Donor Giving In Tough Economic Times

In these difficult economic times, it is critical for fundraising organizations to focus their limited time and resources on those activities that have the greatest demonstrated impact on giving. To address this need we worked with one of the top fundraising organizations, the Federations of North America to determine which activities and perceptions had the greatest statistical impact on donor giving.

Using Data to Make Your Management Decisions and Focus Your Resources

We've all been in some variation of this situation before: your management team or board gathers for a meeting to make important decisions about where to allocate funds, invest professionals' time, or where to set tuition or fees. Very often, the decision is made using anecdotal information by the person in the room who carries the most weight. However, Measuring Success' experience working with hundreds of not for profit organizations reveals that most of the time, the instincts about where the problem lies are simply incorrect. It's natural after all, to make decisions based on anecdotes or stories coming from familiar or powerful people. So what's the alternative? Data-driven decision making.

How To Achieve Higher Survey Response Rates

In the past twelve months Measuring Success has conducted projects collecting nearly 20,000 survey responses from customers across almost 70 organizations. In a recent project, three of Measuring Success’ consultants spent the month of May on a whirlwind tour of schools across North America that participated in the 2009 Day School Peer Yardstick Parent Survey funded by PEJE: the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education. For that survey, on average 80% of parent households completed the survey; one school even achieved a 97% response rate. Before the survey, schools were very skeptical about achieving high response rates since in home-grown surveys few had exceeded 30% or 40% participation. In this Measuring Success e-newsletter, we will review a few of the keys to high response rates such as confidentiality, professional quality of survey instrument, length, and support on demand.

Value for the Dollar as a Driver of Participation

As many of our clients suffer losses in membership, enrollment, or donors, the conclusion tends to be that these losses are caused by increased customer price sensitivity in the economic downturn. As a result, many organizations decide that the answer is to cut costs, thereby enabling them to reduce the price to consumers. While reevaluating expenditures in order to run a tight ship is critical in a recession, it tends to mask the proverbial 800-pound-gorilla in the room, which is the problem of poor levels of perceived quality.

Tips for Maintaining Your Financial Sustainability in a Recession Economy

As direct-service organizations like yours start their 2009-2010 fiscal year facing one of the tightest financial budgets in memory, it is important to start planning now around some of the financial decisions you can take this year, next year, and beyond to guide your institution toward greater sustainability. Below you will find several of our “top pitfalls” to avoid a vicious cycle and move to a virtuous cycle of financial sustainability. These insights are drawn from analysis based on data gathered from over 250 independent schools, but apply to most direct-service organizations.

What Would Google Do? Leveraging Data Analytics to Grow Your Organization

What makes Google the omnipresent $21 billion leviathan company it has become? While its search engine and its application suite is impressive, Google’s key to success is its ability to mine data on customers that use its products for free. This data is used to put the right targeted ads in front of its customers for which advertising companies pay a hefty premium. This optimization requires a dedication to data tracking systems and analytics that explain consumer behavior and interests. And it’s not just Google. Despite the difficult economic times of the past few years, data analytics has ranked in companies’ top 3 areas for investment because, like Google, they recognize that the key to success is the ability to get smarter about their customers.

Many fundraising and nonprofit organizations in the recession appropriately feel pressure to spend their dollars on direct service delivery to those in need and severely limit investments in knowledge and capacity building let alone data analytics. However, non-profit organizations who are high performing forward thinkers recognize that even in these difficult times, it is critical to invest in data analytics in order to know your customers (both donors and service recipients) better. This newsletter is dedicated to exploring a few ways that nonprofits might learn from Google’s successful business model undergirded by data-driven decision making.

Decision-Making in Health Care: Lessons for the Non-Profit Sector

The health care industry is often considered the epitome of evidence-based decision-making. Yet a recent New York Times Magazine article, “Making Health Care Better,” suggests that our health care system’s soaring costs and mediocre patient outcomes are due, in large part, to the fact that – like many nonprofit organizations – doctors too often put aside the scientific method, and make decisions using intuition, not data.

As the article highlights, especially in times of financial constraints, it is increasingly important to adopt an organizational culture that prioritizes investment in high-quality analytics to guide decision-making. In this newsletter, we examine what our organizations can learn from some of the challenges the health care field faces in improving patient outcomes and controlling costs.

New Synagogue Business Models

With over 3000 synagogues in the United States touching more Jews than any other organization, many feel the synagogue is the most influential institution in Jewish life. Yet leaders of even some of the largest congregations are concerned that the current synagogue business model, largely unchanged for the past century, may not be sustainable financially or strategically in the 21st century. In 2009, Measuring Success was engaged by SYNERGY: UJA-Federation of New York and Synagogues Together for a pilot project that couples analytics tools with consulting services to help 6 pilot synagogues explore new alternatives to their current business and community building models.

The 7 Steps for Data-Driven Decision Making

Jane Katzman is a non-profit professional who operates differently. She was hired as the associate director of Cornelian because of her ability to connect with people and humanize the issues the organization promotes. While recognized as top talent in her field...