Learn more about analytics and research best practices, as well as real world examples and solutions for nonprofits.

The Beauty of Small Data

Is CRM the nonprofit solution?

Everyone is talking about nonprofit organizations needing to buy CRM systems so they can be just like the Obama campaign and mine BIG data to make huge breakthroughs.

But I am not so sure.

I hesitate to sound like the great Jeff Brooks’ Future of Fundraising Now blog and criticize anything new in fundraising, but . . .

The aging promise of CRM has always been making insights from your data easy. But I have yet to see it. Rather than being a user friendly tool for nonprofits, CRM becomes the angry tyrant that everyone must satisfy. Much more time and resources are spent on the multi-step data processes then on mining the data for actionable insights.

And that’s just not right.

For now, I could not recommend moving forward with CRM. Rather than spending all that money on a data system, invest into some analysts to mine the data you already have. Your ROI on investing in analysts over infrastructure will be far, far better.

It’s not just the information that’s important; it’s how you present it

by Bill Jacobs | Sep 12, 2021

There is so much information out there. And that’s a problem. It’s a problem because many of us spend more time looking for relevant information than we do acting on information. And that is a losing proposition. I’m a firm believer that the best information is the...

“GO BIG” ISN’T ALWAYS BEST

by Bill Jacobs | Sep 12, 2021

In 2013, we were chatting about how the technological movement known as “big data” was at its tipping point and it seemed that nothing was going to stop it. And… that was right. Nothing has stopped it. Since then, even large companies like ® are finding ways of using...

Twenty Years of Knowing More

by Bill Jacobs | Aug 23, 2021

In September, Analytical Ones begins its 20th year providing fundraising analytics and donor behavior research for nonprofit organizations and their advertising agency partners. Over the past two decades, we have been fortunate to serve hundreds of clients. While many...