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You know the old saying: “Work smarter, not harder.” And sure, it’s a pithy way to summarize how you as a nonprofit fundraising professional strive to do your work. After all, if you want to find as many donors for your fundraising campaign as possible and maximize total contributions per donor, then you can’t afford to let time-consuming donor research and ineffective outreach slow you down.
The reality, however, is that working smarter not harder to hit your fundraising goals is much easier said than done. For starters, you have to comb through a vast quantity of disjointed, differently formatted data to unearth potential donor prospects. But even after you have a respectable list of potential donors to engage, you’re still faced with several unknowns:
If you’re unable to find out the answers to these questions, then you’re left with the traditional methods of cold calls and blanket letters or emails. And what about past donors? Just because they donate to your previous campaigns doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll donate to this one. How can you rule out the least likely donors and focus more of your time and energy on those most willing and able to donate this time around?
The key to getting the answers to these questions quickly—and, ultimately, to working smarter—is all about having the right platform to manage your donor data and conduct donor research.
The critical role of clean, accessible donor data for nonprofit fundraising
There is no shortage of truisms about what makes for a successful fundraising campaign. But the ability to execute your sound and carefully thought-out fundraising strategy (or to share your story in an engaging way, or to foster deeper relationships with your existing donors, and so on) stems from having a donor data management solution that removes time-consuming tasks from your plate and clears the way for you to gain more donor insights faster.
And if that’s the case, then what exactly should this theoretical donor data management solution do from a functionality standpoint? First and foremost, it should:
Grant access to clean, accurate donor data
You shouldn’t have to restrict yourself to whatever donor information you can compile from the open web. Likewise, purchasing donor contact information from a third-party vendor is no guarantee that any of the donors on the list are interested in your nonprofit’s cause or current campaign. With the right donor research solution, you can:
Additionally, while giving your donor research the benefit of a vast amount of data, the right donor research solution also makes searching and filtering that data intuitive and efficient. In short, you should have all the advantages of data quantity and quantity—with none of the setbacks of too much data in too many formats.
Provide a 360º-view of your current and potential donors
Your donor research platform should also take the extra step of compiling all data surrounding a prospective donor, to deliver a comprehensive donor profile. It should be easy for you to see what forms of engagement are most effective, a history of past donations, changes in contact information, and more.
Not only that, but the more you know about a donor’s personal and professional developments, the more deeply you can engage with them. For example, you could send a past donor a congratulatory message to acknowledge a recent career change or promotion. Your donor research platform should make discovering these kinds of tidbits as simple as making a few clicks of the mouse.
Let you engage current and prospective donors with confidence
The less you know about a potential donor, the less confident you likely feel that can convert a cold call or blanket email into a donation—let alone a donation that’s maximized based on the donor’s propensity, preferences, and financial state.
But if you can quickly search a vast collection of donor data and gain a holistic view of prospective donors, the more confident you’ll be that you’re engaging the right donors at the right time, in the right way, and that you’re asking for the right amount.
Make the most of your nonprofit fundraising efforts with Nexis® for Development Professionals
With Nexis for Development Professionals as your donor management and research platform, you have the data and intuitive functionality you need to efficiently find donors, engage them, and hit—or even maybe surpass—your fundraising targets. Learn more about how Nexis for Development Professionals helps you make the most of your nonprofit fundraising efforts here.