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Mar 8, 2017

Net Dollars Not Donors Part 1

Somewhere over the rainbow in fundraising, two metrics were established as the gold standard: gross revenue generated and the number of donors acquired.

And that’s a shame.

It’s a shame because you can optimize these two metrics into organization ruin.

Let’s take gross revenue. The reason it is used is because it’s simple to measure. But it has a serious drawback: it doesn’t account for what you spent to raise that money.

It’s like a habitual gambler bragging about the $1,000 lottery winnings they had the night before while omitting the fact that have bought a $5 scratch ticket every week for 10 years. So their real ROI is 0.38.

Wahoo!

Seriously, if you are using gross revenue as your fundraising goal, you need to stop it and start using net revenue. It’s just bad stewardship to use gross revenue goals.

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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