Fundraising Analytics: Using Data to Guide Strategy

by Joshua M. Birkholz

Fundraising Using Data to Guide Strategy Fundraising Analytics shows you how to turn your nonprofit's organizational data—with an appropriate focus on donors—into actionable knowledge. The result—A vibrant, donor-centered nonprofit organization that makes maximum use of data to reveal the unique diversity of its donors. It provides step-by-step instructions for understanding your constituents, developing metrics to gauge and guide your success, and much more.

Genres: Nonfiction

329 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 4, 2008

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book matched my expectations exactly. I wanted to read this book to get a good feel of strategies around analytics (aka metrics) in fundraising.

There are constant discussions around metrics at my organization and as someone who took a year's worth of research and statics in college, I have been very cautious after seeing how our database looks. This book gave me the knowledge of what is needed and has made me feel more comfortable with actually letting go of that idea.

Probably not what the author intended, but I have found the book very helpful and I have connected my statics background with my current career.

My plan? I am going to look at using the data we have and show it in a way that satisfies the request, without making actual analysis.

Side note- I skipped most of the SPSS chapters because as I mentioned we are no where near ready for it. If or when we are, I will pick the book back up (probably dig out my old SPSS notes from school as well).

[James Eichinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's a lot to like in this book if you're doing analytics for a fundraising non-profit. It presents statistical concepts to the reader, and does so in a way that they can be easily conveyed to Sr. Directors and members of your board of trustees.

Birkholz also walks the reader through constructing some very useful scores, both predictive and descriptive. A potential downside could be the book's use of SPSS, which was a very affordable statistical software package when the book was written. Since then, the pricing has sky rocketed. It may make application for some smaller NPs more difficult. Overall, an excellent book which I recommend over most others in this genre including Peter Wylie's books.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, I now know that the world of fundraising analytics is much more complex than it may initially appear -- finding donors for organizations/institutions is more than search and find. The math parts were interesting, as regards to regression analysis and the basics of quantifying factors associated with donors that normally wouldn't have quantifiable variables.

Of course, I would never read this for pleasure. I had to read this for an internship which begins in three days.

[Selina Griffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book for those interested in fundraising and data. Or even those just interested in fundraising who have no idea about data - you can get a good overview of what your data-driven colleagues are up to (though you may want to give the last couple of chapters a miss as they are pretty stats-heavy)

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really dense reading, but a great resource if you're interested in the analytics of fundraising.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for fundraising professionals! I like the fact that it explains fundraising terminology in a fairly simple way and presents lots of examples of how to use the data.

[Nawelzaabar · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a great book that helps us to more now about fundraising