Nonprofit Data Collection: Outlining the Story

Before you write a story, it’s a good idea to create an outline so you can see how the structure comes together and elaborate from there. The same applies to the stories you tell through data collection in nonprofit organizations. First you need a story concept, then you can create an outline with all the pieces of data that will tell the story. What data are you collecting? What stories do you need to tell with that data? Impact stories, grant stories, community success stories, internal success stories?

What Story Are You Telling?

Let’s say you’re the System Admin at your organization, in charge of capturing data and running reports. Your Development Team comes to you with a request: They have an overall goal to increase individual giving by 10% this year and need to measure their success.

There’s your plot: You’ll be collecting data that’ll be used for quarterly reports on progress towards that goal. And it turns out your story’s genre is a mystery – you can plan out strategies and best practices, but no one knows how this story will end until you get there.

Your main characters are the generous donors whose contact info you’re collecting as they make donations… and the donations themselves, the transactions that you’ll be reporting on. Villains are the missing data sets, customizations, and reports you need to create (see below). The hero is you – the person figuring out how to appropriately collect and analyze the data.

Thinking ahead to outline the structure of your story will help you understand what questions to ask and what data to collect.

Write Your Outline

As the main character of this story, you will think through and set up the CRM/database to accurately collect data and report results. The outline will be the steps you need to take for set up and evaluating the results.

What Data Sets Do You Need?

You’ll need to collect donation data to measure progress (data set). You’ll specifically need to collect data about the type of donation (private, corporate, community etc…)

A different story might need other information:

• Will you need demographic information for the people you serve, such as age, gender, ethnicity, and location to paint a vivid picture of the communities you serve?
• Will you be capturing data on the outcomes of your programs, such as the number of people served, plants collected, acres conserved, visitors, the impact achieved, or success stories. This information can provide concrete evidence of your organization’s effectiveness and demonstrate the positive changes you are making.

What Customizations Need to Be Made?

Your system will need to be configured to capture information aligned with the goal. That’s where customizing data collection comes in. You’ll need to identify where you are collecting donations. Then determine if you are collecting the correct information. Are you collecting the donation types? If not, you may need to create a new custom field in your CRM and then add a question to the donation form.

Keep in mind, incorporating any new data collectors into your system can impact reporting and analysis efforts. You’ll also want to consider:

• Are there other automations impacted?
• Does the field need to be incorporated into other forms?
• Will you go back and add this information to last quarters donations or start with this quarter?

Now you have clear objectives for collecting the data you need for your storytelling purposes and it’s aligned to your goals. You’ve taken a larger look to make sure you’re not unnecessarily adding data collection that already exists or impacting other data sets in your CRM.

How will you analyze the data?

Reporting templates and analysis tools may need to be updated to include the new fields. You may need to update your dashboard to include new reports, so you can see visuals of progress for your milestone goals. You’ll need a report to measure individual donations by quarter. A report showing the overall percentage of quarterly donations from individual donors vs. other categories. Are they in your dashboard? Do you need to create the reports?

This will make it easier to extract meaningful insights and trends from the data each quarter, enabling you to craft compelling results based on reliable information.

The Story Writes Itself

Now that you’ve written your outline, you know what needs to happen every step of the way and you can avoid problems with data down the line. It’s time to take action and start making changes to your system.

Once you’ve made customizations, added or changed data collectors and updated your reports, start checking your dashboard regularly. You’ll find the story writes itself from there, each quarter. Your data will solve the mystery as you go.

Your Outline Is Now A Resource

An outline lays the foundation for effective data collection and analysis. It’s now a great resource for training users on how to effectively use these new data points in their reporting and analysis processes. Training is a crucial element ensuring data remains consistent. Now, you will have a powerful story about reaching your goal that resonates with your audience and amplifies the impact of your nonprofit’s work. Want help getting your data collection aligned with your storytelling goals? Email support or contact us to sign up for Ongoing Support services.

Outline Structure

• Introduction: A new strategy is being implemented to achieve 10% growth in individual donations. Everyone is excited to get this project underway and start measuring outcomes so they can hit their goal.
  • Data Sets Needed
    • Donations Made
    • Individuals, Corporate, Community Groups
  • Customizations
    • New Donation Type Field Created (options = individual, corporate, community)
    • New Donation Type Field Added to Donation Form
  • Reports
    • Total of individual donations with a quarterly comparison
    • Percentage of overall donations that are individual per quarter
  • Training of staff
    • New field on the form.
    • Make sure printed forms also include this information.
    • If you find a form that needs the field, say something.
  • Quarterly Evaluation With Development Team
    • What does the data tell you?
    • What changes need to be made?
    • Document any changes.
• Conclusion – All the steps taken for setup along with quarterly evaluations have resulted in a 10% increase in individual donations.