The Big Data for Non-Profit Grant Program

[DanielleR]

Author:

Keith Snow

Role:

President/Data Scientist

Company:

B2E Direct Marketing

The Big Data for Non-Profit Grant Program

Originally Published:  2016 Excellence Awards Entry

Use Case Overview:

On December 1st, 2015, which was "Giving Tuesday"; a global day dedicated to giving back, B2E Direct Marketing announced a newly created grant program for 2016 called 'Big Data for Non-Profits'. B2E Direct Marketing is a business offering Big Data, Visual Business Intelligence and Database Marketing solutions.

Non-profit organizations are a crucial part of our society, providing help to the needy, education for a lifetime, social interactions and funds for good causes.

Describe the problem you needed to solve:

While serving on three non-profit boards, Keith Snow, President of B2E, became aware that data is among the most important, under-used and least maintained asset of a non-profit.

"The 'Big Data for Non-Profits' Grant program was born out of a vision that we had at B2E to give back to our community. We wanted to offer non-profits the same visual business intelligence and database marketing services that we offer our other clients." says Snow.

The grant program includes the following services free of charge to the winning organization in the month for which they are selected:

- Data Hygiene (clean up donor file)

- Data Append (age, income, gender, marital status, lifestyle segmentation, and more)

- Detailed donor analysis and overview reports

Each month in 2016, B2E will choose one non-profit from those that apply through www.nonprofit360marketing.com. Award recipient applications are reviewed by a panel selected by B2E and awards are given based upon how the services will be used and to further the organization's goals. The grant program began accepting applications from eligible 501(c)(3) non-profits at the end of December and has already completed work on three organizations so far this year.

"We are excited about using Alteryx to help non-profits expand their mission and to better serve our communities." says Snow.

Describe the working solution:

B2E has an initial consultation meeting with each non-profit where the goals and takeaways of the 'Big Data for Non-Profits' program is discussed.

We identify current data sources that the non-profit has available, and request up to 48 months of donor contact and giving information. Minimal information is requested from the non-profit as we know great value can be added using Alteryx Designer.

• Name
• Address, City, State, Zip
• Phone
• Date of Donation
• Amount of Donation
• Campaign
• Donation type: i.e. cash, check, soft credit, etc.

B2E has created Alteryx workflows to perform donor file hygiene. Since we have licensed the data package, we take advantage of the CASS, Zip4 Coder and Experian Geodemographic append and TomTom capabilities.

All donor data is address standardized to meet postal standards and duplicates within their database are identified. Once the data is updated to meet our standards, we process the files against the National Change of Address and the National Deceased database.

The next step is taking the donor's contact information and appending demographics at the individual and household level (age, income, gender, marital, age of home, Mosaic segmentation, etc.) using the Alteryx Experian add-on product. Alteryx Designer is invaluable for this process as we manipulate the donor data to be more useful for the non-profit.

Alteryx' ability to export Tableau Extract files are key for this program to be successful. We have created key Tableau dashboards that highlight the following:

a. Consumer demographics

b. Mosaic marketing segmentation

c. Campaign or donation source

d. Donation seasonality / giving analysis

e. Pareto (80/20 Rule): to identify and profile the 20% of the donors who contribute 80% of the revenue

f. Geography (city, zip, county, metro area)

Once the data is in the Tableau Extract, business intelligence analysis is performed with visualization that is easy to understand and immediately actionable by the non-profit. Tableau packaged workbooks are created for each non-profit so they have access to interactive analytics to help them make quick and immediate business decisions for their organization.

Describe the benefits you have achieved:

B2E provides a niche service that many non-profits do not have the knowledge, tools or budget to complete on their own.

The benefits to each non-profit includes the following:

• The donor data from each non-profit can now be processed in days instead of weeks using Alteryx. This allows B2E the maximum ability to help more organizations. In the past, we only worked with one non-profit per year. Our 2016 goal is to work with twelve.
• A clean donor contact file with updated addresses, deceased individuals flag and duplicated merged is returned to the organization. Many non-profits send out direct mail, they immediately see their deliverability rates increase by more than 15% and return mail rates decrease. The cost for printing and postage is optimized as well.
• The best way to get your current donors to give more is to truly understand what they look like. Understand the donor's life stage, giving history, demographics, lifestyle characteristics, media preferences and digital behavior is key for success. Targeting a donor in a way that resonates with them has lead to an increase in giving.
• All non-profits want access to new donors. A profile identifies what the best donor characteristics look like. Since B2E can also acquire direct mail and email lists, we help the non-profit find "look-alike" individuals who have never donated to their organization.
• B2E's goal is to help each non-profit to maximize the current donations coming into their organization so they can keep their expenses and overhead lower as well as offer them a free service they would not have otherwise acquired.

The impact to each non-profit is huge, but the impact to B2E is just as great as we are allowed to use a great tool to be a leader in Iowa as a company that truly gives back to our community all year long. As of April, 2016, we have provided services for:

• Big Brothers Big Sisters of Iowa
• Children's Cancer Connection
• Youth Emergency Services and Shelter of Iowa
• Governors District Alliance
• Easter Seals Iowa