Measuring What Can Now Be Measured

In many ways, in the business of raising money, we create based on what we measure. What we measure seems so small in relation to what really matters and what is now possible to measure. Our focus on measuring the quantity and size of transactions, while important, limits our view and ultimately our strategies.

How helpful would be for us to know more about our donors than just an understanding of their recent transactions with us? What industry are they in? What are the current conversations going on within that industry? What do their personal and professional networks looks like? What is being talked about in those different networks? What is the sentiment in each, at this moment!?

Our donors/customers do not live in silos. They exist in a networked world and those networks affect how they think, act and what they believe. In many ways the world that our donors are immersed in creates a lens for their decision making strategies.

The ability today to learn and understand much more about our customers creates extraordinary

opportunity for the nonprofit community to design and deliver donor experiences. If our focus remains solely on the transaction then we will limit our organization's ability to maximize its potential.

Today we must have the capacity to pull data from the structured and unstructured world to inform our decision-making process. What is in store for your donor knowledge system  in the year ahead?