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After a few exciting weeks of solution-ing for good with Alteryx — Santalytics 2018 has officially come to an end! This years challenges were all about embracing the season of giving. With well over 100 solutions proposed over the course of the two week challenge, it's safe to tally this effort in the win column!
Historically, when people think of SANTALYTICS, fond memories of cold weather kits equipped with pom pom hats, hot chocolate, vegan marshmallows (thanks @TaraM), and of course the gift of the season come up. This year, overwhelmed with warm fuzzy feelings, we decided to walk the talk and leverage our annual campaign budget along with your solutions to do some good for a local charity.
A Precious Child's mission is to provide children in need with opportunities and resources to empower them to achieve their full potential. In addition to helping children facing difficult life challenges meet basic human needs through their Resource Center and Boutiques, they also help children and their families navigate community resources. Through several key focus areas, A Precious Child aims to bridge the gap in children’s education so they can become secure, self-reliant, contributing members of their communities as adults. Learn more here.
PART 1 - SOLUTION RECAP
Compared to last year, the part 1 solution was pretty straightforward.
But it goes to show that with accessible data, you can get some pretty useful insight with just a few tools on the canvas.
In typical fashion, @patrick_digan:
- Posted the first solution
- Took the solution to the next level by dynamically downloading the data
- Arranged his canvas vertically
Several people extended their solution to find efficient charities in their state.
| User | State | Organization |
| @dillon_bok | OH | St. Vincent De Paul Community Pharmacy of Cincinnati |
| @kelly_gilbert | GA | Lutheran Services of Georgia Inc. |
| @Treyson | AZ | Yuma Community Food Bank |
PART 2 - SOLUTION RECAP
For the second part of Santalytics, we worked with A Precious Child to identify goods/products that we could then purchase & donate in support of their programming. With that, we scraped some product data from the web and we were off-and-running. For our challenge, we asked you to create a workflow that would use the most money from our donated amount. But wait... the wrench was that our donated amount was $20x for each previous solution on the same problem. Effectively, each person was trying to create a new shopping list as others submitted their own! Our ask was to encourage people not to buy more than 10x of the same thing and to diversify evenly between hygiene and clothing products.
The solutions didn't disappoint!
1) @OldDogNewTricks whipped out the Python tool to do some scraping, and did a fun comparison on how his results changed from before and after posting!
2) @Inactive User and @BrandonB took time to look at % savings vs MSRP to determine the best value on donations vs just their listed prices.
3) @CamodCPA and @CharlieS built some of the best looking macros/tools to have graced weekly challenges.
4) @T_Willins not only solved the problem, but even went so far as to donate money directly out-of-pocket and called on others to do the same! @EW followed suit, then @BrianO went on to match any personal donations!
5) @ddiesel made a snazzy shopping list that is easy on the eyes!
While we did not follow the exact shopping list uncovered in the Solution, we did manage to purchase an entire SUV full of new winter items for children, youth & teens with the donation dollars earned!
Items donated helped fulfill A Precious Gift program requests and stock the APC Boutique & Resource Center storefront.
To make a donation of your own to A Precious Child, please click here.
We were thrilled to have all the participation we did in this years #Santalytics challenge. In spite of the impending family gatherings, travel plans, and last minute gift shopping that go hand in hand with the holiday season, we saw a flood of submissions and alternative solutions that had us awed. Thank you for embracing the season of giving with us! Happy Holidays!
See you next year!
