Net Dollars Not Donors Part 2

This may sound heretical, but counting donors isn’t as important as counting dollars. Here’s why: donors are not of equal value. For far too long in fundraising, there has been this assumption that “more donors are better.” This would be true...

Net Dollars Not Donors Part 1

Somewhere over the rainbow in fundraising, two metrics were established as the gold standard: gross revenue generated and the number of donors acquired. And that’s a shame. It’s a shame because you can optimize these two metrics into organization ruin....

The Frustration of Volunteering

This past year, my family and I have been volunteering for Lutheran Social Services to help refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan relocate to Savannah. I admire the work that Lutheran Social Services does with refugees. It’s a huge job and they do so much with so...

The Shift to Lift

At Analytical Ones, we simplify all of our recommendations into three categories: Win (acquisition and reactivation); Lift (upgradation) and Keep (retention). If you study donor files, active donor counts peaked in 2008, at the cliff of the Great Recession. Though...