Data Management : How can your nonprofit leverage data to advance your mission?

In today’s digital world, many nonprofit organizations - small or big are able to capture data very easily. While collecting data is important for a nonprofit, what do you do with it is far more critical.   Many donors, grantors are demanding nonprofits to quantify their work and provide proof of what is being accomplished before making any donations. Well, the good news is that most of the nonprofits are tracking data about clients, donors, fundraising and marketing activities, financial and internal operations & lots of other day-to-day activities. However not many are utilizing this data to advance their mission effectively.   Some of the obstacles that prevent nonprofits from utilizing their data are as follows :

• Lack of dedicated resources to focus on the data - no time or manpower
• No training is provided to staff members who are using data
• Poor knowledge of tools and software that can help analyze data
• Data collected in silos and not kept in one single database
• No or very low budget allocated for software solution to manage data
• No direct mapping exists between data collection and data to be measured

Now depending upon the size and nature of your nonprofit needs, you may choose from available software in the market that track different types of data suiting your needs or we can help you design a cost-effective, customized solution providing data analysis that will help you achieve your mission. Typically, nonprofits use software to collect data which falls under following categories -

1. Donor Management - Check out our guide to the top 4 management tools - 
2. Email
3. Online Fundraising/Social Media
4. Events
5. Marketing
6. Direct Mail
7. Website Optimization
8. Volunteer Management

While the software will allow you to capture desired data, how do you use this data to make an informed decision will add more value to your organization? You can use the below framework as guiding principle to define data metrics. WebServes is a 501(c)3 nonprofit technology services organization that enables small businesses, start-ups, and other NPO/NGOs to make the most of the Internet (web, mobile) by offering customized, flexible and affordable services.