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Mar 18, 2019

Analyst Heaven

I was imagining what heaven might look like for us fundraising analysts.

By and large, fundraising analysts lead good lives here on planet earth. We help causes that really matter. We get to work indoors. Often, we can even work from home. We get to use our brains a lot, and fun tools like laptop computers and cool software like SPSS.

However, the absolute bane of our existence is the abundance of really crappy data.

The unglamorous fact of life for a fundraising analyst is that we spend most of our time trying to figure out whether the data we are working with is fit to analyze.

The Great Lie is that a new CRM system or data warehouse will fix your crappy data problems.

Short of a transcendent visit from the Data Angels, the only thing on this side of heaven that can fix crappy data are smart people who are willing to dive into messy databases and make sense of it all.

My hope is that if and when I get to heaven, all the donor data will be spotless, and the channel coding will be standardized. What sweet hope this sentence brings!

Part V: Why Algorithm Bias Matters

First, what is algorithm bias? Algorithmic bias happens when the data, assumptions, or methodology that drive an algorithm lead to discriminatory responses. It can result in several ways, including racial, gender, socioeconomic, or geographical biases. Algorithms are...

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Part IV: The Complexities of Implementation

This is our fourth blog on some things the nonprofit community should be thinking about regarding Artificial Intelligence (AI). Adopting new technologies is rarely straight forward. For example, remember your last CRM upgrade? How did that go? If you are like most...

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