In all the time I’ve spent with not-for-proft organisations I’ve noticed a common problem – a lack of centralised data. Without a single, central point of data organisations are essentially operating blindfolded.

In these organisations the donations data will be sitting in an excel spreadsheet, memberships are filed in an online database, information relating to partners and sponsors has to be found by picking through a trail of emails and grant applications are buried so deep amongst all this mess that they are forgotten about.

This scattering of data makes it impossible to get a snapshot of the organisation. The data can only be viewed in isolation so you can never gain an understanding of the effect of your marketing initiatives on donor and membership numbers.

Without this overall picture you can never truly gauge the success of your efforts and see if your current model is actually working to achieve the aims of your organisation.

Centralised data allows you to ask the important questions and get a true measure of where your organisation is at by providing you with a real-time report of every action between your organisation and your clients, donors, supporters and employees.

Donations are a key aspect of any not-for-profit and you should be able to turn to your data and answer fourteen key questions immediately:

• Current number of donors?
• Total donation amount?
• Number of single donors?
• Number of donors 2-4?
• Number of donors 4+?
• Number of active reoccurring donors?
• Value of active reoccurring donors?
• Number of inactive reoccurring donors?
• Value of inactive reoccurring donors?
• Previous donors that haven’t donated in the last 12 months?
• Number of single donors converted to reoccurring donors per cent?
• Volunteers converted to donors?
• Newsletter subscribers converted to donors?

Being able to answer those 14 questions is vital in shaping the direction of your efforts. If you can’t answer them chances are you’ll keep aiming at the wrong targets and miss crucial chances to increase your revenue.

A single, secure and central point of data allows you to answer these questions at a glance. You can even segment the data and highlight key areas allowing you to focus on donors that haven’t donated for the past 12 months and in turn improve your reoccurring donor numbers.

This valuable data source is also important for your supporters and donors. You can show where their money is going and what has been achieved by tracking every action that has taken place since the money was donated.

A lack of a central data point is a hindrance on your organisation, it stymies your growth and it ignores the needs of your donors and members. Respect the direction of your organisation by respecting your data.

Brett Gibson, Director of Clouding Around Pty Ltd.