Leveraging donor and transactional data: Practical tips for nonprofits

Many nonprofit organizations choose Salesforce as their Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) system to provide a unified platform for their entire team. Due to the many options and tools available via Salesforce, its users can face the paradox of choice; the array of options for automation, customization and reporting can make it difficult to decide what to prioritize.  

For nonprofits with the means to do so, working with a partner to guide them through this process can be greatly beneficial. But if agency partnership isn’t an option, there are many free resources available to help you get the most value out of your Salesforce investment. These practical tips for using your donor and transactional information can help you better serve your constituents.

Setting your organization up for success

Every organization captures data in some way, whether it’s donor information, program outcomes or volunteer sign ups. It’s important to capture all this data with intention by planning how your organization can advantageously use it. Here are a few best practices to help capture more reliable data and generate better long-term outcomes: 

1. Have a plan

When planning a data strategy, think about what your goals are as an organization and map out the information you’ll need to get there. If your goal is to improve your major giving strategy, perhaps you need to better understand your current donors’ patterns, what campaigns or messaging get the most engagement or who on your team is most capable of forging relationships with donors. A great way to frame this exercise is in the form of questions: If you know what questions you want answers to, you can begin thinking of the specific data you need to collect. Knowing what you want to achieve lays the groundwork for a strong data strategy.  

2. Define your terms

Picture this: You’re new to an organization, and you log on to Salesforce to gain a better understanding of how your team tracks donor information. You come across a checkbox labeled ‘Old Donor?’ You see that this field is checked on about 10% of all donor records, all by the same person who created the field and who is no longer at the organization. What do you make of the data in the field? Is it a lapsed donor? A donor who was imported from an old system? Or maybe it indicates a donor of an advanced age? In any case, the data is not reliable and has just cost you time and confusion trying to determine what it truly means.

This scenario is all too common, which is why it’s important clearly define the data you intend to capture. A team with a shared vocabulary communicates better and works more efficiently.

3. Less is (usually) more

When setting your goals and building your plan, ask yourself: “What is the least amount of information I need to get the most insights towards this goal?” If you survey your team for their least favorite day-to-day activities, don’t be surprised if a majority say, “filling out data in Salesforce.” The more information people need to complete, the less likely it is that all of it will be reliable or meaningful. Before introducing any new fields or metrics, make sure you have a clear understanding of how you want it used, label it accordingly, and communicate the ‘why’ behind it to your team.  

Donors and transactions in Salesforce

With these best practices in mind, take a look at some practical examples on how donor and transactional data can be used to the benefit of your nonprofit. Capturing who your donors are, what their giving patterns are and how contributions are associated to individual campaigns are powerful metrics for measuring success and adapting your strategy accordingly.  

For nonprofits, Deluxe offers a native Salesforce app, Brickwork by Deluxe, that lets nonprofits easily process one-time or recurring donations via credit card or ACH (EFT in Canada) directly in their Salesforce instances. By capturing this information, nonprofits can generate reports and build dashboards that can help your team know if they’re on track to hit their goals.

Here are some ideas of metrics that your nonprofit can begin tracking, some of which are included in the dashboard shown above. As mentioned, remember to have a plan when considering any of these metrics – some may be useful for your organization, some may need to be adapted, and some may not be relevant. Just because someone says a particular indicator is important doesn’t mean that it will necessarily help you reach your goals. Capturing data for data’s sake is a common trap organizations regularly fall into.  

With this caveat in mind, here are some sample metrics to get you started on your data-driven journey: 

• Donation volume over time: If you’re wondering if your donors give seasonally, at certain times of day, or with some degree of consistency, measuring donations over time can help you decide the best times to launch campaigns. You may discover unexpected patterns, or you may confirm a hunch that will allow you to double down on your strategy.
• Total annual giving: Setting an annual fundraising goal may seem overly basic, but comparing real time transaction data to that goal can help your team know if they are behind, on track, or exceeding their targets (which could merit a reward and make them feel appreciated). Depending on your organization, you could use similar barometers based on monthly targets or divided by individual development agents, so you have an unbiased understanding of your team’s performance.
• Top donors: knowing who your top donors are can help you steward donors, find volunteers, or even identify potential major donors. For more granularity, you could segment donors into tiers depending on giving amounts or frequencies. You can also divide donors by average gift amount or any other segmentation that helps you show them you appreciate their generosity.
• Donations by method of payment: having multiple giving channels helps donors give in the ways that are most convenient. Some donors may want to pay via credit card online whereas others may still prefer old fashioned checks. By understanding how many donors give using each method may inform such simple but powerful UX principles like the order in which giving methods are listed on your page – convenience is key. Understanding the balance of ACH (EFT in Canada) and credit card donations is also useful as it can help you optimize the fees that are charged by your payment processor. Managing this cost effectively means more dollars towards your operations. 
• New donor acquisition: knowing how many new donors you gain within a given period can help you understand which activities reach new supporters. Finding new donors is a perpetual challenge faced by fundraisers and evaluating whether you have a net-positive donor pool will help you plan. 

There are many more metrics you could use to keep track of your progress. If you have a plan, clearly define your terms, and remember that less is (usually) more, you’ll be well on your way to succeeding with donor and transactional data.

Ethical considerations when leveraging data

Keep in mind that there are some ethical and legal considerations to consider anytime you are reporting on donor information. When a donor gives you their personal information, it is your duty to keep it private and secure. All the metrics shown above are specifically for internal use only as you would never want to share any information that could identify any one of your donors.

There are some circumstances where your organization may want to publish a report using donation data.  These can be very insightful and motivating reports as you can prove to your donors the impact that their donations have on your missions. While we wholeheartedly encourage this type of data driven work, it is necessary to do so with wholly anonymized data unless given explicit permission from your donors. Always lean on the side of caution when it comes to sensitive donor data, especially when transactions are involved. 

Being intentional when administering and managing donor and transactional data can create major long-term value for your nonprofit. Reliable metrics are beneficial for every team and can help drive your mission forward. Better metrics also mean better constituent relationships, as you can more easily identify and prioritize stewardship and engagement efforts.  

Take the time to do some research and find which metrics are relevant to your organization to measure success. Create a plan, build a shared understanding across your team, and only capture data that you can reliably use. With these best practices in mind, you’ll have a clean CRM that’s easy to use and a happy team that truly understands the value of data.