capable of taking on this project, or you may look for farm out this project to a consultant of freelancer who has expertise in wealth screenings, data validation and data analysis.

WHY SHOULD THIS PROJECT BE A HIGH PRIORITY
You have already spent a respectable amount of money to do the screening and your screening results have an uncertain shelf life.  Those of us who did screening before the housing market crashed back in 2007/2008 remember all too well how quickly our pre-2007 screening data became irrelevant.  In order to make sure that your investment in a screening was money well spent, you need to devote resources (people and hours) toward validating and analyzing the wealth screening data in a timely fashion.  Often this is easier said than done, but you have already made the investment in the screening, which is a large portion of the project - so it makes fiscal sense to invest in completing the project.  Simply doing a screening is not enough to enhance/improve the work that you are already doing.  You need to make it a priority for someone (or a small team of people) to work furiously to validate the results before the data becomes old or irrelevant. 

VALIDATION OF SCREENING RESULTS IS KEY

Above and beyond anything, you must VALIDATE you screening results.  I cannot say this enough ... validation is key to the successful use of your wealth screening results.  The data that the screening returns to you is raw data.  Until a PR/PM professional has the opportunity to verify the results, that  screening data must be presented as "unverified" results.  For example, you may have screened someone named John Smith Jr. - but the screening results come back with a couple hits for a John Smith who is not YOUR John Smith.  It could be that there is another John Smith who shares similar data points as YOUR John Smith.  It also could be that the results came back blended with the results for his son, John Smith III, or for his dad John Smith Sr.The logic used is the algorithms that these screenings use cannot replace the eagle eye of a well trained researcher ... so validation is KEY.

HOW TO SEGMENT THE DATA FOR VALIDATION
Going through the list of screening results can be a daunting task, and a time consuming one.  You need to create a strategy for how to segment the results in a way that you are validating the results in an order that makes sense for your organization.

A few approaching on how to segment the results:

1. Look at your top rated prospects and see if the screening results back up your ratings.  Perhaps you had over/under rated a prospect - this is a good time to correct the rating.
2. Look at those who the screening rated as your top prospects, but perhaps you have rated lower, or have not rated at all.  It is possible that there are some viable new prospects in that segment who have been flying under the radar for one reason or another.  You will want to see who you can add to your prospect list.
3. For an educational organization, looking at specific class years first - perhaps your reunion giving program is basing their reunion giving program (and thus the reunion asks) on the validated screening results, in which case you would want to decide which class years you need to validate first..   
4. Look at the outliers, those who don't seem to be in alignment between your ratings and the rating that the screening recommends.  If an outlier is rated highly by the screening, is there an opportunity to engage that prospect? If an outlier is rated low by the screening, are you holding on that prospect for the wrong reasons?

SUMMARY
Getting the results from your wealth screening validated is not up for debate, this is an absolute MUST if you hope for your wealth screening project to have a positive impact on the fundraising efforts of your organization.  You must invest not only in the screening, but in the resources (people and time) it takes to go through your data so that it becomes highly useful information for your organization.  You want to find new highly rated prospects, you want to verify that your current prospects are rated correctly, and you want to remove anyone from your prospect pool who has been overrated.  And once that is done - you create strategies for your gift officers so that they can go out and cultivate these prospects into the donors who want to invest in the mission of your organization and the work that your organization does.  It is all interconnected - so we need to work both ends of the spectrum - bogged down in the minutia (validating the wealth screening data) all the while remembering the big picture goals (the mission of your organization).

Cleaning Up Gift Officer's Portfolios

As we all know, one of the roles of prospect research is to identify new prospects.  As research finds the new prospects, they then add them into the gift officer's portfolios.  Over time, if left unchecked, the gift officer's portfolios can slowly creep up from a nice manageable size to a large unwieldy size.  This happens often during campaigns, and it also happens when no one is doing the prospect management.  So, what do you do when you realize that your portfolio sizes are bloated and unmanageable?  You take the time to clean them up.

Cleaning up gift officer portfolios is a time consuming task, but it is important.  If the portfolio sizes are out of control, it makes the job of prioritizing who to visit, cultivate and solicit MUCH harder for the gift officers.  In order to be successful as a team - the gift officers must have manageable portfolio sizes so that they can focus their energy and talent on what they do well.

Where do you start?

1. Have one point person (typically the prospect management person) sit down with each gift officer to review their lists.  
2. Schedule several meetings with each gift officer.  Depending on the portfolio size, this process may require several meetings in order to get through the whole portfolio.  Be prepared to meet multiple times and work meticulously until you get to the very last name on the list.  
3. Keep notes on who you have reviewed in the portfolio.  Start at the beginning of the list and work your way down.  You need to keep track of each name you have discussed so that you do not waste time be going over the same name two or three times.  You can also use those notes to go back to in case there is a question later about why someone was removed from a portfolio.
4. Have the gift officers think about who they really want to keep.  The goal is to make space in the portfolio for new prospects to be added on a regular basis, so you need to be realistic about how many people a gift officer can manage, and who that gift officer really needs to be spending time on.
5. Have the portfolio management person do all the data entry/editing in the database.

Defining Your Terms: speaking a common language

If all of the gift officers within an development/advancement office have a different idea of what the term "major gift" means, how can anyone expect the team to be high performing when they are not all speaking the same language. We tend to operate under the assumption that everyone knows exactly what we mean when we use a particular term.  It is the lack of well defined definitions that often leads to larger misunderstandings between colleagues.  The best way to remedy this is to create a list of all the common terms that are used, and define them ... IN WRITING.   Here are steps that one might take in order to compile, define, and distribute a definition list:

1.)  Figure out what all the common terms are.  While some of the terms may seem to have obvious definitions, do not assume that everyone would agree.  It is best to define all common terms to insure that there is no grey area on what something actually means. 
2.)  Do not create definitions in a vacuum.  You need to get input from key team members on how to define each term.  You want you definitions to take all aspects of the work into account.
3.)  If there is one term being used for multiple purposes, see if there is a unique term taht can be used for each purpose.  One term with multiple purposes is a recipe for confusion and misunderstandings, so try to avoid this if possible.  If you cannot avoid one term having multiple uses - you need to be very clear and very specific about the variations of the same term.
3.)  Once the definitions are done, run the list past top management in your department. Buy-in from the top is essential.
4.)  Debut the list in a team meeting.  Go through each definition, and have everyone ask questions and give input and feedback.
5.)  If necessary, refine a few of the definitions based on the feedback from the team meeting.
6.)  Distribute the document containing the shared definitions in a hard copy AND electronic copy.  You want this to be a reference document that sits on top of everyone's desk.
7.)  Review the list annually.  Over the course of a year, you may have new terminology, you may need to retire old terminology, and you may need to refine some previously defined term.

Permanent Stewardship - don't fret over the term, fret over the donors

Over the years, as I have implemented prospect management systems at various organizations, there is one common point of resistance - which is over the term "Permanent Stewardship".  We can all agree that there needs to be a way to segment out those donors who have been generous to your organization in the past, but who are not going to give another major outright gift in their lifetime - because you need to steward these donors differently.  And yes, we all realize that these people may very well make a large gift in the way of a bequest or other planned giving vehicle, but they are no longer donors that need to be cultivated towards a major gift using the traditional cultivation cycle.   Inevitably I find that the resistance is always over the terminology, and never about the definition.

While other organizations may use a different term: Perpetual Stewardship, Lifetime Stewardship, Ongoing Stewardship, etc., you could call them Zebras or Kumquats or Unicorns - because the term is simply a code that you use internally to identify who belongs in a particular segment of your total pool of donors.  At the end of the day, it is less important what you call this segment of donors and far more important that you have a plan for how you want to engage them and steward them for the generosity that they have shown your organization.  Equally important is that you have a point person to oversee this segment so that they can make sure these donors are being stewarded appropriately.

The Basics for Prospect Strategy Meeting

Whether you have a team in your office doing research and prospect management, or if you are a small shop where you are the sole researcher - holding prospect strategy meetings is an essential part of the larger prospect management process.  You can implement these meetings even if you do not have a formal prospect management "system" in place.  However, having a formal system in place will make it easier to get buy-in from the top leadership in your office.

What is the purpose of a prospect strategy meeting?


To create strategies for how the gift officer will cultivate, solicit, or steward individual prospects in their portfolio.

Who should attend a prospect strategy meeting?

As many people as possible.  In my meetings I invite Research, Principal Giving, Major/Leadership Giving Officer, Annual Giving, Planned Giving, Donor Engagement, and Corporate & Foundation Relations, as well as the Vice President of Advancement and the Director of Advancement.   They may not all be able to make all of the meetings, but you want to be inclusive - because different segments of your team can offer a different approach to creating a strategy.

How do you create an agenda for a prospect strategy meeting?

Ask the gift officers to submit names of prospects in their portfolios of specific prospect that they feel "stuck" on.  The idea is that the gift officer will submit names of prospects that they need help creating a strategy for.  Depending on the length of your prospect strategy meeting and the number of gift officers, you will want to limit the number of submissions they are allows to give you for each meeting.  Send the agenda out one week prior to the meeting to give the gift officers time to prepare for the meeting.


What are the common pitfalls of the prospect strategy meeting?

Hijacked Meetings:  Above all else, you cannot let anyone hijack the meeting.  If a colleague wants to add an agenda item that is not in keeping with the purpose of the meeting, then it is NOT an agenda item for a prospect strategy meeting and you should recommend that they move it to a meeting that is more appropriate for the item they want discussed, or that they call their own meeting.

Skipping Meetings:  Never skip a prospect strategy meeting.  If you put together a good agenda, anyone who regularly attends your meeting will be able to follow the agenda and run the meeting in your absence.  Likewise, even if only a small handful of attendees can make the meeting, you will still hold the meeting.  The idea is to brainstorm, so you need at least 2 people in the meeting, and ad long as you have that - you can meet.

Gift Officers Did Not Submit Names:  If the agenda looks a bit light because gift officers did not submit enough names to fill the allotted time for the meeting, then go to research for names.  Research, almost without fail, will be able to find you several names of prospects who could be discussed - and the Gift Officers will still need to be prepared to talk about names of their prospects that research has submitted.


What are the desired outcomes from a prospect strategy meeting?

To create strategies that will help a gift officer cultivate, solicit, or steward their prospect.  Ultimately these strategies should help the gift officer to move the prospect along through the cultivation cycle, or determine that the person is not actually a prospect (in which case you release the prospect from the portfolio).

How do you know if these meetings are working?

Within each prospect strategy meeting, set some time for the gift officers to discuss how they have implemented strategies from prior meetings, and what the outcome of that was.  It is helpful for the entire team to hear what has worked and what has not worked, and it also allows the opportunity for the team to offer additional suggestions.