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EP11: The Case for Data Leadership with Tracy Van Solkema

29m · The Tech Savvy Nonprofit · 09 Apr 13:47

Building on our previous conversation about CRM with Ashley Faison, in this episode we're talking about data leadership with Tracy Van Solkema. Tracy is the Research and Data Services Specialist at the Grand Rapids Community Foundation. When it comes to the topic of using data to advance the work of your organization, you'd be hard-pressed to find a person more passionate about this topic than Tracy. 

Why is a CRM or donor database important for a nonprofit or foundation?

  • Shared institutional knowledge – ensures the documentation of important data and knowledge from long-time employees
  • Less fear of organizational change – allows for easier staff transitions and keeps the work moving forward in someone's absence, addressing the old 'what happens if you're hit by a bus?' scenario
  • Access to information – provides all staff access to the same information even if they are off-site or at a different office
  • Workflow improvements – reminders and more can lead to more efficient processes
  • Strengthens relationships – the data helps facilitate relationships and gives insights on how to engage donors and prospects. It's the starting point to effectively creating a strategy for both fundraising and marketing

Tracy emphasizes CRM (Customer or Constituent Relationship Management technology) is a key differentiator. An Excel spreadsheet can work as a database just storing data. However, what it can't do is manage relationships well. CRM goes to the next level, allowing an organization to manage relationships, analyze and report on data, and create data-driven insights.

Defining data and common data points to track  

In this context, Tracy defines data the information you store about your donors, prospects, volunteers, and the data related to how they interact with your organization.

  • Common Data Points:
    • Biographical information – name, address, phone number, email address, gender, etc.
    • How is the person connected to your organization?
    • Gift history
  • Less Common Data Points:
    • How was a gift solicited?
    • Was a gift in response to a specific appeal?
    • How was the gift made (mailed check or online)?
    • Has the donor attended recent events?
    • Interactions with staff and the qualitative content of those interactions. Every donor has a story!

How does an organization decide what data to track?

Tracy recommends ensuring your basic biographical data is tracked consistently as a starting point. This means ensuring you have data entry processes and procedures in place for what needs be entered and how it is entered in your CRM.

When it comes to tracking additional data, Tracy starts with the end in mind. She asks, how will we use this data? Will it inform our fundraising or marketing strategy? If not, maybe it's not necessary. She also suggests not wasting time tracking a data point you can get from other data (e.g. tracking current donor when this information is obvious by their gift history).

Tracy lives by a quote hanging above her desk: "One key component to fundraising success is to know that information is power and that power resides in your database!"

An example of using the power of your database is using your data to segmenting appeals. Use your data to create appeals with messaging specific to the audience. Segmenting may be based on past gift history, relationship to the organization (i.e. volunteer, board member, etc.), philanthropic interest, or age. On the topic of age, Tracy provides great examples and shares how to access this important information.

A relationship endowment—Tracy's philosophy about database management

Tracy thinks of the database as an endowment. As data is added to the database, the information and the depth of information grow in perpetuity, and through this growth, relationships can flourish for the organization now and into the future.

When you think of your database as your "relationship endowment," you can see the value of maintaining it and monitoring it with high standards, just as you would a financial endowment. The people who manage and oversee your relationship endowment should be well trained, and your board and leadership should take interest in this endowment. Your relationship endowment is the foundation that backs your personal connections over time.

 What is data leadership?

Embracing the management and use of data across an entire organization starts with leadership.

Tracy says that four key things make up data leadership:  

  1. Real buy-in: The shift in thinking about data is not just about one person or department at your organization. It is a shift in mentality, starting with leadership and trickling down to all parts of the organization. If data leadership does not start from the top, it does not work. This means not just saying or understanding that data is important, but doing something about. Often what this looks like is empowering those who understand and are trained to use the database to make decisions about the data. It can also include leadership asking questions about data and using it for benchmarking and understanding your work.
  2. Embracing change: Technology change can be difficult, especially the process of converting to a new CRM or putting procedures in place that make it so people have to make more time to record data properly. The biggest mistake Tracy sees people make when choosing a new CRM is trying to use the new system the same way the old one was used. By not embracing change, an organization might miss out on new, innovative or more efficient ways of doing things.
  3. Investing in data collection and data maintenance: It takes time to manage and keep data clean, and create policies for how data is used and stored. The data will be used to help tell a story, manage relationships, and analyze, evaluate and benchmark. An investment of time, dollars, or additional and qualified staff to do the work may be needed.
  4. Investing in people: The stewardship, cultivation, or fundraising strategy for every donor starts with the data and the person that manages that data. Data input, management, and analyzation is not a task that should be given to just anyone. Invest in a seasoned, knowledgeable and trained staff to manage data. Training is essentialNo one comes out of college knowing how to manage a nonprofit CRM. Staff should be empowered to learn about the evolving landscape of how we can better use the data and be given the time and resources to manage the data, and most importantly, they should have a seat at the table. People who manage/analyze the data should be involved in strategy and decision-making., and be part of meetings with marketing and development.

 

Tips for organizations getting started with data:

  • If you are a leader:
    • Embrace data leadership
    • Use your data to make decisions
    • Ask questions about data

    If you are a database manager:

    • Data that isn’t clean, it isn’t valuable
    • Create practices, policies, and procedures in place to ensure clean data
    • Create standards and stick with them

    If you are a development/fundraising person:

    • Record your interactions with donors
    • Your relationship with the database manager is really important.
    • Bring your database person in your strategy meeting. They can provide a lot of value! Talk to them about your donor meetings and work together to create good strategy

About Tracy Van Solkema bCRE-Pro

Tracy Van Solkema is the Research and Data Services Specialist at the Grand Rapids Community Foundation. In this role, she administers the Foundation's research activities on prospective donors, manages and analyzes the database to inform development strategy, leads database training and collaboration with other departments and manages annual giving activities to help raise funds to support the Community Foundation's unrestricted endowment.

She is a bCRE-Pro (Blackbaud Certified Raiser's Edge Professional) a designation she earned and has maintained since 2016. Tracy has over fifteen years of experience in the nonprofit sector in the areas of philanthropy, arts, higher education and human services. Tracy truly enjoys helping nonprofit organizations build meaningful relationships and make successful data-driven decisions. She has a passion for sharing a vision for data leadership and best practices for how Community Foundations can use Raiser’s Edge to cultivate donors and create strong relationships with various constituencies. She has led conference sessions on relationship and database management in 2017 and 2018 at Blackbaud’s premier tech gathering for social good.

Tracy has a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Relations and Advertising from Grand Valley State University.

Find Tracy at:

Grand Rapids Community Foundation

LinkedIn

 

Resources:

Data-Driven Nonprofits Blog

Cool Data Blog

The episode EP11: The Case for Data Leadership with Tracy Van Solkema from the podcast The Tech Savvy Nonprofit has a duration of 29:25. It was first published 09 Apr 13:47. The cover art and the content belong to their respective owners.

More episodes from The Tech Savvy Nonprofit

EP13: Google Ad Grants for Nonprofits - An Interview with Kristina Cutura

Did you know that your nonprofit organization could get a Google Ad Grant that provides $10,000 every month of in-kind advertising from Google Ads? Imagine the impact! In this episode, we are joined by Google Ads expert and consultant Kristina Cutura. Kristina shares how nonprofits can use Google Ads to further their mission, how to apply for a Google Ad Grant, challenges and successes she's seen with clients that have received the grant and navigating the recent Google Ad Grant policy changes.

Kristina worked at Google in 2002 when AdWords was still in its infancy.  She was part of Google’s first optimization team formed to help clients understand how to manage and optimize their accounts. Kristina left Google in 2009. During her last few years with the company, she worked mainly in training, teaching internal Googlers and agencies and resellers about AdWords.

An Overview of Google Ads

Google Ads (previously known as Google Adwords) is a way to promote your product or services on Google and other websites that are part of Google’s network. Google allows you to advertise your website on google.com, Google properties such as Google Maps and YouTube, and on its search and display partners. The Google Ads network reaches more than 90% of internet users.

The key benefits of Google Ads marketing are reach, relevance and ROI. You can track every aspect of your Google Ads marketing campaign, from the number of ad impressions to the number of clicks and signups, donations, newsletter subscriptions, and more. This level of accountability makes it especially attractive to businesses who have limited marketing budgets.

How Can Nonprofit Use Google Ads?

When users search for your organization or an organization like yours, do you show up in the search results? When people realize they want or need something, they turn to search. Each search represents an opportunity for nonprofits looking to influence the customer journey. 

Nonprofits can use Google Ads to:

  • raise awareness about their organization
  • promote their content and engage users
  • nurture relationships
  • increase their donations

Google Ads allows you to control your message and offer. In addition to asking for donations, many nonprofits have tons of great content they can market through Google. For example, you could promote your free eBook, courses, or other online educational materials to build a relationship. Many nonprofits I work with will offer free content in exchange for email signups, and obtaining that email address give you the chance to start nurturing a lead that could later turn into support or a donation.

Google Ad Grants for Nonprofits

Google grants $10,000/month in free Google Ads to qualifying nonprofits.

The grants allow nonprofits to show ads on google.com. They can not be used to run display campaigns, but many nonprofits set-up a separate account when they are interested in testing outside of the grant limitations.

There are five steps to submitting your Google Ad Grants application:

  1. See if you’re eligible (based in a country where Google Ad Grants is available and that you hold a valid charity status)
  2. Apply for a Google for Nonprofits account
  3. Enroll in Google Ad Grants
  4. Create a Google Ads account
  5. Submit your account for review

Common Issues with Google Ad Grants

Kristina commonly sees nonprofits experience one of three main issues:

  1. The nonprofit spends only a small fraction of its allotted $10,000/month
  2. The nonprofit has issues keeping its accounts compliant. Many are so busy they don’t even notice when an account has been suspended.
  3. The nonprofit doesn't know how to properly roll out strategy to maximize traffic and fundraising.

A Google Ad Grant Success

Kristina recently started working with a nonprofit with an existing Google Ads Grants account. They were spending less than a $1,000/month out of the $10,000 grant and had $0 in donations. In the first month after they started working together, the nonprofit's click through rate jumped up 40%, the spend was up over 600% and they generated over $27,000 in donations. Kristina explained that this isn’t typical—this nonprofit is an established brand that people are looking to donate to, and they were simply underutilizing their potential.

Recent Policy Changes with Google Ad Grants

In January 2018 Google revised its policies and raised their standards in order to maintain quality ads on Google. Prior to 2018, many nonprofits would use all kinds of general and irrelevant keywords and often ran low-quality campaigns. In an effort to combat that, new management requirements rolled out. Google Grants account violating those policies are suspended.

The major one is a 5% click through rate (CTR) threshold nonprofits must meet. If the CTR requirement isn't met for 2 consecutive months, your account will be temporarily deactivated.

Geo-targeting has to be specific to where you primarily serve your community.

Conversion tracking is required, so you’ll want to make sure to track sign-ups, leads, donation, all relevant actions.

There are also some basic account structure requirements, including at least 2 active ad groups per campaign, 2 active ads per ad groups, and at least two site links.

As part of Google’s mission-based campaigns policy, nonprofits can no longer use single word keywords or overly generic terms. Keywords with a quality score of 2 or lower have to be removed as well.

Google requires all nonprofits to fill out an annual program survey.

If your account is suspended, it’s not the end of the world. You can contact Google to request reinstatement after bringing your account into compliance.

About Kristina Cutura

Currently the owner and founder of a search marketing consulting firm, Kristina Cutura is a pioneer of Google Ads (formerly AdWords). Starting as a Google employee in 2002, she was one of the first three members of the company’s AdWords optimization team, where she developed and tested optimization strategies that are still widely used in the industry. Kristina also created and delivered all optimization-related trainings for internal Google employees, external clients and agencies that manage AdWords accounts. During her tenure, she trained hundreds of Google employees and dozens of resellers, and developed online training resources. In addition to running training programs, she managed and optimized Google’s highest revenue clients.

After leaving Google in 2009, Kristina started her own consulting company, KristinaCutura.com, where she is using the skills she acquired at Google to advise a variety of clients on search engine marketing efforts. Kristina has worked with national and global businesses in a variety of industries and sectors, ranging from multi-million dollar corporations to small, family-owned businesses and nonprofits. She is a premier Google Partner and published author.

You can find Kristina online at:

kristinacutura.com

Resources

Google Ads Grants application process can be found here.
The full ad grants compliance guide can be found here.

 

EP13: Google Ad Grants for Nonprofits - An Interview with Kristina Cutura

Did you know that your nonprofit organization could get a Google Ad Grant that provides $10,000 every month of in-kind advertising from Google Ads? Imagine the impact! In this episode, we are joined by Google Ads expert and consultant Kristina Cutura. Kristina shares how nonprofits can use Google Ads to further their mission, how to apply for a Google Ad Grant, challenges and successes she's seen with clients that have received the grant and navigating the recent Google Ad Grant policy changes.

Kristina worked at Google in 2002 when AdWords was still in its infancy.  She was part of Google’s first optimization team formed to help clients understand how to manage and optimize their accounts. Kristina left Google in 2009. During her last few years with the company, she worked mainly in training, teaching internal Googlers and agencies and resellers about AdWords.

An Overview of Google Ads

Google Ads (previously known as Google Adwords) is a way to promote your product or services on Google and other websites that are part of Google’s network. Google allows you to advertise your website on google.com, Google properties such as Google Maps and YouTube, and on its search and display partners. The Google Ads network reaches more than 90% of internet users.

The key benefits of Google Ads marketing are reach, relevance and ROI. You can track every aspect of your Google Ads marketing campaign, from the number of ad impressions to the number of clicks and signups, donations, newsletter subscriptions, and more. This level of accountability makes it especially attractive to businesses who have limited marketing budgets.

How Can Nonprofit Use Google Ads?

When users search for your organization or an organization like yours, do you show up in the search results? When people realize they want or need something, they turn to search. Each search represents an opportunity for nonprofits looking to influence the customer journey. 

Nonprofits can use Google Ads to:

  • raise awareness about their organization
  • promote their content and engage users
  • nurture relationships
  • increase their donations

Google Ads allows you to control your message and offer. In addition to asking for donations, many nonprofits have tons of great content they can market through Google. For example, you could promote your free eBook, courses, or other online educational materials to build a relationship. Many nonprofits I work with will offer free content in exchange for email signups, and obtaining that email address give you the chance to start nurturing a lead that could later turn into support or a donation.

Google Ad Grants for Nonprofits

Google grants $10,000/month in free Google Ads to qualifying nonprofits.

The grants allow nonprofits to show ads on google.com. They can not be used to run display campaigns, but many nonprofits set-up a separate account when they are interested in testing outside of the grant limitations.

There are five steps to submitting your Google Ad Grants application:

  1. See if you’re eligible (based in a country where Google Ad Grants is available and that you hold a valid charity status)
  2. Apply for a Google for Nonprofits account
  3. Enroll in Google Ad Grants
  4. Create a Google Ads account
  5. Submit your account for review

Common Issues with Google Ad Grants

Kristina commonly sees nonprofits experience one of three main issues:

  1. The nonprofit spends only a small fraction of its allotted $10,000/month
  2. The nonprofit has issues keeping its accounts compliant. Many are so busy they don’t even notice when an account has been suspended.
  3. The nonprofit doesn't know how to properly roll out strategy to maximize traffic and fundraising.

A Google Ad Grant Success

Kristina recently started working with a nonprofit with an existing Google Ads Grants account. They were spending less than a $1,000/month out of the $10,000 grant and had $0 in donations. In the first month after they started working together, the nonprofit's click through rate jumped up 40%, the spend was up over 600% and they generated over $27,000 in donations. Kristina explained that this isn’t typical—this nonprofit is an established brand that people are looking to donate to, and they were simply underutilizing their potential.

Recent Policy Changes with Google Ad Grants

In January 2018 Google revised its policies and raised their standards in order to maintain quality ads on Google. Prior to 2018, many nonprofits would use all kinds of general and irrelevant keywords and often ran low-quality campaigns. In an effort to combat that, new management requirements rolled out. Google Grants account violating those policies are suspended.

The major one is a 5% click through rate (CTR) threshold nonprofits must meet. If the CTR requirement isn't met for 2 consecutive months, your account will be temporarily deactivated.

Geo-targeting has to be specific to where you primarily serve your community.

Conversion tracking is required, so you’ll want to make sure to track sign-ups, leads, donation, all relevant actions.

There are also some basic account structure requirements, including at least 2 active ad groups per campaign, 2 active ads per ad groups, and at least two site links.

As part of Google’s mission-based campaigns policy, nonprofits can no longer use single word keywords or overly generic terms. Keywords with a quality score of 2 or lower have to be removed as well.

Google requires all nonprofits to fill out an annual program survey.

If your account is suspended, it’s not the end of the world. You can contact Google to request reinstatement after bringing your account into compliance.

About Kristina Cutura

Currently the owner and founder of a search marketing consulting firm, Kristina Cutura is a pioneer of Google Ads (formerly AdWords). Starting as a Google employee in 2002, she was one of the first three members of the company’s AdWords optimization team, where she developed and tested optimization strategies that are still widely used in the industry. Kristina also created and delivered all optimization-related trainings for internal Google employees, external clients and agencies that manage AdWords accounts. During her tenure, she trained hundreds of Google employees and dozens of resellers, and developed online training resources. In addition to running training programs, she managed and optimized Google’s highest revenue clients.

After leaving Google in 2009, Kristina started her own consulting company, KristinaCutura.com, where she is using the skills she acquired at Google to advise a variety of clients on search engine marketing efforts. Kristina has worked with national and global businesses in a variety of industries and sectors, ranging from multi-million dollar corporations to small, family-owned businesses and nonprofits. She is a premier Google Partner and published author.

You can find Kristina online at:

kristinacutura.com

Resources

Google Ads Grants application process can be found here.
The full ad grants compliance guide can be found here.

 

EP12: Leveraging Tech to Engage Volunteers with Brian Rosenbaum

In this episode, we talk with Brian Rosenbaum, Engagement Manager at United Way of Greater Los Angeles about leveraging technology to engage volunteers. Brian is also Board Chair of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network Los Angeles. 

Brian began his career in social work. During grad school, Brian realized his "strengths and passions are in building and improving roads, rather than repairing individual cars." So, he shifted to the nonprofit sector where he focuses on volunteer management and community engagement. With the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, Brian oversees a year-round calendar of signature volunteer opportunities and coordinates custom volunteer opportunities for corporate partners.

How the United Way of Greater Los Angeles is Leveraging Technology to Engage Volunteers

Volunteer Portal

  • A microsite, built using HandsOnConnect software
  • Integrates with Salesforce
  • Custom landing pages (co-branded, secure pages)
  • Matches volunteers to opportunities
  • Elevates United Way as a philanthropic concierge for corporate partners

DIY Donation Drive Toolkits

  • Created toolkits for food and college supplies drives for first-time college students
  • Volunteers can access and execute drives themselves
  • Toolkits include step-by-step processes: how to prepare, recruit, deliver donations and recap
  • Registration tracks interest in the program
  • Outreach resources in toolkits include email templates, social media images, flyers, etc.
  • Post-event summary tracks the impact of the program
  • Plan to build additional toolkits in the future 

Why Use Technology?

  • People are hungry to make a difference, but they don’t know how
  • People are busy
  • People can make a tangible difference where ever they are
  • By putting resources online, people can access them anytime and anywhere and know they're connecting with opportunities that have been vetted by the United Way
  • Development department can pitch these resources as products
  • Take an upfront initial investment, but then almost runs itself

How Did the United Way Build Its Online Toolkits?

  • Follow the example of other organizations who are using toolkits
  • Think through what you would personally need to promote the volunteer opportunity
    • Where do you get storage boxes?
    • How long should a drive last?
    • How will you recruit volunteers?
  • Once developed, beta test internally. What did you miss?

About Brian Rosenbaum, MSW, CVA

Brian Rosenbaum, MSW, CVA, is a California native with more than a decade of nonprofit experience. He earned his BA in Psychology and Spanish at UCLA and his MSW at Columbia University, with an emphasis on program development and community organizing. As Engagement Manager for United Way of Greater Los Angeles, Brian oversees United Way’s year-round calendar of volunteer and engagement opportunities, as well as coordinating corporate volunteer engagement events. He also serves as Board President for Young Nonprofit Professionals Network Los Angeles, leading an all-volunteer board that works to support, connect, and empower emerging mission-driven professionals in LA. In his spare time, Brian can be found running, cooking, or gardening.

You can find Brian online at:

www.unitedwayla.org

Resources

http://volunteer.unitedwayla.org

https://www.unitedwayla.org/en/get-involved/volunteer/customized-volunteering-opportunities

https://www.unitedwayla.org/en/get-involved/volunteer/diy-canned-food-drive/

https://www.unitedwayla.org/en/get-involved/volunteer/diy-college-survival-drive/

HandsOnConnect

HomeWalk—May 18

EP11: The Case for Data Leadership with Tracy Van Solkema

Building on our previous conversation about CRM with Ashley Faison, in this episode we're talking about data leadership with Tracy Van Solkema. Tracy is the Research and Data Services Specialist at the Grand Rapids Community Foundation. When it comes to the topic of using data to advance the work of your organization, you'd be hard-pressed to find a person more passionate about this topic than Tracy. 

Why is a CRM or donor database important for a nonprofit or foundation?

  • Shared institutional knowledge – ensures the documentation of important data and knowledge from long-time employees
  • Less fear of organizational change – allows for easier staff transitions and keeps the work moving forward in someone's absence, addressing the old 'what happens if you're hit by a bus?' scenario
  • Access to information – provides all staff access to the same information even if they are off-site or at a different office
  • Workflow improvements – reminders and more can lead to more efficient processes
  • Strengthens relationships – the data helps facilitate relationships and gives insights on how to engage donors and prospects. It's the starting point to effectively creating a strategy for both fundraising and marketing

Tracy emphasizes CRM (Customer or Constituent Relationship Management technology) is a key differentiator. An Excel spreadsheet can work as a database just storing data. However, what it can't do is manage relationships well. CRM goes to the next level, allowing an organization to manage relationships, analyze and report on data, and create data-driven insights.

Defining data and common data points to track  

In this context, Tracy defines data the information you store about your donors, prospects, volunteers, and the data related to how they interact with your organization.

  • Common Data Points:
    • Biographical information – name, address, phone number, email address, gender, etc.
    • How is the person connected to your organization?
    • Gift history
  • Less Common Data Points:
    • How was a gift solicited?
    • Was a gift in response to a specific appeal?
    • How was the gift made (mailed check or online)?
    • Has the donor attended recent events?
    • Interactions with staff and the qualitative content of those interactions. Every donor has a story!

How does an organization decide what data to track?

Tracy recommends ensuring your basic biographical data is tracked consistently as a starting point. This means ensuring you have data entry processes and procedures in place for what needs be entered and how it is entered in your CRM.

When it comes to tracking additional data, Tracy starts with the end in mind. She asks, how will we use this data? Will it inform our fundraising or marketing strategy? If not, maybe it's not necessary. She also suggests not wasting time tracking a data point you can get from other data (e.g. tracking current donor when this information is obvious by their gift history).

Tracy lives by a quote hanging above her desk: "One key component to fundraising success is to know that information is power and that power resides in your database!"

An example of using the power of your database is using your data to segmenting appeals. Use your data to create appeals with messaging specific to the audience. Segmenting may be based on past gift history, relationship to the organization (i.e. volunteer, board member, etc.), philanthropic interest, or age. On the topic of age, Tracy provides great examples and shares how to access this important information.

A relationship endowment—Tracy's philosophy about database management

Tracy thinks of the database as an endowment. As data is added to the database, the information and the depth of information grow in perpetuity, and through this growth, relationships can flourish for the organization now and into the future.

When you think of your database as your "relationship endowment," you can see the value of maintaining it and monitoring it with high standards, just as you would a financial endowment. The people who manage and oversee your relationship endowment should be well trained, and your board and leadership should take interest in this endowment. Your relationship endowment is the foundation that backs your personal connections over time.

 What is data leadership?

Embracing the management and use of data across an entire organization starts with leadership.

Tracy says that four key things make up data leadership:  

  1. Real buy-in: The shift in thinking about data is not just about one person or department at your organization. It is a shift in mentality, starting with leadership and trickling down to all parts of the organization. If data leadership does not start from the top, it does not work. This means not just saying or understanding that data is important, but doing something about. Often what this looks like is empowering those who understand and are trained to use the database to make decisions about the data. It can also include leadership asking questions about data and using it for benchmarking and understanding your work.
  2. Embracing change: Technology change can be difficult, especially the process of converting to a new CRM or putting procedures in place that make it so people have to make more time to record data properly. The biggest mistake Tracy sees people make when choosing a new CRM is trying to use the new system the same way the old one was used. By not embracing change, an organization might miss out on new, innovative or more efficient ways of doing things.
  3. Investing in data collection and data maintenance: It takes time to manage and keep data clean, and create policies for how data is used and stored. The data will be used to help tell a story, manage relationships, and analyze, evaluate and benchmark. An investment of time, dollars, or additional and qualified staff to do the work may be needed.
  4. Investing in people: The stewardship, cultivation, or fundraising strategy for every donor starts with the data and the person that manages that data. Data input, management, and analyzation is not a task that should be given to just anyone. Invest in a seasoned, knowledgeable and trained staff to manage data. Training is essentialNo one comes out of college knowing how to manage a nonprofit CRM. Staff should be empowered to learn about the evolving landscape of how we can better use the data and be given the time and resources to manage the data, and most importantly, they should have a seat at the table. People who manage/analyze the data should be involved in strategy and decision-making., and be part of meetings with marketing and development.

 

Tips for organizations getting started with data:

  • If you are a leader:
    • Embrace data leadership
    • Use your data to make decisions
    • Ask questions about data

    If you are a database manager:

    • Data that isn’t clean, it isn’t valuable
    • Create practices, policies, and procedures in place to ensure clean data
    • Create standards and stick with them

    If you are a development/fundraising person:

    • Record your interactions with donors
    • Your relationship with the database manager is really important.
    • Bring your database person in your strategy meeting. They can provide a lot of value! Talk to them about your donor meetings and work together to create good strategy

About Tracy Van Solkema bCRE-Pro

Tracy Van Solkema is the Research and Data Services Specialist at the Grand Rapids Community Foundation. In this role, she administers the Foundation's research activities on prospective donors, manages and analyzes the database to inform development strategy, leads database training and collaboration with other departments and manages annual giving activities to help raise funds to support the Community Foundation's unrestricted endowment.

She is a bCRE-Pro (Blackbaud Certified Raiser's Edge Professional) a designation she earned and has maintained since 2016. Tracy has over fifteen years of experience in the nonprofit sector in the areas of philanthropy, arts, higher education and human services. Tracy truly enjoys helping nonprofit organizations build meaningful relationships and make successful data-driven decisions. She has a passion for sharing a vision for data leadership and best practices for how Community Foundations can use Raiser’s Edge to cultivate donors and create strong relationships with various constituencies. She has led conference sessions on relationship and database management in 2017 and 2018 at Blackbaud’s premier tech gathering for social good.

Tracy has a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Relations and Advertising from Grand Valley State University.

Find Tracy at:

Grand Rapids Community Foundation

LinkedIn

 

Resources:

Data-Driven Nonprofits Blog

Cool Data Blog

Episode 10: Getting Buy-in And Implementing a CRM with Ashley Faison

In this episode, we talk with Ashley Faison about getting buy-in and implementing a CRM or donor database. Ashley is the Chief Development Officer with New Heights Youth in NYC and is a dynamic and tech-savvy nonprofit leader, organizational strategist and professional fundraiser with over $60M raised to her credit. 

Ashley is a big believer in the power of a donor database or CRM. She's worked in Blackbaud's Raiser's Edge and Salesforce and has been through the implementation of these systems with several nonprofits.

What is a CRM?

A CRM, or customer relationship management is a platform and approach to manage your organization's interactions with current and prospective donors to strengthen relationships, improve retention and ultimately increase donations.

Why should a nonprofit or foundation use a CRM?

For Ashley, it's all about the dashboards and access to information in real time. She loves being able to see her goals and her progress towards those goals at any time. She can easily and quickly share this information with other staff and board members, as well.

Moreover, without a CRM, there isn't a central place to record interactions with donors and prospects, and share that information throughout the organization. Having these types of records are especially beneficial during times of staff transition. A CRM provides a place to store data, easily access it, and develop insights into the data. Armed with this information, Ashley and her team can prioritize their work based on real data and the analysis of it, not just their intuition (now that's strategic!).  

How do you get buy-in for investing in CRM?

To make the case, Ashley points out that to be effective and efficient, the organization must look at systems and how staff members are investing their time and energy. To do the job well, it's important to document all of the information about a donor that exists in a staff member or board member's head. This allows you to make strategic decisions about the information. Building trust is a huge factor of buy-in.  

Once you have buy-in, how do you implement a CRM?

Ashley recommends:

1) Find your tribe.
Who are the people on staff or on your board who embrace and love tech? Get their buy-in on the CRM and recruit them to be part of your implementation team.

2) Create a change management plan.
It will answer questions like: What data will you move over? How far back in the data do you want to go? How will it be moved? When will you implement the CRM? How will you gain buy-in from all staff?

3) Be realistic about your timeline.
This will not happen overnight even though you’ll want it to. Most implementations take 6 months to a year from start to finish.

Lessons learned along the way

The technology is constantly evolving and improving. It is important to look at what is working and what isn't, and monitor improvements and upgrades as they become available. Ashley shares her experience developing customizations and workarounds, only to have the CRM role out a better, more integrated solution later. As a team, you have to decide how to manage this.

Ashley also recommends looking for creative ways to fund the implementation of a CRM. She's found pro bono support for staff training and more (resources listed below).

Resources:

  • www.taprootplus.org
  • www.salesforce.org
  • www.blackbaud.com/solutions
  • www.techsoup.org

About Ashely Faison

Ashley Faison, LCSW is a seasoned non-profit leader, organizational strategist and professional fundraiser with over 18 years of experience and demonstrated success. Driven by creativity and compassion, she has helped management teams solve complex systemic challenges, built strategic partnerships from the ground up, raised millions of dollars to sustain charitable organizations, and inspired employees across a wide range of industries to become their best professional and personal selves.

Ashley has made a lasting impact as a start-up member of many successful organizations, including the federally funded System of Care Children's Mental Health Initiative (YouthNet) to rethink youth mental health services; as founding partner of Moped Productions media group, where she spent over a decade utilizing story-based strategies to elevate conversations garnering recognition by the White House for their compassion work; Theatre Communications Group where she founded the Society for American Theatre; Change for Kids for which her School Change Team model was recognized as one of the country’s “Top 10 Most Scalable Models” by Mutual of America; to Campaign for Hope: a capital project for a 41,000 sq.ft. Hospice & Community Care campus wrapped with community gardens and filled with hand-procured locally sourced art, the space was later recognized in the architectural showcase for Healthcare Design Magazine.

She is currently Chief Development Officer for New Heights Youth, a NYC nonprofit that unlocks educational opportunities for inner-city student-athletes through basketball and academic coaching. Building upon her long history of intrepreneurship, within her first year she co-designed and implemented a pledge-based crowdfunding platform with GivingZone.com instituting a new internal funding stream, as well as, launching a scalable fundraising model for team-based youth basketball leagues across the country. Ashley holds a Bachelors and Masters in Social Work from Florida State University and is a NY licensed clinical social worker. One of her newest projects is founding Ember Philanthropy Group, the charitable arm of MDC Productions.

In 2010, she took on her greatest role to date when she and her “high school sweetheart” husband welcomed their daughter Adeline into the world. She is now driven by a greater mission, to develop a confident and capable human - a global citizen.

You can find Ashley online at:

  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleysfaison/
  • www.newheightsnyc.org
  • www.mdcproductions.com/ember
  • www.mopedproductions.tv
  • www.givingzone.com
Every Podcast » The Tech Savvy Nonprofit » EP11: The Case for Data Leadership with Tracy Van Solkema