Challenge #145: SANTALYTICS 2018 - Part 1

[NeilR]

We're excited to introduce the first part of our annual #SANTALYTICS challenge — an all-inclusive, non-denominational, secular, festive excuse for some friendly competition using Alteryx.

If you are just checking out Santalytics for the first time, please read the announcement blog for the inside scoop: #SANTALYTICS 2018

SANTALYTICS 2018 - Part 1

In the spirit of the season, the Community team would like to donate to a local Colorado charity and we need your help! In today's challenge, you'll help us find a worthy charity, and in next week's part II, you'll help us determine exactly how to spend the money.

We need you to analyze publicly available IRS data. There are three key datasets:

• Exempt Organization Returns Filed in Calendar Year 2017: download the Form 990 Extract here.
• Download the corresponding data dictionary here.
• There's also an IRS lookup list that will allow you associate Employer Identification Number (EIN) to the charity's name. Download it here.

Blend and analyze the data to determine which charity we will donate to given:

• It needs to be in Colorado (see State field)
• It should benefit people (see Grants to individuals? field)
• They should actively be raising funds (see Fundraising activities? field)
• We should be allowed to donate items, not just cash (see Deductible non-cash contributions? field)
• The charity should be small and flying under the radar (Number of employees < 300; Advertising and promotion < $1,000)
• But making a big impact (Total contributions > $5,000,000)

Once you've narrowed down the list based on the above criteria, rank the remaining charities based on fundraising efficiency and select the top charity! (see Fundraising expenses and Total contributions fields)

Extra credit: Come up with your own ranking criteria to identify a worthy charity in your neck of the woods!

2018-12-17 update: our particular solution here.

[patrick_digan]

I've selected...

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A Precious Child Inc.

[Kenda]

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Part I = Complete! Here are the top charities that I found using the given criteria.

[JoBen]

Cheers!

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Here's my solution. Also, I had to download a different dataset from the IRS website. I think the one that links is the "Form 990 EZ Extract" and the one I had to use was "Form 990 Extract".

[NicoleJohnson]

'Tis the season for my favorite analytics challenges!!! My solution for Part 1...

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NOTE: I had to connect to the Form 990 file directly from the IRS website since the one linked as the "download Form 990 Extract here" link appears to be the EZ version, which doesn't have the fields we need... 🙂

Cheers!

NJ

[NeilR]

Thanks @JoBen & @NicoleJohnson I've fixed the link!

[Ladarthur]

My solution!

[PJDit]

Here are my top 3

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[John_K]

A good exercise.  

[wjohndenham]

So here it is. I got a little hung up on the calculation for Average Fundraising Efficiency since its across 3 years and from what I could see in the data only 2 non-profits had that much data. I pulled in 3 years worth of data from the IRS site and bucketed the averages from there. I'm still learning Alteryx so I'm sure there may be some errors in my tool use but I wanted to get this out there.

Based on my data I would select Denver Scholarship foundation. 

Also, I did have issues with the IRS dataset not showing the correct fields for the challenge so I downloaded the correct one directly from the site.

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