How to gather data: search your platforms

Data analytics is a vital weapon in charities armoury in their quest for improvement. Data analytics involves analysing information from supporters and stakeholders, to help boost donations as well as reach more beneficiaries, particularly those that have been hard to target in the past.

 

But developing robust data gathering does not mean charities need to carry out a root and branch overhaul of their operation. Most data is actually already within the organisation, held on existing platforms.

 

Here we look at where data can already be found, how to put that information to work, and any legal implications charities need to be aware of, particularly around consent.

 

 

Social media

 

Existing social media accounts are a mine of data. This approach of collecting data from social media sites and evaluating that data is more commonly referred to as social media analytics.

 

At its simplest level it can monitor engagement, such as retweets and number of likes. Digging deeper though it can analyse the quality of that engagement, including who is reacting favourably, or unfavaourably to social media content.

 

There are a range of social media analytics tools, such as HubSpot, Sprout Social, and Google Analytics, to help charities gather data around their social interactions.

 

This can focus on ‘social media intelligence’, looking at emerging trends or ‘social media listening’ that involves deep diving into what supporters like and dislike. This can also involve segmenting audiences to find out what people of different ages and regions think of the charity, campaigns, and issues.

 

 

Customer relationship management

 

Another existing source of data within charities are customer relationship management (CRM) systems, such as those provided by Salesforce.org Non-profit Cloud or Microsoft Dynamics 365.

 

Using CRM analysis, charities can better understand and use the data that is already within the organisation. This includes segmenting customers into those who are most and least likely to donate and how much they may give. CRM also offers personal information about donors and supporters to personalise how charities contact them.

 

 

Sign-ups and registrations

 

Data of those that sign up to charity campaigns, petitions, as well as register for online services is already stored by charities. This is another existing source of information to find out more about who is engaging and interacting with charities.

 

This includes gathering data from those registering and checking into events, including virtual conferences.

 

There are tools and platforms to help gather and process this information. This includes Enthuse’s donations events and fundraising tools. Another is idloom, which stores events in locations in Belgium that are fully owned by the company.